Keep Calm, It's All In Your Head...

WEGO HAWM CHALLENGE DAY 9:

Keep calm and carry on. Write (and create) your own Keep Calm and Carry On poster. Can you make it about your condition? 

Um, yes!  Here it is....

Reasons and links if you have POTS (or don't) and need an explanation of this...


It's VERY hard to keep calm when:

• your sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive!  Fight or flight, fight or flight, fight or flight .....AHHHHHH! 
• you feel like your heart is beating out of your chest - AKA having a heart attack.
• Your blood is pooling in your legs, leaving less in your brain - AKA feels like you are dying. Or at least passing out.
• Many, MANY doctors/med professionals/family/friends/employers/teachers/the public in general just think "it's all in your head," or it's just anxiety...

BUT! 

ANXIETY AND POTS ARE NOT THE SAME THING

1.  Postural tachycardia syndrome and anxiety disorders 

(Write up by Dr. Svetlana Blitshteyn, Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology) 

2.  Psychiatric profile and attention deficits in postural tachycardia syndrome. Raj V, Haman KL, Raj SR, Byrne D, Blakely RD, Bioggioni I, Robertson D, Shelton RC. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 2009; 80: 339-44. 

3.  Excessive heart rate response to orthostatic stress in postural tachycardia syndrome is not caused by anxiety. Masuki S, Eisenach JH, Johnson C et al., Journal of Applied Physiology 2006; 102: 1134-42. 

4.  Experimental induction of panic-like symptoms in patients with postural tachycardia syndrome. Khurana RK. Clinical Autonomic Research 2006; 16: 371-7. 

5.  Postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Low PA, Opfer-Gehrking TL, Textor SC et al.
Neurology 1995; 45: S19-S25. 

TAKE THAT!  I think I still may be a bit "Angry and I know it," from hearing story after story of POTSies being told this.  


So, instead - KEEP CALM, because you are 

not alone, and it is 

most definitely NOT all in your head! 


Want to make your own Keep Calm poster?  Click here.

--CLAIRE (WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE)