u/legallypoetic

Has anyone here with POTS ever had post-op POTS flares? I just had my first ever surgery recently to get multiple tooth extractions. I was surprisingly okay after coming out of anesthesia, but I definitely think it messed with my POTS. My tachycardia has been a lot more rampant-I've had my HR spike as high as 152 just from showering, which usually doesn't happen for me, at least not in a long time. I was fairly rehabilitated until I got this surgery. It feels like I'm back to square one. My brain fog and fatigue are awful and my HR spiked to 140 just from getting out of bed :/ I'm debating whether to call my cardiologist or PCP because I have follow ups with them both but I'm not even sure who to see first. Can I just be normal 🫠

Hi all, I am autistic and have trouble explaining things so please bear with me. I don’t know if anyone else with POTS/dysautonomia experiences this, but I (24F) personally have a lot of trouble with riding on highways as a passenger, or any high speed at that. My heart starts racing and I start feeling dizzy/nauseous. These are different from panic attacks-it feels like my body is panicking and can’t pick up with the speed of a vehicle. Highways never used to be such a big problem for me until late 2024, despite having POTS my whole life but I didn’t get officially diagnosed until earlier this year.

When I was still driving, there were times where I’ve driven on highways but would have those same symptoms and feel like I couldn’t catch my breath (similar to air hunger), so then my body would forcefully “jerk” itself to wake me up. I usually only have this issue when I am profoundly exhausted, especially when I first wake up. I’ve had this as a passenger as well on and off as a kid but it was a lot more manageable for some reason. I learned that this may be due to low blood pressure associated with POTS but I’m not sure.

I have a surgery coming up very soon that will involve traveling on a highway to get to the hospital, but I’m not even sure how I’m going to handle the ride, especially since I’ll be a passenger. I haven’t been anywhere that involves long highway rides because of how debilitating this is. I can’t wrap my head around how I had no issue driving on a highway for 1 hour at 90 MPH when I was 17 but now I can barely handle anything over 55-65 MPH at 24 without feeling awful. Any advice or support is much appreciated 🫠

*UPDATE*
Thank you everyone for your feedback! I did bring it up to her, more-so at the last minute because I had other stuff going on that needed to be addressed, but she seemed to be receptive and understands where I’m coming from. I’m hoping it’ll stay that way for future sessions. However, if she does bring it up again, then I’m definitely going to put my foot down. As a woman with CPTSD, I understand how important it is to step away from black-and-white thinking, but in this case, this isn’t about “black and white” or “good or bad” thinking. It’s about statistical reality. It’s a therapist’s job to be conscious of systemic problems, not challenge the client to essentially ignore those problems, because those problems are often what brings a client to therapy in the first place.

_

Recently, my therapist told me that she wants me to challenge the belief that "not all men are bad," and I strongly disagree. Because it's not about all men being "bad." It's not about hating them or being a misandrist. It's about not knowing which men to trust because the "bad" men rape, assault, murder, and traffic women and girls, while the "good" ones refuse to call out the "bad" men and also advocate for legalizing prostitution, which is an entire industry that profits off of the exploitation and degradation of women and girls (I elaborate on this more in r/antisexwork.)

Almost no man is safe. And that's not "misandry." That's reality. It's sad, but it's the world we live in. We live in a world where men see our bodies as usable and profitable to fulfill their disgusting desires through porn, OF, prostitution, and the sex trade. We have wealthy men like Epstein who raped and sexually assaulted young girls and have gotten away with it. We have countless women who have been raped, assaulted, and beaten by men they knew while they are served no justice, because the courts would rather protect the perpetrators and blame a woman for "provoking" a man rather than hold him accountable for being a piece of shit. We live in a world where the "good" men don't do these things, but they just sit on the sidelines while women get exploited by their own kind.

I grew up with so many guys who I thought were my friends until they exposed themselves as misogynistic pieces of shit, including the "good" ones. Some of them even turned out to be rapists and pedophiles themselves. I even had romantic relations with men who I thought were "safe" but turned out to be porn and sex addicts, and even supporters of the sex trade, because in their eyes, sex is a "need." Far too many of them are ignorant and passive when it comes to women's suffering, despite all of the statistics and evidence to back this up.

This is why the statement "not all men, but always men" is an important statement to live by. Because obviously, not all men are like this. But it's increasingly difficult to know which ones to trust because it's ALWAYS men who do these things. Blindly trusting a man is dangerous in this world. A real man also wouldn't get defensive or take it personal when a woman is understandably skeptical and fearful of his intentions, especially if it's a woman he values.

It genuinely amazes me how there's men out there who want prostitution and "sex work" to be legal knowing damn well their kind is the reason why we have these systems in the first place. I say this because not too long ago, I had a close guy friend who blatantly admitted that he thinks that prostitution should be a legal and protected profession, and he even went on to say that he's not against "sex work's" existence because of how sex is a "need" along with food and shelter. I couldn't look at him the same after that; we started arguing after I called him out. Grouping sex with food and shelter tells me that to him, caving to sexual desires is crucial to staying alive, no matter the cost, and that men's "needs" matter more than women's safety and autonomy. This is the same man who was sick to his stomach about the Epstein files, which is ironic considering he has no problem with prostitution's existence. Without men like Epstein, we wouldn't even have prostitution.

This argument happened a couple months ago and I cut ties with him since, but it still really upsets me to my core. I was very close with this guy and we had A LOT of great conversations, but I just can't be around men who show rage towards men like Epstein but turn around and support the sex trade. As an SA survivor and troubled teen industry survivor, I do not feel safe around men like that.

For the record, I don't hate men, but it's so hard to trust them, let alone like them, when the "bad" men rape, assault, and murder women, and the "good" ones don't do those things but stand behind prostitution, which literally involves raping and assaulting women for money. My therapist wants me to challenge the belief that not all men are "bad," but how the fuck am I supposed to do that when even the "good" ones are no different than the "bad?"