Post-traumatic Stress Disorder And Dysautonomia

[kmpower]

I am trying to figure out why mornings are so hard for some of us. Good explanations have been posted, but I still wonder and search, as you all do.

So I took another piece of info I know about myself -- that my cortisol is low in the mornings, and has been for a long time, even before I had symptoms.

And I just searched about low cortisol and high catecholamines and I found that it is a physiologic characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder. It might not apply to everyone, but for what it is worth, here is one link.

http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/publications/rq/rqhtml/V1N2.html

Have you been traumatized? I think that my first series of visits to ER was traumatizing -- you know, because they don't necessarily believe you but you think you are dying and crazy at the same time. It is a chicken and egg thing where the illness itself leads to the trauma, but maybe we can use the info to figure out ways to help the mornings get easier.

OLL

[Guest Belinda]

I had severe in trauma in fact I was diagnosed with ptsd until my thereapist said I think there is something physically wrong too...that is when I knew I wasn't crazy..Belinda

[Dizzy Dame]

There was a great thread on this a few months ago. You might want to do a search for "PTSD" or "Post Traumatic Stress". I know from that thread that there are others here who have PTSD.

I myself had PTSD, but the trauma happened when I was much younger and after years of therapy, I was able to move past it. I don't believe that my trauma has much to do with my illness...at the same time, though, many of my chronically ill friends have severe trauma in thier past (ie. rape, death of a parent when they were little, physical or sexual abuse).

OK. So do the search, you should find some interesting comments from that past thread.

-Lauren

[dizzygirl]

well i think that there is a connection between ptsd and pots.. I have my own therories that i'd be willing to share with you via email or PM.. that i have talked with an other potsy pal with in the past..

for me personally.. I suffered severe physical (you name other trauma's) repeatedly from before birth (yes before birth - what i meanby before birth is my father beat my mom while she was pregnant with me.. and as a result i was born 3 1/2 months premature..) until i was 15 yrs old.. and I was liek i cant do this anymore.. and i split..

I had a traumatic event happen right after I got real bad w/ pots in 2002..

but i have recieved a great deal of therapy.. and i have a good grip on things..and as belinda said.. I too after being eval. in the ER by a psychiatrist.. she told me and the ER doctor that there was something more wrong with me then just PTSD.. tha was the first time I ever heard of adrenal glands.. or the body producing to much adrenaline.. she told me about get my adrenals tested and doing a 24 hour urine collection...she told me that i was not crazy..(considering that i'd been in the ER allnight with a BP of 195/145 and pulse dancing between 165-200!!).. that my PTSD while was there in a milder form.. thatit was not the cause of my BP and HR being so high...

But yes.. I think that w/ my situation that being is a constant state of flight or flight for over 15 yrs. that my body got used to that state of being.. and I really have had to work at calming it down.. so yeah I think that there definatwly is a link somewhere..While I do NOT think that it is the cause of my POTS.. I feel that it did affect it to some degree in earlier years.. such as when I was 15 and under)