I found this forum today when I was trying to remember if dehydration caused and/or made Dysautonomia symptoms worse. I'm not sure why, but I can never seem to remember that when I feel bad, I need to drink water! I too feel like I belong in a hospital somewhere, and then 16 ounces of water puts me quickly on the mend. Why can't I remember that in the moment?!?
Like so many others, I used to never drink during meals growing up, and I forget to drink now.
The reason I decided to post was because of the mention of figuring out the root cause.
It's been almost 20 years since a doctor told me I had Autonomic Dysautonomia. By a chain of events that let me know God had His hand in getting me some help, I ended up at a center that specialized in Dysautonomia.
One of the most interesting things was that they sent me a multi-page questionnaire before my first appointment. They asked a lot of questions about various types of traumas and/or abuse I might have experienced - especially during my early childhood.
One might think, "I'm not going for a psych visit!", but I answered all of the questions honestly.
Yes, I experienced both trauma and abuse in my early, formative years. One of the most "interesting" of the questions was whether or not I had ever witnessed violence during those years. Yes, I had.
When I asked about the reason for the questions at the appointment, the doctor told me that many Dysautonomia patients have experienced abuse and trauma in their early lives.
I found all of that to be "interesting", and a quick search of the Internet shows that the Hypothalamus is what regulates our hunger and thirst....among other things, and it can be adversely affected by "early life stress".
Maybe for some people this is the root cause? Maybe for some of us, our nervous systems were adversely affected by stress in our young lives, and for some of us Dysautonomia finally got bad enough to show itself as a problem in adulthood??
I do know one lady who developed Dysautonomia in adulthood. She had a pretty abusive marriage, and symptoms developed during that time.
Hopefully this might help someone here or someone searching online for this topic.
I hope so.
