ADD/Asperger Traits contributing?

[GRC109A]

I'm curious as to whether having adult Aspergers and ADD traits contribute to fibro.
I have a little of both; AS/ADD. I find that complex, busy social interactions that cannot be avoided are awful, because my "social processor" is running at 110 percent capacity. With AS, I'm on full alert because with AS it is easy to miss social and other danger signals. Being on full alert is a bit stressful, and no doubt a fibro trigger.

 

[JayCS]

Definitely, in the way you've explained: via anxiety and stress. Esp. social anxiety/phobia would be a fitting comparison to yours!

But maybe "110%" is an understatement...

When my wife pre-fibro used to say when I was "hypering" (i.e. usually) I'm doing/giving 150% or 300% I didn't really believe her. It was fun.
Now fibro has taught me she was right and I was wrong. And that was just when I did things for fun. Anxiety revved it up even more....
I'm never gonna be 'normal'. But at least now I keep to my limits, which at the moment is physically at 10%. I used the 90% up long ago...
I don't bash myself for that tho, I couldn't have known and I couldn't've helped it, even if I had. I made the best of bad starting conditions.
(Funnily I'm probably still managing 100% mentally, hope I see warning signs in time.)

---

But then there's also a directer angle than the anxiety connection you've mentioned.

This is harder to find for autism: An MD on the site "fibromyalgiaresources" tries to, but overamplifies slight connections like similar symptoms or L-carnitine helping... (Seen that so often there: not a site I can recommend!)

But more so for ADHD - adult ADHD being more what we used to call ADD, leaving out the H(yperactivity).
I'd just written this elsewhere:
A study from 2017 found 45% of people with fibromyalgia "have ADHD" - an "interesting" rephrasing of "fibro/brain fog". A spontaneous duckduckgo-search I just did brings up a page by verywellhealth without directly quoting the source, but as opposed to the studies it suggests using ADHD-workarounds for people with brain fog, which is a pretty good idea and I think is said and done far too little.
So brain fog "is" ADD, whether it's fibro fog or brain fog due to many other conditions (which again makes that study so silllllyyyyy)..
The criteria and symptoms are exactly the same, that's what the studies uses. But ADD would have to be diagnosed separately, e.g. pre-fibro, for it not to be brain fog. (And the silly silly study didn't consider that at all....)

 

[GRC109A]

Tnx, JayCS for the comments.

My ADD was/is the inattentive kind, spiced with bits of extreme focus (such as a complicated radiocommunications project)
I believe fibro has a relation to processing overloads... a little like the way PTSD works.
My wife used to give me funny looks when I'd "space out", such as in a department store (crowds, blaring speakers, TV screens, nauseating perfumes, lights...) but we laugh at it now. My misophonia (dislike of noise), photophobia, etc, was around decades before my fibro Dx.

GRC109A

 

[Uhura]

I have been on the spectrum since long before I got fibromyalgia. My doctor says we (those on the spectrum) can be more sensitive to pain.

 

[JayCS]

bits of extreme focus (such as a complicated radiocommunications project)

Which'd be one of the connections to ASD (autism spectrum <s>disorder</s> conditions)... reminding of them being commonly co-morbid.

I believe fibro has a relation to processing overloads... a little like the way PTSD works.

Yeah, agreed, however you mean that ... Not quite sure if you mean PTSD as contributing to fibro or as effect of processing overloads, but praps both. Many (but not all) of us did have quite a bit of stress, which already is a processing overload, and studies have found us revealing quite a bit (20%, some say more) of trauma in our pasts.

My doctor says we (those on the spectrum) can be more sensitive to pain.

Hmm - now that was a surprising one I hadn't heard of before. Looking it up in 2 studies and a website of someone on the spectrum talking about those or other studies, I'd say: it's much more complicated. Actually generally autists were long regarded as being pain hyposensitive, that was one of the criteria. Now this is opening up and a more mixed picture, but still no researchers have been able to say generally more sensitive to pain, if at all a minority more versus a larger majority that seem less sensitive to pain. The problems being very autism specific: In a world that often causes emotional pain, so difficult to understand and cope with, why shouldn't physical pain also be something to be oversensitive to. And whatever amount of pain there is, how can this be communicated, social communication being especially difficult, while pain communication is a challenge for every doc and patient.
Also I can't see what the intention of the doc who said that is as regards fibro: Are they saying people on the spectrum are more likely to get fibro? Or that the fibro they get might be more painful? Is it about the pain tolerance or about the pain threshold or both, and how would this compare to the normal big differences we've talked about a few times here? From that perspective it seems a bit silly for the doc to say this, but as it's out of context it's best to see what the context was first...