Episode 2 — How the Autonomic Nervous System Drives Pain and Dizziness

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Episode 2 — How the Autonomic Nervous System Drives Pain and Dizziness

In this episode of What’s in Your Head?, Dr. Pete Schultz explains how the autonomic nervous system plays a powerful — and often overlooked — role in persistent pain, dizziness, headaches, and other unexplained symptoms.

The autonomic nervous system controls things like heart rate, breathing, blood flow, digestion, muscle tension, and sensory processing. Its job is to keep you safe. But when it begins to interpret normal life, stress, or past injury as danger, it can shift the body into a protective state that produces very real symptoms — even when no tissue damage is present.

Using clear, relatable examples and the latest neuroscience, Pete walks you through how this protective response can amplify pain signals, create dizziness and lightheadedness, tighten muscles, disrupt breathing, and heighten sensitivity throughout the body. You’ll learn why so many people feel stuck, fragile, or “on edge” — and why those sensations are not a sign that something is broken.

Most importantly, this episode introduces a simple, evidence-based way to start sending safety signals back to your nervous system so it can begin to calm down and allow symptoms to ease.

Using extended exhale breathing and physiologic sigh Pete shows how to start regulating the Autonomic Nervous System.

If you’ve been searching for answers to ongoing pain or dizziness that don’t show up on scans or tests, this episode will help you finally understand what your body is doing — and how to work with it instead of fighting it.