What to do about processing difficulties

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Hey guys,

I don't know what's going on lately but my processing problems seem to be getting harder to manage. For example: I can't seem to be able to look at anything that's moving with out it stressing me out.

Driving has become very difficult for me. I think its because of everything that's going on around me (in a visual sense). I'm flying past everything at 60mph and trying to process everything so that I know where I am and don't get lost. It feels like I see everything in glimpses, rather then in real-time. Reading is also hard. It's like all the letters and words just kind of start "flowing" together and things start to look almost like they're moving on paper! Oh and just recently I have been having a tough time playing video games and I've been having panic attacks from playing.

Auditory processing is my next biggest hardship. I try so hard to listen and comprehend things that people tell me but usually cannot make sense of much. If someone is elaborating on something or trying tell a story, I usually completely forget what we were talking about before they even finish.

When I start getting overwhelmed by either what I'm looking at or what I hear, I will start to dissociate. All of this together just makes doing anything way harder then it needs to be. I don't know what I can do to help myself with sensory problems. Can counseling really even help me with this? What kind of sensory/processing problems do you some of you have?

How long has this been going on? The getting worse part I mean. Are there any other symptoms going on like headaches? I'd check for something physical first.

Yes, I have at-least 2 throbbing headaches a day. I almost always get one within the first hour of waking up and one or two more throughout the day. This has been getting worse (processing problems not headaches) over the last year. I don't know what physical problems could be causing this, but I have plenty. Here are a few: muscle and joint pain, numb hands and feet, stiff joints, AWFUL fatigue, and internal-temperature regulation problems (painfully cold in winter, and sweating bullets on a 70degree spring day) just to name a few.

I tried to get an answer from my doctor when these symptoms first started but he insisted I was perfectly healthy and just stressed. I have kind of just accepted that my body is starting to mature and that this is just one of those things I'll have to learn to manage as an adult. I can live with the physical problems but all this over-stimulation (if that's what this is) is leaving me feeling very helpless.

That's what I was wondering. Could be chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. Or something else, but those are the most likely. Migraine could explain the perceptual differences. It's a bear to diagnose because it's a problem in the central nervous system rather than an actual disease process that can be found on examination. Doctors often brush it off. Keep at it. Doesn't mean their right. I likely have the fibromyalgia, and yeah, all of the stuff you're dealing with. At first I thought it was multiple sclerosis but MRI ruled that out. Some doctors don't "believe" in fibromyalgia but it is real.