Autonomic Dysregulation? Connections To This Whole Trauma Mess?

[Eagle3]

Thanks, Muse, for the response. I do take Magnesium and B-Complex vitamins, as well as CoQ10. Right now my only prescriptions are Buspirone and Lorazepam. I can't take extended release meds because I can't swallow pills, I have to chew them up. I never touch caffeine anymore, and never smoke (allergic). Yes, I do find my muscles are almost constantly tense, and have had issues with arrythmia when my lips were especially blue. Now its not nearly so bad, but I still just can't shake the feeling that something is very wrong and I can't pinpoint it. My digestion sucks, my kidneys hurt, i have nearly constant random muscle contractions in various parts of my body, my autonomic functions feel like they are in disarray (either all-on, or all-off, no in-between), and my tonsils have blown up again...I have found that a session with my accupressurist helps a great deal in relaxing those muscles and feeling better, but I can't live at his office!

i have never actually passed out, although I have come very close to it on several occasions. Several times my instructor thought I was having a heart attack about a year ago and tried to get me to go to the ER but I refused (too stubborn, financial reasons, death wish, and Doctor-issues). Now I really wish I had gone!

I love labs too, but he's actually a Golden Shepherd. I trained him as my service dog several years ago.

 

[Chava]

Dredged up this old post to update: my body temp regulation problems have resolved! When it's warm out, my body SWEATS. LIKE A NORMAL PERSON! :):singing: This is pretty exciting because it means I can tolerate summer and even enjoy it. I don't just get warm feeling then skip right to dizzy and over-heated in minutes, with no other bodily response to heat in between.

If I'm working a lot, I also notice stronger hunger and can respond to that. It feels like there is actually a little bit of intelligent communication finally happening in my body. It's just hard to sort out how much was original ANS dysfunction and how much was my inability to recognize and respond to body cues (certainly some mix of both).

A bit more on the autonomic nervous system (and some symptoms of dysfunction, which can easily relate to our stress levels since the ANS modulates our stress response as well, though posted in "other symptoms" because I understand this isn't common...maybe more so with early ongoing trauma or those of us who are really numbed out to our bodies?? I have pain dysregulation problems too and sleep is still a mess):

http://www.healthline.com/health/autonomic-dysfunction#Symptoms3
This one doesn't list heart arrhythmia, which I also have (benign...checked twice with ECG, doctors attributed it to stress), but it lists heart rate issues related to exercise, which sound more like my former inability to modulate body temp in response to heat or activity. The info on this link doesn't connect any of this to trauma...just nice description of the ANS. I don't have any of the conditions listed here, but good to rule out if you have wildly disruptive symptoms in these areas. Also get heart issues checked out!

And a tiny bit on autonomic dysfunction in panic disorder and PTSD:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10980322

And a longer thing on maladaptive autonomic regulation and PTSD (mostly related to cardiac issues): http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01571/full
"...through the lens of the autonomic nervous system, these disorders are related to an interaction between the autonomic nervous system and the regulation or modulation of myriad neurophysiological functions, from cognition to the immune responses."

(the chronic stress of PTSD pretty much f*cks with every system of the body)

So for those of us with weird somatic symptoms, there are likely a couple causes: body memories and/or ANS dysregulation...the ANS dysregulation would explain the higher incidence of trauma in the backgrounds of people with IBS, for example, even though it is treated as a separate disorder (Link Removed).

 

[greenleaf]

I have had short periods where I don't seem to adapt to temperatures well; I seem to be feeling shaky at the same time, and I think I feel a bit panicky, it feels like the whole world is too hot or too cold and I can't deal. I have never measured my temp during this.

I have also tried eating more bananas; I read somewhere that potassium gets depleted with some of this stuff? I think? My memory is not happy this week, sorry. Bananas with salty peanut butter -- basic electrolyte stuff? I think it might be helping a bit. Is it ridiculously hot where you are Chava? It has been for me, horrible summer.

There are a ton of studies mentioning ptsd and autonomic issues; most seem to function on the ptsd autonomic issues related to cardiovascular problems (I guess doctors think having a heart stop is, like, bad or something... it certainly is but these other things might be more come-and-go for individuals and hard to study?)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26062635
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2015 Jun 10:ajpregu.00343.2014. doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.00343.2014. [Epub ahead of print]
Autonomic and Inflammatory Consequences of Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the Link to Cardiovascular Disease.
Brudey C1, Park J2, Wiaderkiewicz J3, Kobayashi I4, Mellman TA4, Marvar PJ5.

It sorta makes intuitive sense though, temperature control would likely be "reptile brain" stuff, and maybe it de-prioritizes some of that if it "thinks" that survival is at stake? That "vagal tone" trouble might be connected. If so, maybe the things that help our reptile brain like relaxation breathing in yoga could help...

 

[Chava]

Thanks for the links @greenleaf . I feel like I understand it but it would be impossible for me to explain. Yes, probably the vagal tone stuff. In a more general sense, I do get instantly over-heated when a panic attack hits. But sometimes under stress I also feel sudden cold, especially in the extremities.

I think with this intolerance to external temps that I wrote about here, there was probably some hormone interplay too, but my body cues were generally off or over-reactive....like how chronic pain involves an over-fire of pain messages. My body wasn't registering "heat" as something I could survive. I just went right to dizzy and heat-stroke feelings without simply breaking a sweat. So it feels very good to manage better these days. Still not sure if it's PTSD related, but certainly stress related. For a few years my body could not tolerate much of anything beyond very subtle changes, internal or external. And emotional stress exacerbated all of this (emotional exhaustion and symptoms of bodily exhaustion were always linked).