Sensory Overload thought to be a little known symptom of Fibromyalgia

Sensory overload: Fibromyalgia symptoms

Sensory overload can happen when your brain feels there is too much information hitting it all at once. It happens even when your Fibromyalgia symptoms are in remission. Sensory overload is one of the more common symptoms of Fibromyalgia. It often gets missed because it's a symptom that's hard to connect to the pain that Fibromyalgia presents.

Sensory overload can be wrongly diagnosed as anxiety, but is a totally different disease.

Sensory overload symptoms occur when your in an environment that is too busy or too loud. It can happen when there are too many people around you. It can also happen when your environment is loud with the Television, music, talking etc. happening all at once. Your brain, being a Fibromyalgia brain, can't handle that much activity, so it goes into a panic mode.

When there is sensory overload, your brain  goes into a panic mode. The symptoms of a panicked brain include: increased anxiety, the inability to participate in a conversation, word search problems, excessive sweating, heart feels like it's pounding in your chest, feeling as if you are going to faint, the inability to think rationally and racing thoughts...it's a scary problem for those of us who suffer from it.

I have a problem with sensory overload in my own house. There are 6 people in my house and when they are all in the living room, trying to carry on several different conversations, I have to actually leave the room. I hide out in my quiet bedroom with my dog, Alvin. A pet can be a God-sent when it comes to dealing with not just Sensory Overload, but with Fibromyalgia in general. Pets can be good therapy. But that's another article :0)

Getting out of the situation causing the sensory overload, and getting into a quiet environment will help decrease the sensory overload symptoms..

I also have a problem with sensory overload when I go to my youngest sons “gigs”. It is always loud...although this hadn't bothered me in the past, I have noticed a problem with Sensory Overload within the last few years. I have progressive Fibromyalgia, which I believe is why I didn't have this problem a few years back.

I use to go to every show he had. Now I can't go unless he is playing outside or in a very large venue. I can't handle the loudness anymore and I used to be a concert goer!

I can't go into any grocery store without having an episode caused by Sensory Overload. Even if there aren't a lot of people in the store, the amount of items in the store cause increased anxiety, sometimes so bad I have to leave the store.

I immediately start sweating, shaking and I feel very weak all of a sudden. I have to leave most of the time and I never go anywhere alone anymore.

I think the best way to deal with sensory overload is to make sure you know what kind of environment your going into and to know if it is an environment that's conductive for sensory overload. Say, if you are invited to a party, find out how many people are going to be there. Ask where the party will be located. It makes a difference whether it's outside, inside, in a large space or small space. Ask what kind of party it is. Are they going to have loud music or watch a football game? How many people will be there?

Find out everything you can before going to a place that may cause sensory overload. Then you can make an educated decision on whether you want to participate and risk sensory overload.

Have any of you experience this symptoms associated with Fibromyalgia?

If so, how did you deal with it?

Thanks to those of you who have stayed with me this far. I know I write very sporadically, but it's because of the Fibromyalgia and other diseases I have. So, I just wanted to say Thank you for sticking with me this far. I hope I have a better year in 2014...not so much pain.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia under CC attribution  sharealike 4.0 

How to be a productive writer when you have Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia Awareness (Photo credit: Kindreds Page)

Having lived with Fibromyalgia for more than 10 years and been writing on the internet for 6, I know what a struggle it is sometimes to come up with ideas, titles and actually writing an article when you have a disabling illness. Fibromyalgia causes pain, fatigue, fogginess, forgetfulness and depression.

It's not easy sometimes to sit down and write, especially if you are in a lot of pain or are tires. But if you have a passion for writing, as I do, you will find a way to push through the pain, the fatigue, forgetfulness and fogginess. You may have to do things a little differently than others, but you, like me, will find a time and a way to write.

I get discouraged sometimes when I haven't written a blog post for a week or more because I had other obligations and “ran out of spoons” , but I always come back.

I still struggle at times, but I do things a lot differently than “normal” writers. Here are some things I do to be a productive writer while living with a painful, sometimes debilitating disease.

Find ideas in like sites:

There is nothing wrong with reading your favorite blogs and coming up with ideas based on something you read from them. If you can't come up with any ideas because your fibromyalgia brain fog is working overtime, this is a good way to find ideas.

You can also go to the forums to see what everyone there is asking about. Find out what the most frequent, non-answered question is and write an answer article based on that question. You may even produce an article that goes viral if enough people need the answer that you are answering in your article!

Write things down during research:

People living with fibromyalgia generally have problems with memory. They may also forget things that they have known for years. This makes it difficult to do even simple research.

Writing all the most important stuff down is a must for me. I have to be accurate as I'm sure most writers want. When I am referencing someone, I want to get the referencing site correct. So, I write it down. If I don't, then when I am writing my article, I am likely to forget where I found my reference and have to spend extra time retrieving it.

Break down your article:

Because those of us with fibromyalgia have a hard time writing an entire article all at once either because: Their fingers go numb halfway through (mine do) or they just can't come up with that much information all at once.

Break down your articles into several pieces and only do one at a time. If you can do more than that, go ahead, but sometimes you may have to be happy just getting one piece done.

People with fibromyalgia sometimes have Reynolds syndrome along with fibromyalgia. Reynolds is a condition that causes pain in the hands usually when they are cold, by not always. Some people with Reynolds have hand pain all the time. This makes it hard to write or type for long periods of time.

