What happens when your body stops letting you participate in the world? When sound becomes pain, light is unbearable, and stress tips you into collapse?
In this deeply human episode of Suddenly Different, Leigh-Anne speaks with first-time podcast guest Jo Morton from The Good Energy Room—an embodied advocate whose life was hijacked by dysautonomia (including POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), chronic fatigue and widespread hypersensitivity.
Jo takes us inside the six-year slide into shutdown, the loneliness of being disbelieved, and the microscopic work of finding safety again—word by word, breath by breath. We unpack practical shifts that mattered (changing “How are you?” to “Nice to see you”), the role of nervous-system retraining, IV support, and why she followed an energy-based protocol that coincided with her cognition switching back on. There’s no silver bullet here—just observable change, heart-rate variability insights, and a family re-knitting itself around possibility.
Highlights:
Dysautonomia, MCAS & POTS—how they can present and why they’re often missed
Hypersensitivity & language: the nervous system “hears” your words
Micro-wins: wrapping a child’s birthday present; the first stand-up hug; returning the wheelchair
Choosing “yes” signals: food, movement, media, conversations
Data, dignity & hope: tracking change and building capacity
If you’ve felt invisible in your illness, may Jo’s story give you the slow, steady kind of hope that rebuilds from the inside out.
Links:
The Good Energy Room
https://goodenergyroom.com.au
Dysautonomia resources
https://potsfoundation.org.au
https://dysautonomiainternational.org