Sensory overload and Fibromyalgia go hand in hand (and to hell in a handbasket).
You feel every thread of your clothes.
Every hair on your head.
Sounds induce torture.
Smells can almost suffocate.
Too much visually in front of you and your body is about to explode or implode – you can’t tell yet because your insides feel like a bouncing Lego on top of a concert speaker.
For someone without Fibro, your senses becoming easily overwhelmed seems laughable and minor.
Oh, how can they be *that sensitive*? Cry me a river.
But for people like us who struggle with this chronic illness daily, you know sensory overload is nothing to joke about.
So why do you become so easily frazzled and on edge?
What’s the connection between Fibromyalgia and overstimulation?
This post explains what sensory overload is, plus why sensory overload and Fibromyalgia (FM) are intertwined.
What is sensory overload?
Sensory overload is when one or more of your senses becomes overwhelmed (aka overstimulated).
From a scientific standpoint, sensory overload happens when your brain receives too much input at once.
Your sympathetic nervous system sends an alert to your brain, triggering a fight-or-flight response.
What are the symptoms of sensory overload?
Beyond dizziness, other sensory overload symptoms include anxiousness, restlessness, irritability, and stress.
You may also find it hard to focus and feel paralyzed with indecision.
Sensory overload might look like:
- irritability
- inability to relax
- difficulty making decisions
- panic and confusion
- headaches (thanks kids)
- allodynia (where anything touching you hurts)
- feelings of stress and panic
- physical discomfort, like flushed feeling
The connection between sensory overload and Fibromyalgia
People with Fibromyalgia are thought to experience sensory overload for two reasons:
- our brains struggle to filter the information we need and ignore what we don’t, called inhibition
2. there’s a dysfunction of the neurotransmitter called serotonin
I’ll tell you in more detail how sensory overload and Fibro are connected below.
Minimized cognitive inhibition
So let’s start with our difficulty delegating input, called cognitive inhibition.
People living with Fibro have been found to have a harder time filtering out extraneous input than non-Fibro folk (like the hum of office lights or the hem of your pants).
Your brain screen door has too big of holes in it.
Some scientists believe that the reason why we Fibro folk struggle so much to regulate incoming input is because of hippocampus dysfunction.
If you’ve ever taken Psych 101, you might remember that the hippocampus houses our memory and cognition.
The hippocampus also is important during nociception, which is the body’s way of identifying painful stimuli.
Nociception is one way your body provides feedback to your nerves in order to protect you from harmful stimuli. It involves both your central and peripheral nervous systems.
So if your body’s way of identifying pain signals is off – by way of your brain’s hippocampus – then your cognitive inhibition gets thrown off too.
With an out of whack sensory filtration system, your body easily gets sent into overdrive (maybe even hyperdrive).
And so you’re more likely to feel it.
Feel all of the everything.
ALL OF IT.
Serotonin dysfunction
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in your brain and gut.
Even though it makes up less than a tenth of a percent of neurons in our brain, serotonin plays an important role in feeling good (or fucking awful) with Fibro.
Low levels of serotonin lead to inflammation and alterations in pain sensitivity and cognition.
For example, your natural sensory filtration system – cognitive inhibition – decreases in effectiveness.
A 2018 study of 35 healthy women without Fibromyalgia and 130 newly-diagnosed-with-Fibro women found that women without Fibro had higher serotonin levels.
That got me thinking – why do women with Fibromyalgia have less serotonin levels?
Why women with Fibro may have low serotonin levels
Two possible reasons why women with Fibromyalgia may have low levels of serotonin are:
- from hormone fluctuations during pregnancy
- changes to the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, or HPA
Without getting too scientiffy – because I’m not a doctor – let’s take a more detailed look at why these levels may be low.
Pregnancy
The Journal of Maternal Fetal Neonatal Medicine published a 2016 study in which they found pregnancy decreased serotonin levels, particularly as the mom carries to term.
(It’s worth noting that the study also concluded the correlation between low serotonin and developing Fibro was not “statistically significant”, so don’t go crazy trying to manage your serotonin levels.)
Hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA)
Some experts believe that low serotonin may be attributed to an altered hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA).
I know – that’s a mouthful.
According to some research, Fibromyalgia is often seen with changed activity in the HPA.
In layman’s terms, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis is important for the body’s response to stress.
Okay, so it seems we with Fibro are more likely to have altered HPA activity, which may lead to low levels of serotonin.
And that can increase your sensitivity and sensory overload.
Yay.
So how do you increase your serotonin levels?
Should you?
Those are great questions – but for another blog post.
Speaking of another blog post –
if you’re about to explode from too much noise and touch…
here are 5 simple, easy, and most importantly quiet games your kids can play by themselves while you take a breather.
Or if you need to fill your own cup in a calm, subdued way, try these feel-good stretches for a mental and physical reset.
Your takeaway
Sensory overload is when your body feels overwhelmed by what’s around you.
You might feel confused, irritated, or have increased pain and flares thanks to these delightful episodes.
Unfortunately, sensory overload and Fibromyalgia are all too common.
The current science tells us that minimized cognitive inhibition (poor sensory filtration) and serotonin dysfunction likely play a role in connecting sensory overload to Fibromyalgia.
Furthermore, serotonin dysfunction may be due to pregnancy (it decreases as the bun bakes) and changes to the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis.
So that wraps up why Fibromyalgia and sensory overload go hand in hand.
Have you found that you’re more sensitive since having Fibro?
What has changed?
Share your experience with me below.