Sometimes I get on my computer and just write a title in Open Office and save it. Or, I will pop on here and write my subheading or a paragraph. There are times when I can do a lot more, but when I can't, that's all I do.

I'm also a very slow typist by anyone’s standards. Lol...I have been typing since before 2006 and I have only gotten a little better, but not much as I was starting to have fibromyalgia symptoms by then.

Find ideas in your old articles:

Go through your old articles and find ideas to write on new angles. Revamp an old article that needs new information put into it. Add pictures to your old articles that don't already have pictures in them.

You can also add video to your articles, but I personally think that an article can become too clogged with stuff.

If you have the article, a few pictures, a side article (added information), a video, Amazon, E-Bay and every other thing on there, I think it's too crowded. I think there's a limit to the amount of apps you can put in an article to make it look nice and appealing to the eye.

In my opinion, an article starts to look crowded if it has more than 4 items, other than the article itself. Such as, a video, a picture, Amazon and E-bay, Or 2 pictures, 2 Amazon and a side article (added information).

But, sometimes all that is too much for me. To keep it simple, but nice is good enough for me, because it has to be. I would never get any articles out there if I put everything there is out there in my articles'.

Organize your workspace:

People with fibromyalgia work better among organization, and not so well under a mess. So clean up your workspace everyday or just keep it organized so you can find everything. People with fibromyalgia need a space that is quiet and where there are no interruptions.

Fibromyalgia can cause confusion, memory loss and vision problems, all of which make being a productive writer harder. Having a quiet, clean workplace with no distractions can help a person with fibromyalgia get more of the important articles written.

People with fibromyalgia also get frequent migraine headaches. These headaches are sometimes debilitating which makes it impossible to do anything, including writing an article. So, there are days when, no matter what you need to do online, you just won't be able to.

On the days where nothing is helping you write that important article, take a well deserved brake. It takes a person with fibromyalgia longer to do some tasks, but don't sabotage yourself by trying to write an article when your fibromyalgia is working hard against you. This invisible disease is not invisible to you, unfortunately.

And last...give yourself a pat on the back for what you did get done. Be proud of yourself everyday, because even on those awful days when you can't write...you are still a writer!

Here's to all of you fibrowriters out there that get the job done through fogginess, pain and anxiety!!!

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Things that can cause a fibromyalgia flair-up

 Things that can cause a fibromyalgia flair up

We all know that the worst thing that can happen to you if you have fibromyalgia is a fibromyalgia flair-up. A flair-up is when your regular fibromyalgia pain decides it's going to make you feel the worst pain you have ever felt in your life. A flair-up can last from days to weeks to months and usually starts with increased pain.

What can you do to prevent a fibromyalgia flair-up? The first thing you can do is figure out what caused it. Here are some of the most common things that can cause a fibromyalgia flair-up:

Over doing it:

Over doing your activity is sure to throw you right into a fibro flair-up. You need to learn which activities are too much for you and cause a flair-up and which ones you can do with ease and without causing a flair-up.

Over activity is easy to do because you generally don't get a flair until after you've already done them. This means you need to keep good notes of which activities cause a flair-up and which ones are safe to do.

Stress:

Stress can easily cause a fibromyalgia flair-up. Stress is difficult to decrease because pain causes stress...fibromyalgia causes pain...so it's cyclic. You have to break the cycle so that you can minimize the flair-ups.

Changes in temperature:

People who have fibromyalgia are sensitive to warm and cold weather. You need to make sure you are ready for any change in temperature. Have a sweater ready in the trunk just in case you stop at a restaurant to eat. Restaurants are usually really cold to a person with fibromyalgia and cold can cause pain.

Weather changes:

When the barometric pressure changes or a storm front is coming through, those of us with fibromyalgia know it right away. That's because we are sensitive to weather changes. Although there is nothing we can do about the weather, we can keep informed so we have a general idea of when a fibromyalgia flair-up is going to happen.

Illness or injury:

An illness or injury can quickly throw a person with fibromyalgia into a flair-up. These things cause stress in the body. Any kind of stress in the body will likely cause a fibromyalgia flair-up. When you first feel an illness or are first injured, get to your doctor as soon as possible. The sooner the treatment starts, the sooner the flair-up will end.

Insomnia:

When you just can't get a good nights sleep, which is quite common with fibromyalgia, your pain level increases. Insomnia can kick in a severe fibromyalgia flair-up. If you have tried everything you can, be sure to tell your doctor if you have insomnia. Fibromyalgia itself causes insomnia, but if you let it go, you will end up with a severe fibromyalgia flair-up.

Traveling:

Traveling, whether it be by car, train or plain, will cause a fibromyalgia flair-up. No matter what the mode of transportation, the bumps in the roads, the altitude of an airplane and the loudness of the train will all trigger a severe fibromyalgia attack. The best way for someone to travel (from a fellow traveler) is to get a van with a fold out bed in the back so you can lie down during the trip. You can still feel the bumps but you won't be sitting so the impact won't be on your spine.

No matter what the cause of your fibromyalgia flair, you should keep notes on everything that causes one for you. Then you should avoid whatever activity gives you a fibromyalgia flair-up.

I know that's not always possible, but if you have fibro. you just do the best you can.