POTS, Dysautonomia & Your Nervous System: What’s Really Going On — And How We Can Help

If you’ve been experiencing dizziness when you stand, a racing heart, breathlessness, brain fog, or overwhelming fatigue…
you’re not “just stressed,” “unfit,” or “imagining it.”

For many women, these symptoms point to something deeper happening within the nervous system: dysautonomia, often taking the form of POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).

And while it can feel confusing, frustrating, or even scary, you’re not alone — and there are ways to support your system to stabilise, regulate, and recover.

What is POTS?

POTS is a form of dysautonomia — meaning the autonomic nervous system (ANS) isn’t regulating as smoothly as it should.

Your ANS controls functions that should happen automatically:

• Heart rate

• Blood pressure

• Digestion

• Temperature regulation

• Breathing patterns

• Energy output

With POTS, the body struggles to maintain stable circulation when you move from sitting to standing.
This leads to:

• A significant jump in heart rate

• Light-headedness or dizziness

• Fatigue or weakness

• Chest tightness or breathlessness

• Difficulty concentrating

• Feelings of overwhelm or anxiety (because your system is working overtime)

It’s not “in your head.”
It’s not a personality flaw.
It’s your nervous system signalling that it needs support.

How Dysautonomia Develops

Dysautonomia can appear after:

• Long-term stress or burnout

• Trauma or chronic overwhelm

• Illness, viral load, or immune stress

• Hormonal shifts

• Pregnancy or childbirth

• Chronic pain

• Periods of physical or emotional overload

Think of the nervous system like a highly intelligent command centre.

When it feels unsafe for long enough, it shifts into patterns of protection — tightening, bracing, speeding up, shutting down, or misfiring signals that should be automatic and effortless.

Over time, these protective patterns can affect heart rate, breathing, circulation, digestion, and energy ,which is exactly what we see in POTS.

Why So Many Women Experience this

Women, especially those who are high-functioning, caring for everyone else, or constantly “holding it all together,” often carry more chronic nervous system load than they realise.

Your system may have been operating beyond capacity for months or years… until one day it simply couldn’t buffer the load anymore.

POTS and dysautonomia often show up as:
“Your body can’t keep absorbing stress — it needs a new way forward.”

How Chiropractic + Nervous System Work Can Help

While POTS is multi-layered and often requires a holistic approach, supporting the nervous system is a crucial (and often overlooked) part of recovery.

In practice, we focus on:

1. Gentle chiropractic + energetics

These sessions help unwind the protective patterns held in the spine and autonomic nervous system so the body can:

• regulate heart rate more efficiently

• reduce sympathetic overdrive (“fight or flight stuck on”)

• improve vagal tone

• soften muscle guarding

• stabilise energy output

• shift into more sustainable states of rest and recovery

Nothing forceful.
Nothing overwhelming.
Just meeting your body where it’s at.

2. Breathwork support

Dysregulated breathing is common in POTS: shallow, fast, or held breath patterns.
We work with:

• expanding diaphragmatic breath

• re-patterning breath mechanics

• helping the body associate deeper breathing with safety

3. Helping your system find “safe” again

Many women with POTS are living in a constant baseline of vigilance.
Through nervous system work, we help your body:

• release stored tension

• process the backlog of stress

• move out of survival mode

• rebuild capacity

• experience rest without crashing

4. Lifestyle, pacing & regulation strategies

In your sessions, we’ll go through practical, nervous-system-friendly ways to stabilise your daily energy:

• pacing

• micro-regulation tools

• posture & movement strategies

• simple grounding practices you can use anywhere

These are tailored specifically to your system.

You Don’t Have to Navigate This Alone

If you’re experiencing POTS symptoms or you suspect dysautonomia may be part of what you’re feeling — support is available.

Your body isn’t broken.
It’s overwhelmed.
And with the right approach, it can find more steadiness, safety, and ease.

How to work with me

📍 Charlestown Chiropractic, Newcastle NSW
I currently support women locally through:

• Nervous system–focused chiropractic care

• Workshops and retreat-style immersions for deeper healing

👉 Book an initial 1:1 consult to begin understanding your system and building a plan that supports your body’s recovery.
👉 Or join the waitlist for upcoming nervous system workshops and retreats.

Your nervous system is always trying to move you toward balance, sometimes it just needs someone to meet it there.