If fibromyalgia is an extreme form of Sensory Processing Disorder, and SPD is exclusive to autism… ? In this post, I dive into the various controversies to come up with a tentative, but viable, conclusion that may just knock you sideways.
The fibromyalgia pains that started it all.
Shortly before I hit menopause, I began to have random twinges and aches in various parts of my body. Sometimes it felt muscular, other times like an organ was affected. Most of the time, they were more concerning than annoying. But other times, they were intense enough and lasted long enough to kick my health anxiety into high gear as Worst Case Scenarios presented themselves to my mind.
Eventually, every twinge, ache, and pinch vanished… only to show up in another part of my body days, weeks, or months later.
At age forty, I’d begun to experience weather-related headaches for the first time. During this almost-menopause period, I began experiencing pain in my breasts on cloudy or rainy days – or when cloudy or rainy days were coming soon.
After menopause, things seemed to get worse in the Random Aches and Pains department. More disconcerting was when I developed non-cardiac dyspnea, which is when you take a breath that delivers plenty of oxygen to your lungs, but the sensation is such that you feel like you’ve sucked in pure carbon dioxide. This often accompanied a tight chest or tight diaphragm. Did I have a hiatal hernia? Could I have a structural problem with my heart? (No and no, as it turns out.)
Somewhere in here, it occurred to me to do a little research on fibromyalgia. I can’t remember why – maybe I had some Divine guidance? – because “breathing problems” isn’t a symptoms that pops into most people’s minds when they hear about fibromyalgia. It’s about pain, right?
Except… it can affect breathing. In fact, it can cause the dyspnea I was just talking about. So I thought to myself: Hmm. I wonder if fibromyalgia is a hormone thing?
Back to all those wacky, slightly dismaying symptoms: they always disappeared after a week or three, and sometimes were gone for a month or two before coming back.
In addition, around age fifty-three or fifty-four it seemed like I was pulling a muscle with every slightest off-center move. Trying to simply take a walk, let alone do strength training, often felt like a joke because I had to stop exercising so often to rest that I was losing every slight gain I made.
The proverbial camel-back-breaking straw.
And then, mid-October of 2026, I had what I ultimately determined was my first fibromyalgia flare. From my knees down at first, and then up in my thighs, everything went catawampus. I hurt. Was sore in a way a person is sore after doing a really hard workout after having been a couch potato for months.
I hadn’t done a really hard workout. And I’m as active a person as my body will allow.
There was also this scratchy, raw feeling up and down my calves and shins, down to my ankles, like someone had taken a grater to all of my muscles in those areas. Perhaps worst of all, the peroneal nerve compression that I thought I had ALMOST healed of – after more than a year of dealing with the tingling and “good vibrations” in my ankles and feet – was instantly triggered. This was thanks to the muscle tension around my knees and in my calves.
Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) = autism?
Allow me to interrupt my story for a minute in order to make a necessary digression.
And to probably tick some people off, but that’s what I do with my Strong Opinions that are generally based on Astute Observances combined with a High I.Q. and Careful Analysis.
The psychiatric powers-that-be claim that a person can have SPD and not be autistic.
I disagree.
For one thing, probably none of them are autistic, nor have they been diagnosed with SPD. Lived experience is better than any theory.
For another – and perhaps more important – I strongly suspect that anyone who has been told, “You have Sensory Processing Disorder (or sensory integration issues) but you’re not autistic,” was told that by a practitioner who didn’t understand autistic masking, female autistic traits, or traits of Level 1 autistic people. They were also so sure in their (false) conviction that they didn’t bother to dive deeply into their patient’s social abilities – or lack thereof.
Then there’s the fact that the vast majority of Level 1 (and probably some Level 2) autistic people remain undiagnosed due to the general ignorance and wrong stereotypes around the condition. This ignorance is almost as bad among mental health practitioners as it is among the general population.
I freely admit that I might be wrong in this assertion that SPD always indicates autism. But I believe the chances of my being wrong are very slim.
Now, back to my story, and connecting this bit with fibromyalgia.
How is fibromyalgia NOT Sensory Processing Disorder?
For the first couple of days, I was scared out of my wits. Was I developing some kind of neuromuscular degenerative disease? I told myself it was because I’d been on my feet longer than usual, doing a deep declutter of the Tuff Shed, and I still hadn’t regained all of my muscle conditioning from having been bedridden a little over a year ago.
That was probably part of it.
But then, like a feather drifting on a gentle breeze, the word “fibromyalgia” floated into my head.
I did some more digging into the condition. Yep. It totally fit.
Except…
The description of fibromyalgia exactly matched a major aspect of Sensory Processing Disorder.
Here’s what I learned: fibromyalgia consists of nerves sending pain signals to muscles and soft tissue when they haven’t been injured. I’m guessing this is why I’ve been feeling like I pull a muscle every time I turn around. Much of the time, I’ve only slightly pulled it or even only caused it to move in a way that it doesn’t usually move. But instead of the nerves sending the signal, “Very mild pull, no problem,” they tell my brain, “RED ALERT! She has incurred a moderate injury that’s going to take at least three weeks to heal!!”
Naughty nerves.
Why is this happening? Central sensitization, which is when the brain misreads normal sensations, turning mild pressure or touch into intense pain. This is part of SPD, and many Level 2 and 3 autistic people live with this phenomenon every single day.
So, I ask you: could fibromyalgia in fact be an extreme version of SPD? And if I’m right that SPD occurs only with autism, then there are a whole lot of women dealing with intense pain for no good reason who are autistic and don’t know it.
Menopause makes it worse.
Plenty of women have been dealing with fibromyalgia since their teens or early adulthood. But I’m guessing that, as with ADHD and autism, many women don’t get diagnosed until they hit perimenopause or menopause itself.
Because as you know, menopause makes everything worse. The culprit is, as usual, estrogen. Not only does it facilitate the proper functioning of the brain’s neurotransmitters, but also of the nervous system. Estrogen also helps control the body’s inflammatory response.
Do I mean that women who begin experiencing fibromyalgia during their childbearing years are low in estrogen? No – although I’d be interested to see a study done in which women with the diagnosis track their flare-ups to see whether there’s some kind of monthly pattern.
What I mean is that those of us with SPD often experience worse symptoms after menopause because the estrogen buffer is no longer present. And the symptoms can be inexplicable and widespread, as with a fibromyalgia flare-up.
I could be wrong, but…
Someone might argue that fibromyalgia does not equal autism because with fibro, the muscles can’t fully recover due to the vicious incorrect signaling loop. They end up constantly – or almost constantly – tense due to frequent pain. This is not a commonly reported trait of autism. Neither is waking up sore for no reason, as happens with many women who suffer from fibro.
That’s not a bad argument. But just because a symptom isn’t being reported among diagnosed autistics doesn’t mean it’s not a form of severe SPD.
A crazy conclusion?
SPD probably pertains solely to autism. If fibromyalgia is an extreme version of one aspect of SPD, then women with fibro are also autistic.
What do you think? Have I lost the few marbles I had? Have you ever thought along those same lines? Be civil and kind in the comments, but if you have your own ideas I’d love to hear them. I’m fascinated by this possibility, and am open to a (respectful!) discussion about it.