Troy

Thanks for sharing your experiences but does anyone else find that they still overheat even when its freezing cold in winter?

I also experience difficulty swallowing particularly when i try to eat breakfast in the the mornings when all my symptoms are at their worst, it feels like for some odd reason my food pipe is shrunk or narrowed and the first few bites of food I take force their way down slowly like and i can feel its movement as if the foods trying to squeeze through a small gap. ocassionaly it gets stuck and makes me feel out of breath and I have to drink liquids to help it go down, its an odd uncomfortable feeling but as the day progresses it gets easier for me to swallow.

I developed autonomic problems back in 2000 after I overdosed on a combination recreational drugs like ecstacy and speed which I had been taking on a weekend bassis for many years at rave parties. As much as I am ashamed at my reckless behaviour and regret my self destructive past I have come out stronger and learnt a valuable life lesson. Following the day of the overdose I immedeatly developed a massive chemical sensitivity and an allergic response to the very chemicals I had taken so that even a miniscule dose would have me feeling sick and feverish. Being as ignorant as I was back then and unable to accept this allergic reaction I had developed I continued tampering witht my body looking for loopholes by consuming miniscule amounts of drugs to get high without the allergic reaction but each time the response was the same and I would overheat and spend the entire time under a cold shower fighting for my survival. Eventually this behaviour came to an end after one night when I developed massive chest pain and irregualr and rapid pulse every time I tried to move along with a high fever, this continued for many months day after day until I was diagnosed with POTS. For the past 8 years my worst symptom continues to be the overheating. Although I have been also diagnosed with POTS as well I belive there is more to it than that contributing to my condition. I am aware that others with POTS overheat and experience heat intolarance but with me it goes beyond that. As bad as my other symptoms are the overheating is my worst symptom, it gets so bad I question my wellbeing and survival. My body is generating so much heat regardless of the outside temperature, even in winter while everyone is dreseed in warm clothes I can go outside ina t-shirt and sit in the supposedly cold wether and rain trying to cool down. I spend so much time indoors in front of the air conditioner and when i go out i wear a cooling vest and carry a spray pump water bottle to spray myself as I have also lost the abilty to sweat. Sometimes the colder the outside temperature gets the hotter I get. I have even been admitted to hospital purely as a result of overheating. The heat is so intense it make sme feel nauseaus, irretable, confused and tachycardic. I believe I have more of an issue with temperature than others with POTS is due to the fact that when I overdosed and experienced hyperthermia I may have damaged a part of my brain that is resposible for temperature regulation. My POTS is a direct result of chemical exposure and although this is a known cause for POTS I have not heard of many others who have developed POTS due this reason. I believe I have stumbled on to a recepie for disaster when I continued using drugs after the first time I overdosed and developed allergic reactions and then further tampering caused this full blown complex condition which no one can really seem to understand or diagnose. Furthermore after recent unknown problems with my joints and detereoration leading to torn ligaments and cartlige I have discovered that I am unable to take painkillers as I keep having adverse reactions to all the ones ive tried and everytime i have an adverse reaction to any meds it manifests itself in the form of even worse overheating and hyperthermia where I have to go directly under a cold shower for long periods. It makes me frustrated that there are no scientists out there studying the thermoregulatory side of thing in regards to Dysautonomia and the overheating experienced in people like me to find cures or to reduce the overheating. It seems that no one cares about investing time and effort looking for cures for those in a minority group as those scientists would much rather help the larger society. Despite my vast search on the net over the years I have still not been unable to find anyone else who has developed POTS due to recreational drug use or an overdose , which is why I ask, am I the only one ?