When Your Autopilot Goes Rogue: Understanding Dysautonomia

October was Dysautonomia Awareness Month, and today we’re talking about what happens when your body’s autopilot—your autonomic nervous system—starts glitching.

If you’ve ever felt dizzy for no reason, your heart races the moment you stand, or you’ve been told “it’s just anxiety,” this episode is for you. I break down what dysautonomia actually is, why it’s so commonly misunderstood, and the different forms it can take—like POTS, vasovagal syncope, orthostatic hypotension, and autonomic neuropathy.

We’ll also talk about real-life support strategies: hydration and electrolytes, pacing movement, blood-sugar stability, vagus-nerve support, and practical tools for temperature and inflammation control.

Plus, I’m sharing my favorite awareness resources and simple ways to #MakeNoiseForTurquoise every October.

You’re not broken—your body just needs a recalibration.

Transcript

0:11

Hi, friends. Welcome back to Chronically Misunderstood. It's now November, but last month October was Disautonomia Awareness Month, and for many of us who experienced Disautonomia, we have a tough month with the October slide. Increased pain, more fatigue, just elevated symptoms across the board. If you've never heard of Dysautonomia, it's kind of like having a condition where your body's autopilot, just swerves. If your body was a self-driving car, it suddenly forgets how to stay in its own lane. This is dysautonomia. If you're new here, I'm Laura, a functional nutritional therapy practitioner, chronic illness educator, and someone who lives with dysautonomia. I also see it in a lot of my clients, especially alongside things like E-D-S-M-C-A-S, autoimmune issues and pots. So this episode is a mix of lived experience and what I see in the real world. So let's start simple. What's dysautonomia? Dysautonomia means that the autonomic nervous system isn't regulating automatic stuff smoothly. Think heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, digestion, sweating, and even things like pupilary changes. Your autonomic system is quietly making micro adjustments 24- 7, speeding things up when you stand, slowing things down when you rest, rerouting blood flow after you eat or even when you get overheated. When that system glitches, you feel it everywhere. Even though routine tests often don't show it. A quick map of the two main branches of our nervous system are the sympathetic side, your fight or flight, which gets blood to the big muscles, heartbeats faster, pupils widen, digestion parks it for later. The parasympathetic side is rest and digest, heart rate comes down, breathing eases, gut motility returns, your body repairs. Healthy bodies shift between those modes with ease. With dysautonomia, that gear shifting Is jerky, delayed or just wrong Gear, wrong time. And disautonomia isn't one single condition, it's a family. Here are the ones you'll hear most- pots, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. When you go upright, the heart rate jumps, often by 30 beats per minute or more because blood flow is pooling in the lower body instead of making it back to the brain efficiently. It feels like lightheadedness, pounding heart, shortness of breath, blurry vision, brain fog, deep fatigue, sometimes even nausea or fainting. It loves to hang out with EDS and MCAS and it can show up after viral illnesses or big hormonal shifts. It's like your body forgot to hit the anti-gravity button when you stand, especially those of you with MCAS, need to check to see if pots is a factor. Histamine really is a vasodilator and that doesn't help with the blood pooling. Pots is definitely something that I experience and I wasn't quite sure because I don't faint, I didn't have the, the most dramatic of reactions, but I did get lightheaded often when I stood up. So as an at-home check, I put on a chest heart rate monitor and sat down for about five minutes. My heart rate sitting was a normal 72, just relaxed, but when I stood up, it jumped to 118 or so, and that is not a normal amount of change. To check I also had my husband put the heart rate monitor on, and he also was at 72 sitting down, but when he stood up, it only went to 76. That was my first big indicator that maybe POTS was going on, and after that I went and spoke to my practitioner about it to get more testing. Another type of dysautonomia is called neurocardiogenic or vasovagal syncope. This is the classic faint. Heart rate and blood pressure, both drop blood flow to the brain, dips and lights out. Triggers can be heat, pain standing too long, stress blood draws. People can have both vasal vagal tendencies and pots. One is a drop, one is a spike. The body's circuit breaker flips when it's overstimulated. There's orthostatic hypotension here the blood pressure consistently falls when you stand enough to cause dizziness, weakness, or even fainting. It can be primary or secondary to things like diabetes, dehydration, Parkinson's, or certain meds. You stand up and your blood pressure decides to take a nap. Autonomic neuropathy, that's when the actual autonomic nerves are damaged, so symptoms depend on which wires are frayed. Heart rhythms change, GI motility problems, sweating issues, bladder or sexual dysfunction, blood pressure swings. The building's electrical wiring is worn in random places, so different rooms flicker at different times. There are rare forms too that you might speak to your practitioner about, and many folks have overlapping patterns. That's why symptoms can feel like a whack-a-mole. Dizziness on Monday. Gut drama on Tuesday. Brain fog on Wednesday. Now, why is this so misunderstood? Because it looks and feels like anxiety from the outside racing heart, sweaty palms, shaking breath. But for many of us, the body sensations come first and the anxious feeling comes because your body alarms went off without a reason you can see. Add to that, a really short seated office visit, tests done while you're lying down, and a condition that really shows up during motion, standing, showering, eating, heat exposure, talking too long, and you get years of everything looks normal. And here's the feedback loop piece when inflammation is high, infections, flares, allergic responses. It can irritate nerve signaling. Irritated nerves, dysregulate the autonomic system. Dysregulated autonomics, change blood flow and stress chemistry, which can fan the flames of inflammation. Round and round we go. That's why pacing, nourishment and nervous system support can make such a difference. You're interrupting the loop in practical ways. Quick note before I share some supports. I'm not a doctor and this isn't medical advice. I'm sharing education and lived and learned strategies. Always talk to your clinician before changing your care. Okay. Support basics that help many people more. Fluids plus electrolytes, often. Yes, more sodium, more than you think. Steady blood sugar, so you don't know dive midday. Gentle vagus nerve inputs like slow breathing, or a device like Pul