Overload -- Central Sensitization

Today, I am balancing life differently that the past month and a half.  In fact, I left the blogging for later, because I cannot live in constant clutter.  I am not talking about house clutter, even though that is part of it.  Because of the flare-up, my brain feels cluttered.  I am feeling over-sensitive to so much right now:  heat, cold, noise, even how much I see on a page on the internet.  I know that sounds crazy, but it is making me feel irritable;  furthermore, I am developing a headache and feeling more tense.  Last night, I tried to just chill to ward off that feeling of being bombarded, but it was difficult.  The things that usually work did not work.

Courtesy of [Jennifer Ellison] /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I don't remember experiencing this until the fibromyalgia got to the point I couldn't ignore it.  Maybe, as a woman, I attributed it to PMS.  Well, a decade and a half later, I know it isn't PMS.  And I know I'm not going nuts, because I am not the only one that gets these sensitivities.  

Adrienne Dellwo writes some wonderful articles on fibromyalgia.  She keeps with research and knows what it is to experience chronic illness.  She herself has dealt with it for years, and she has learned to live with it.  One of the things she has written about is central sensitization.  A 2008 article written about this is  Fibromyalgia - Sensitivity to More than Pain. A more recent article is interesting because of the overlap we see with other illnesses.  I also recommend reading this. Illness Clusters: The Reason Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "Bring Friends."

I think of my autistic grandson, and I wonder if these sensitivities were always waiting in my genetics for the chance to come out.  I will probably never know, but it does seem there is some scientific basis for the overload fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue patients experience.