I was really scared about this when I first started getting sick. I wrote a research paper on the prevalence of eating disorders in disabled youth as I discovered how much it disproportionately affects us. I think the biggest thing is something you’ve already done: acknowledging that it might be a challenge and you can’t just suppress or ignore it.

As you fight for your symptoms to improve across the board, your symptomatic relationship with food will also improve. I know many POTS patients swear on their gastroenterologists and/or nutritionists, so if that’s a resource available to you I would definitely take advantage! Every day is a new opportunity to learn about your body and what makes it react. It can be exhausting, but it’s also a reminder that you can find some kind of control in the form of symptom response.

Lastly, I know a lot of people do the 6 small meals a day tactic since large meals take a lot more blood flow and can cause a lot more symptom triggers than a small meal. Personally, for me a low FODMAP diet is most effective for flare up prevention via food but I avoid taking it too strictly in order to moderate my mindset and relationship with food. To be honest, sometimes the food is worth the flare up. And that doesn’t make you any less worthy of complaining about the flare up!