Seto compression and recumbent, or resistant base movement to train tolerance, tending the gut and histamine load if MCA is in the mix, and temperature hacks, cooling vests, fans, heating pads, so your system isn't constantly firefighting. We'll unpack those in a moment. But I want you to hear this first. If your autopilot is acting up, you're not broken. You're adaptive. Your body is trying to keep you safe. It just needs better instructions and a calmer dashboard. So let's actually talk through some of those supports, because I know that's what most of us are really wondering. Okay. What helps when you live with Dysautonomia? Everything is connected, and because it's all connected, the goal isn't to fix one system. It's to help your body start to communicate better again. I know, I know everyone says Drink more water, but here's the thing, it's not just about water. Most of us with dysautonomia have lower blood volume, so the heart ends up working overtime just to get enough blood to the brain. That's where electrolytes come in, especially sodium. It helps your body actually hold onto the fluid you drink instead of flushing them right out. You can even make your own electrolytes at home, a pinch of salt, squeeze of lemon, and a splash of juice in water, or look into the electrolyte options that are out there, particularly element T has a lot of salt in it, but be careful. I myself react to some citric acid. I do better with the watermelon flavor that uses malic acid instead. So be careful if you're noticing some reactions to products that are out there. For some people, a gram, two grams of sodium a day are what they need to maintain their autonomic system better. But again, speak with your practitioner before you make any changes. The next piece is blood sugar stability. When your blood sugar drops, your body pumps out adrenaline to bring it back up and that adrenaline dump can make your heart race your blood pressure swing, and your nervous system freak. So no coffee and vibes do not count as breakfast. Pair your carbs with protein or fat like eggs and sweet potato or apple slices with nut butter. You'll feel steadier and your nervous system will thank you. Now let's talk about some nervous system regulation. This one is big. You cannot outport a constantly alarmed nervous system. Your vagus nerve is like the body's calm switch. It helps you shift back into rest and digest mode. You can tone it gently with slow exhales, humming, singing, or even using something like a Pul Seto device if you have one. I also love simple things like lying on the floor with my legs up the wall. It's grounding, helps with blood flow, and tells your body you are safe. Compression gear can make a huge difference. Socks, leggings, or even an abdominal binder, if you can tolerate it, they help keep blood from pooling in your lower body, which means less dizziness when you stand. Movement is important too, but pacing is everything. Start slow and low. Recumbent bike, rowing machine, wall Pilates, anything that lets you strengthen without fighting gravity right away. We're not training for the Olympics. We're retraining our nervous system. If you're dealing with Mc CAS or gut issues, you already know inflammation makes everything worse. When your gut's inflamed, your immune system stays on high alert and that agitation spills right into your autonomic nervous system. Focus on calming that feedback loop. Digestive bitters or enzymes, anti-inflammatory foods. And if you know you react to histamine, work on lowering that load and supporting it maybe with supplements or even medications with your doctor. Basically, if your gut is less inflamed, your nervous system can finally stop white knuckling the steering wheel. Temperature regulation. This one sounds simple, but it's a game changer if you overheat, easily use a fan, a cooling vest, or even keep a cold pack on the back of your neck. If you tend to run cold, warm up before you move. Heating pad cozy layers whatever works. Your body likes predictability. Think of yourself as trying to keep the thermostat steady on the inside. Now, me personally, temperature regulation is a tricky one. My body likes to throw opposite signals. When I'm too cold, my hands get sweaty. That's backwards. That's not how that's supposed to work. But this is actually one of my oldest symptoms that was signaling to me that my autonomic nervous system did not respond properly. So if you feel that your temperature regulation is just kind of outta whack, consider that actually, this is an autonomic nervous system signaling. And as always, remember, none of this is about being perfect. It's about lowering the background noise so your system has a chance to find rhythm again. Like I said at the beginning, October was Disautonomia awareness month. So I wanted to talk a little bit about awareness. Awareness is how we move from being dismissed to being understood for ourselves, for our kids, for the next generation of patients who won't have to spend 10 years being told. It's just anxiety. There are some incredible organizations doing real work out there, like Disautonomia International. They fund research, train doctors, and run all the Turquoise ribbon campaigns every October. The Dysautonomia Project has an amazing book. You can literally hand to your family and even your doctors. It explains everything clearly. No medical jargon required. Another called Standing Up to Pots has many practical resources, especially for students and parents. If you're listening from outside the us, check out POTS UK or POTS Care for more region specific support on social media. Look for hashtags like disa, NMIA Awareness month, hashtag Make Noise for turquoise and hashtag POTS awareness. That's where you'll find stories, graphics, and community. If you're wondering how to participate, keep it simple. Share a post, tell your story or support someone who's living it. Over the next couple weeks, I'm sharing little moments on Instagram, real life stuff you don't see on lab results because awareness isn't about ribbons, it's about language and connection. It's about not feeling crazy for something your body is actually doing. So here's what I want to leave you with. If your body feels unpredictable, if you never know which version of yourself you're going to get today, it's not because you're doing anything wrong. It's because your autonomic system is out of sync, not broken. You're not lazy, you're not dramatic, and you're definitely not alone. Your autopilot isn't gone. It just needs a recalibration. And the more you understand what's happening, the more compassion you can have for yourself while it's happening. If this episode helped you feel seen, share it with someone who might need to hear it. All the resources and links I mentioned are in the show notes or@branchcollectivewellness.com. Take care of yourself this fall, hydrate, rest, and remember, awareness begins inside your own body. Thanks again for listening, and I'll see you next time on chronically Misunderstood.