Starting A Journal?

[lieze]

Do any of you keep a journal?

I'm thinking about starting one.

I read about conversion disorder and I'm suspicious that I have it.

I get the numbness in my extremities that comes and goes.

I get the vision disturbances that also come and go.

And my periods are messed up.

It mentions sexual dysfunction what I notice with that is sometimes I have very little sex drive at all. I think I could be a nun. Other times I just go wild so there is no balance. I'm either hot or cold.

The other thing that makes me suspicious is sometimes my physical episodes seem to be brought on by psychological stress and my threshold seems to be very low.

I do have stress in my life my husband is bipolar and our life is messed up.

It is not going in a responsible organized manner and that really messes with my head.

I virtually have no peace because I'm a person that likes some stability and security in my life and I feel so out of control about it.

If I try to work out issues with him he just blows up so it feels like a losing battle.

I think this maybe something in particular that psychologically I'm just not handling well and it may be coming out physically.

It almost goes beyond a panic attack although I have those.

At the very least it's a possibility that my mental unrest disturbs my POTS.

I was curious too if anyone else with POTS has this type of stress in their life either before their POTS began or during.

I know that I read they are seeing a trend with people with histories of anxiety and OCD developing POTS.

I don't know if having a life with a partner who is very unstable and volatile tipped me over the edge health wise. It's very difficult to tell.

I was always the type of person where if I got really nervous I would get the stomach ache or the runs. Now I think it just totally lays me out quivering not with a seizure but with my presyncope feelings maybe I've began to swoon like those women in the movies?

I'd like to get a handle on it if it's at all possible and the reason for the journal to see if I can see any patterns.

Any comments or suggestions are always welcome.

[lieze]

I guess the other thing that makes me suspicious is the fact that right after an episode I'm totally fine. After my episode yesterday I did take a little time to recover but within an hour I was up sitting on the couch and able to smile and laugh at that point. By evening I was able to go to the store and to pick up my son. Came home and made smoothies. Felt level both emotionally and physically.

Right after and actually before my episode I felt depressed and overwhelmed. I cried at the end of my episode and felt a wave of depression. But it was like the episode got it out of my system and I felt better after than I did leading up to it. (Weird)

Also I have always came out of my episodes on my own. I have had maybe 5-6 trips to ER and they have never given me anything maybe a bag of fluids once or twice? My lab work usually appears normal there-they have not been able to find anything wrong and I recover on my own.

I did have the ablation but that was for an abnormal pathway in my heart. I was born with it and 80% of women have this. I've read that people with anxiety have SVT's and anxiety can trigger it.

I am not doubtful that it took me a while to recover from chicken pox and I may have developed POTS like symptoms during that time. I don't know where the POTS ended and the anxiety took over or vice versa. I guess I'm just going to have to give it time and try to figure this out.

It's just so difficult to sort it all out. When I totally focus in on the POTS then I think I am in denial of the anxiety and panic. When I totally focus in on the psychological factors I feel I am in denial of the POTS.

[firewatcher]

One way to find out is to go to a psychiatrist, NOT a psychologist. Be absolutely honest with him/her and provide character references for yourself. If you truly want to know, have one of your docs refer you to a good psych for an evaluation. Remember though, with POTS, it is a physical cause of the panic, not a psychological one. At the beginning of my diagnosis/discovery process I was evaluated by a very good psychiatrist who concluded that this was a physical problem, not a mental one. He referred me to his family's neurologist and the diagnosis ball got rolling.

[poppetkazutaka]

I keep a journal over on Livejournal. It helps when I need to go look something up! :3

And I need to get a psych doctor. Psychologists aren't great. They just won't shut up long enough for you to talk and then you realize you're not crazy, they are, and they just want someone to listen to them.

[janiedelite]

I've kept a symptom journal for nearly 2 years now. It helped me to get approved for SSDI. I also keep a journal of appts and conversations with medical providers. Also, I started writing a book about getting sick and how it's impacted me and my family. That has been therapeutic for me as well. I'm thankful that my main medical providers never suspected that my illness was just in my head, but after going to a dozen docs who had no concrete answers I began to doubt myself. Now that I have a real diagnosis that's no longer the case. I did see a therapist for 8 months when my pain suddenly increased and I didn't want to burn out my family members with my anxieties. She helped me cope. If you really feel that mental health issues are responsible for part or all of your illness, I agree with Firewatcher that a psychiatrist should be your next visit. Either way, keep looking for peace even if it means having to live with illness. And we're always here for you at this forum

[flop]

The diagnosis between autonomic dysfunction, anxiety and OCD type problems can be difficult. Many of the symptoms of anxiety and psychological distress are displayed by the autonomic nervous system - so is it anxiety causing symptoms, or ANS problems that mimic anxiety????

Personally I think that many of us have ANS dysfunction and a heightened awareness of ANS symptoms and symptoms in response to psychological stimuli - and each influences the other.

Flop

[ramakentesh]

In nearly all patients there is an inappropriate reaction to all sympathetic stimuli - if we over react to standing, we certainly over-react to stress or fear.