I was diagnosed with this about 5 yrs ago. IMHO it's just a place to dump the unknowns of common aches and pains and another reason to prescribe lifelong drugs.
Did they use trigger points to diagnose you?
Ping, ping, ping... we have a winner. It's just like Chronic Fatigue syndrome, etc....take your (insert med name..vicodin, percocet, elavil, neurontin, prozac) and let me know how you do. If this doesn't work I have the PDR and about 10,000 other meds we can throw down your throat and see if it helps you.
Now what was your pain scale between 1-10? You say it's a 7-8...hmmm. Well that's some progress.
It's a perfect disease, no objective lab test, no definitive "cure" just an ongoing "evaluation, treatment and response cycle". The lawyers and the bureaucrats love this one.
Prescribe life-long drugs? Try taking Dilantin your whole life or insulin - those are life-long drugs. I've been fighting Fibromyalgia since I was in my twenties and it hasn't been fun, it's been depressing more than anything else especially in combination with the epilepsy.
Spondylitis is not fun either, try having it in both the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine - it's quite painful.
Try rejection by the people that you love and say love you because of these problems - t'aint easy, in fact is very hard.
I agree this is a catch-all diagnosis. I have had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis since I was seven years old and have been confined to a wheel chair since I was 10. I am now 50. It really bothers me when I see a DR make this diagnosis with very little evidence other than the patients complaints. To those that suffer from this mystery ailment, I say get as much exercise as possible and find out what you need to do to be happy. It has been my experience that almost without fail these individuals have hidden physiological issues that need resolving. Lack of attention, or unhappiness of some kind.