A Ph.D. ABPN who does this kind of testing. The doctor visited with me, then I had to complete a 100 questionaire rated 1-5 highest being most of the time, 1 being not at all...then he also had my daughter complete one too (her opinion of how I do daily) and then I completed a four-hour testing of mutiple tests for memory, concentration, focus, thought processing etc. It took 3 months for them to get the results completed so a determination could be made. I believe it is very thorough.

Burning pain??.....some questions for you..

Do you have any hyper sensitive skin, to touch, fabric or breezes?
Has RSD /CRPS been looked into??
I know fibro includes some skin sensitivities , but RSD/CRPS can be extreme with sensitivities & burning feelings also skin colors and texture changes and swelling.
RSD/CRPS pain is often out of proportion to any injury that might have preceded it.
Often patients are told it's in your head by drs that do not know much about it.
I don't know if any of those fit for you - but we have a RSD forum here if you'd like to learn more about it-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum21.html

It is easy for doctors to say pain is a mental illness when a mental illness is diagnosed on not knowing the medical cause. Just because they don't know the medical cause does not mean it is not medical.

There are many different things that can be causing your symptoms. You may have more than one problem and your troubles may be a combination of them.

The stress from an earlier condition could cause a cascade of autimmune problems. Pain begets more pain.

Before they diagnose you with this they should have run extensive testing on you. Have you checked yourself for gluten sensitivity? See www.enterolab.com What about all your hormone levels? Have they given you physical therapy? Checked nutritional status (vitamins and such?)

You might wish to investigate http://www.lef.org and http://www.endfatigue.com/

Also, see: http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org...nt/34/1/69.pdf

Also, geared towards parents but useful, http://itsnotmental.blogspot.com/ (written by a parent whose child had symptoms similar to yours and was also diagnosed (misdiagnosed?) schizoaffective.)

That is not to say you do not have schizoaffective on top of everything else. I am just saying that diagnosis may have been based on the unaddressed medical problems that are real not a figment of your mental status.

Hello beenthere and welcome to NeuroTalk. I think you've gotten some really great responses to your intro, so I'm really glad you found us. The only thing I will add is that I have Fibro (among other things) and there are days that I can't even stand a heavy shirt or jacket on my shoulders. Fibro is so unpredictable and painful.

Maybe another Dr would see things in a different light for you. It's nice to meet you.