PUMP UP THE VOLUME

It's the fourth of July.

I love the fireworks.

But they hurt.

It's amazing how extensive the changes are to my body and I keep finding new changes all the time. Take, for example, the fourth of July. I love watching fireworks. 

Or at least I used to.

I heard some last night and it actually hurt my ears. How ridiculous is that? Whether I like it or not, that  too has changed. Now even the littlest bit of sound hurts my ears. Well, not exactly every loud sound. 

I can turn my iPhone music up loud in my headphones. That doesn't seem to bother me. It seems if I like the sound it's OK. Why is that? It's the same with smells also. I love the smell of lavender and vanilla. Bath and body has one called "sleep" that I spray on my pillows and it's yummy. Something unpleasant, however, just seems to set me off. Does this fall under the category of "I'm OK and maybe you're not OK?"

Nope, it falls under generalized hyper vigilance.

Basically, we have an amplification of external stimuli. Our bodies constantly remain on high alert. It can be loud sound, annoying repetitive sounds (like a car alarm) or it can just a mix of different sounds (like conversations at a restaurant) that can set us off. What is interesting is that sometimes it bothers us and sometimes it doesn't.

Just another lovely symptom that plays hide and seek.

Considering that our central nervous system overreacts to just about everything; why not this? Instead of our brain filtering out the unimportant stimuli it just reacts to everything that's incoming and is overwhelmed.

We're on sensory overload.

Here's a funny example. I'm usually pretty quiet in the morning and I don't like a lot of movement or conversation until I wake up (ask my daughter about that one..........). Taking dishes out of the dishwasher and hearing the clattering of the glasses and dishes will absolutely send me up a wall. 

Let's face it. Anything that the human body can be sensitive to......well, we're hyper sensitive to it. I've always been told that I had selective hearing. Oh, come on........don't we all? However, like I've always said......."when you have Fibromyalgia, all bets are off."

Let me get this straight.

My clothes hurt.

My weather hurts.

My body hurts.

My ears hurt.

My hands hurt.

My eyes hurt.

The heat hurts.

The cold hurts.

The humidity hurts.

OK...........

Now the dishes hurt????????