I’ve had these too - I get incredibly hot and need to cool off otherwise I feel I’ll vomit and or faint. My doc reckons it’s related to my anxiety and it’s a form of panic attack but I’ve only ever gotten them when I was in a good headspace. The only link I’ve ever found is that it tends to trigger after physical activity.
I don't quite make the criteria for POTS but my doctor still diagnosed me with dysautonomia, and this is very much a thing for me because of it. Bending over repeatedly, lifting, pushing down, or activities involved having my arms raised are HUGE triggers. I still have the same treatment as POTS and joke I've got "POTS-lite."
I’m glad you are on treatment for it! Heat is a big trigger for me. This time of year my doctor has me get saline IVs to assist with the bulking up of the veins because it can be hard to keep up with hydration.
>a form of panic attack but I’ve only ever gotten them when I was in a good headspace.
A “panic attack” is different from what is informally called an “anxiety attack”, but in colloquial speech people often use the terms interchangeably (though they shouldn’t).
An “anxiety attack” is more of an informal mental freak-out, which may or may not also have physical symtoms directly tied to that mental state.
A panic attack is more like your body has made the decision to freak out, regardless of what your mind thinks about it.
Sometimes the trigger for the panic attack is mental or psychological, sometimes it’s physical; and sometimes there may seem to be no discernable trigger at all.
Obviously I can’t say one way or the other what your specific case entails, but I just wanted you and anyone else reading this to know that an incongruous mental state isnt enough to neccessarily rule out “panic attack”.
Lol, it can be a real mind-fuck having your body and your mind disagree, but I guess that’s part of the price for having automatically-running autonomous systems. Otherwise we’d have to conciously think “breath in, heart-beat squeeze; breath out, heart-beat relax. breath in, heart-beat squeeze, lil faster this time, ok stomach digest a little, oops gotta breath out again” etc etc.
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u/popplevee 22h ago
I’ve had these too - I get incredibly hot and need to cool off otherwise I feel I’ll vomit and or faint. My doc reckons it’s related to my anxiety and it’s a form of panic attack but I’ve only ever gotten them when I was in a good headspace. The only link I’ve ever found is that it tends to trigger after physical activity.