fern
Well known member
A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with a condition that I had never heard of - POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a form of dysautonomia). Since a lot of the functional issues she deals with are similar to mine, I looked it up and was surprised to see that my constellation of seemingly unrelated symptoms does look a lot like POTS. I mentioned it to my doctor at my last physical, and she did think it was possible that I have a mild-moderate form of POTS (although since it was just a physical we obviously didn't do the testing right then). She suggested that before I bother with all the tests, I start investigating how a high-salt diet, lots of water, and regular exercise affect my symptoms. She said if it's mild enough, that change alone could correct or at least lessen my symptoms without me having to go down a rabbit hole of tests and specialists. My blood pressure is really low, so my doctors have always told me to eat as much salt as I want anyway - basically, she figured it can't hurt to try a little more.
I haven't made those changes in earnest yet because I wanted to take more time to research the condition first, so I can't say if they have/would make any difference.
But! I finally bought Dr. Schubiner's books a couple weeks ago and I was surprised to see POTS in his list of common mind-body issues. I realized that when I learned about POTS, my brain went straight out of TMS-ville and thought, "Finally! A medical answer for all of my symptoms!" Of course since then, I've learned that POTS is really difficult to manage/medicate, difficult to explain, is worsened by stress, happens to people who seem otherwise healthy, etc... classic TMS-pointing language. (At least now I know that some part of me is still hoping for an "easy" answer to all of this stuff, eager as it was to accept a half-hearted medical diagnosis and treatment plan.)
I'm totally ready to think about POTS as TMS (if POTS is indeed what I'm struggling with). It's hard to get my head around it because the symptoms are so diverse and sneaky and *feel* so medical, but I want to try. I'd love to hear if anybody else has managed to get their head around the crazy constellation of symptoms in POTS and worked with it from a TMS perspective. I'd also love to hear advice from anyone dealing with several different manifestations of TMS at once, especially those that one feels in one's organs. I think those feel so much more alarming than basic musculoskeletal pain, and it can be hard to stay in a TMS mindset with these.
Thanks for your help! I'm excited to work through Dr. Schubiner's books, too! I'm so glad I finally bought them.
I haven't made those changes in earnest yet because I wanted to take more time to research the condition first, so I can't say if they have/would make any difference.
But! I finally bought Dr. Schubiner's books a couple weeks ago and I was surprised to see POTS in his list of common mind-body issues. I realized that when I learned about POTS, my brain went straight out of TMS-ville and thought, "Finally! A medical answer for all of my symptoms!" Of course since then, I've learned that POTS is really difficult to manage/medicate, difficult to explain, is worsened by stress, happens to people who seem otherwise healthy, etc... classic TMS-pointing language. (At least now I know that some part of me is still hoping for an "easy" answer to all of this stuff, eager as it was to accept a half-hearted medical diagnosis and treatment plan.)
I'm totally ready to think about POTS as TMS (if POTS is indeed what I'm struggling with). It's hard to get my head around it because the symptoms are so diverse and sneaky and *feel* so medical, but I want to try. I'd love to hear if anybody else has managed to get their head around the crazy constellation of symptoms in POTS and worked with it from a TMS perspective. I'd also love to hear advice from anyone dealing with several different manifestations of TMS at once, especially those that one feels in one's organs. I think those feel so much more alarming than basic musculoskeletal pain, and it can be hard to stay in a TMS mindset with these.
Thanks for your help! I'm excited to work through Dr. Schubiner's books, too! I'm so glad I finally bought them.
