ive been wondering latley, there are a number of signs point in to it, so i want to know for sure
is fibromyalgia somehow related to aspergers/autism?
my mom has fibromyalgia (i do too) and she is a visual-spatial leaner,
and my younger brother and i both have aspgerers syndrome,
my baby sister andmy older younger brother both have distructive behavior disorder too
its a strange coincidence, and ive nticed a number of fibro parents have autsitic kids, and a numebr of kids with autism have younger siblings with distructive behavior
do you think tehre is a connection , or do you have a connection personally, or better yet Know what the connection is?
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Please excuse any gramatical/spelling errors, I have a verbal disability.
I don't really know if there is a connection, but I will tell you my little story. I have Fibro, 2 cousins have it, one sister may have it, and one of my grandchildren has Asperger's.....I just heard from another cousin that his grandchild MAY have Aspergers too. My opinion.......Autisim is becoming more and more prevalent, and being diagnosed more, and more, so I think it may be just a coincident.
I have FMS, and my son has Asperger's syndrome. I do believe there is a conenction, but I do not have anything medical to back it up. I remember my FMS doctor asking me if I had troubles in school. He said that a typical symptom of FMS patients is having difficulty in school, whether behavioral or attentiveness. This doctor really seemed to "read" me, which was so unlike the other docs I visited prior to being finally diagnosed with FMS. I am 57 years old, and my aspie son is 34.
A lot of prayers and medical intervention has really helped him obtain a decent life. He lives on his own and works full time. I only tell you this to encourage you and your brother while you work out what is going on in your bodies.
I have a child w/PDD-NOS, and I have fibro as well as auto-immune disease. During the years when I attended HFA support group meetings, I was amazed at how many of the moms of these kids had fibro and/or AID. So, like kirstee, I'm convinced that there genetic & or environmental influences that may be overlapping in these disorders. But you're not likely to find a doctor who will agree to that idea.
One confounding factor is that raising kids on the spectrum is a little more stressful for parents, IMO, than raising an average child would be. And stress is a great precipitator of all sorts of physical ailments. One common stress that parents of kids on the spectrum face is more "night duty" at various times during the child's development, than for the average child. Sleep deficits are notorious contributors to fibro flares.
Some fibro sufferers, and many kids on the spectrum, have been found to suffer from a reduced ability to handle toxins in the everyday environment. This is likely due to a genetic glitch, and in some cases, to nutritient deficiencies relative to individual uniqueness. Various measures can be taken in a family to reduce such exposures, often with good effects all round.
