Are they different? The same? Are they two separate conditions or two names for one condition? Can you have one without the other?

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome is defined simply as: a change in posture (upward) which causes the blood pressure to drop & the heart rate to increase to a tachycardia level (over 100 beats per minute).

Dys-Auto-Nomia is defined simply as: a disorder of the autonomic nervous system.

They’re the same in that both conditions are the result of an improperly working Autonomic Nervous System. For many sufferers of these conditions the answer to this question doesn’t matter AT ALL.

POTS S T O P S YOUR LIFE | SO DOES DYSAUTONOMIA.

The goal is to get back to living. For some, mild cases can be overcome with light exercise ever increasing slowly but surely, until the exerciser strengthens him (or her) self back to the land of the living.

Throughout history, there have been people who spontaneously recovered from debilitating, even fatal conditions, with no scientific explanation for this miracle.

It’s like that “Little Rascals” episode where the sad, stuffy, uber-rich, overly-pampered boy, turned-into-an-invalid-by-his-neurotic-overbearing-mother, is instantly cured by one of the impoverished regular kids who lives nearby. The regular kids can’t understand what is wrong with the rich kid. He looks fine to them so why can’t he move his neck? Like a little chiropractor, one of the urchins takes it upon himself to twist the “invalid’s” stiff neck & boom! The psychosomatic condition disappears & the little rich kid starts playing with the little rascals. For the first time in his life he learns what it is to have fun. And mother does NOT approve! What is she to do without her raison d’être?

Of course that was a fictional example of the spontaneous “healing” of a condition that existed only in the mind of a boy’s mentally unwell mother, who brainwashed her son & everyone around them into believing her child was an invalid.

In real life, the mind-body connection does play a part in these things.

Without getting esoteric, let’s just say it becomes natural to stay sick when you’ve been sick for a long time. The illness becomes your identity – which is a very dangerous loop in which to get caught. (Been there, done that.) Your mental state is key to overcoming these conditions.

BUT IT’S REAL! IT’S A FACT! LOOK AT MY BLOODWORK! READ THE MRI REPORT!

POTS & Dysautonomia are absolutely real & measurable & diagnosable today. Medications are an aid to healing. You also have to want to be healed. When you have a burning desire to be well, medications work better & faster. This is NOT to say that those (like me for example) who were very sick for a very long time don’t really want to be well. It’s merely stating what medical science has finally come to understand: the mind cannot be separated from what happens to the body. It’s a well-established fact that stress makes any condition worse–including the common cold. If one can maintain as positive an attitude as possible during the bleakest of times, conditions like POTS & Dysautonomia need not be prisons forever. In conjunction with the right doctor, the proper diagnosis, and appropriate medications, the mind can assist the body to get better. And so can prayer.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs, Ch 23: 7.

James Allen wrote As A Man Thinketh in 1902. The proverb is as true today as it was in Old Testament Times and as it was in 1902. You are what you think; so think & speak very very carefully.

All that we achieve and all that we fail to achieve is the direct result of our own thoughts. Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power. ― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

Unless you have achieved a high level of self-mastery, POTS and/or Dysautonomia will be dams blocking the flow of your life. We have bodies which operate according to the laws God set in place. At a bare minimum we must have water, food, sleep & sunlight to maintain homeostasis. When something disrupts the autonomic nervous system, when blood-pressure starts falling & the heart-rate starts rising, physiological consequences occur. Some dysautonomia patients have high blood-pressure, which requires quite different treatment. This is not the case with POTS. At least there are doctors now who finally understand & know how to treat these conditions.

While mind over matter is as real as POTS & Dysautonomia, unless your mind and spirit are cemented upon these lines, holding firm belief & a burning desire to get well, mind over matter won’t work. So don’t throw out your pills. Don’t kick a good doctor to the curb. Just realize that YOU are the protagonist in your own story. If you can consistently control your thoughts, you can assist yourself to get better.

The bottom line is: NEVER EVER EVER GIVE UP!