"Your POTS is psychological."
If you've heard this, you are not alone. And you deserve better than that dismissal.
On Bendy Bodies, I sat down with Dr. Dacre Knight of UVA Health to unpack a study showing heart rate increases BEFORE tilt table testing in some POTS patients.
Some clinicians looked at that and said: proof it's in your head.
Here's what that interpretation misses entirely.
The nervous system learns. If standing has triggered a crisis in your body hundreds of times, your system starts anticipating it. Heart rate can rise in preparation. This is called a conditioned response, and it happens in fully physiological conditions.
Think about insomnia. Your body begins to associate the bed with wakefulness. That does not make the sleeplessness fake. It makes the nervous system adaptive. Sometimes too adaptive.
Anticipatory heart rate changes do not erase the underlying dysfunction. They reflect it.
Real. Physiological. Complex.
Your symptoms are not a personality trait. They are not anxiety wearing a costume. And one study finding does not undo decades of research documenting objective autonomic dysfunction in POTS.
You deserve a provider who understands the difference.
💬 Have you ever had a real symptom explained away as psychological? Tell me below.
#BendyBodies #POTS #Dysautonomia #MedicalEducation #POTSAwareness
📌 This content is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider for personalized care.
VD: Video clip of Dr. Linda Bluestein discussing POTS, tilt table testing, and how heart rate responses can be influenced by more than one factor.
