Physicians trained specifically for treating dysautonomia and other people who live with it are often strong resources for finding more information. Since many people with dysautonomia feel isolated due to their condition they should become their own best advocates and researchers for finding causes and treatments specific to them. IF possible you may need to sift through numerous different physicians until you find one that works best for you. Unfortunately, people often take years to find a medical team that is a good fit for them while others may grow frustrated and quit or have exhausted all the options available to them. The right answers may come from any source so networking is helpful. “It’s all in your head” or “you are too young to have a serious problem” may be heard at times. Moments like this are setbacks but should not stop a person who may come across an answer during a conversation with a complete stranger. Find positive people who are actively trying to enjoy their lives and take control of what they can with treatments and triggers of dysautonomia. Many problems related to dysautonomia are due to what is known as a, “mind body disorder”. Stress is often a top reason for flares and damage to our bodies.
An example of how the mind can cause physical changes is blushing when embarrassed. Long term stress releasing chemicals that slowly break down the internal workings of our body. All pain signals are processed in the brain then the brain attaches that pain to parts of the body. Neural pathways that transfer pain signals are the same for both physical and emotional pain. Being stuck in “fight or flight” or “no win situations” can cause actual physical symptoms, pain, and damage as a result of the body trying to defend against what it senses as an attack.
The onset of Dysautonomia is as widespread as possible. It can start while a body is still developing and occur at any time in a person’s life. Symptoms may always be the same with one person or they may come and go in others. The length of time for symptoms to appear may be sudden or over long periods. New symptoms may appear while old ones may leave or remain the same. The timeline for symptoms as well as the symptoms themselves are specific to each individual.
This varied pattern of onset and symptoms make a diagnosis of a specific disease under the dysautonomia umbrella difficult to diagnose.
