06/20/2025
🧠 The Mind-Body Link: Codependency + POTS
✨ POTS in Simple Terms:
POTS is a form of dysautonomia, where your autonomic nervous system has trouble regulating things like heart rate, blood pressure, and blood flow—especially when standing or upright.
✨ High-Functioning Codependency Involves:
* Chronic hypervigilance (scanning for others' needs)
* Constant emotional output with limited rest/recharge
* Suppressed emotions, often leading to internalized stress
* Deep-seated nervous system dysregulation
Now imagine layering that level of nervous system pressure over a body already struggling to regulate its internal systems. It’s like driving a car with faulty brakes while flooring the gas.
🔄 Common Ways Codependency Worsens POTS Symptoms:
1. Overextending Yourself
* Saying yes when your body is screaming no
* Prioritizing others even when you're dizzy, weak, or fatigued
🌀 Impact: Depletes your energy reserves and flares symptoms like tachycardia, lightheadedness, and brain fog
2. Suppressing Your Needs
* Not resting because you feel guilty
* Ignoring internal warning signs to avoid “letting someone down”
🌀 Impact: Leads to crash cycles, deeper fatigue, and emotional burnout (which POTS magnifies)
3. Living in a High-Stress State
* Constant underlying anxiety (“What if they’re upset with me?”)
* Fixing, rescuing, micromanaging, performing
🌀 Impact: Keeps your sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight) activated → which is exactly what POTS is already struggling with
4. Neglecting Embodiment
* Being outward-focused all the time can keep you disconnected from your body’s real-time signals
* You may not realize you need water, salt, shade, rest—until it’s too late
🌀 Impact: Missed regulation opportunities → more flare-ups, dissociation, or faintness
🧘♀️ How Healing Codependency Can Help Ease POTS
* Nervous system regulation becomes more sustainable (you’re not in constant stress mode)
* Boundaries protect your energy → fewer crashes, more consistency
* Rest is no longer something you earn → it becomes a tool for managing symptoms
* You learn to trust your body’s needs, even if others don’t understand them
🕊️ Energetic Support Ideas
* Vagal toning with breath, gentle sound (like humming or singing bowls), or cold water
* Solar plexus support (self-worth, power center) with Reiki or oils like ginger, black pepper, or lemon
* Crown and heart chakra clearing when you’ve taken on too much from others