POTS Is Not “Just a Fast Heart Rate”
POTS Is Not “Just a Fast Heart Rate”
My heart rate was 88 bpm.
I stood up.
It went to 134 bpm within four minutes.
That’s a rise of 46 beats per minute just from changing position.
For adults, one of the diagnostic features of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a sustained increase in heart rate of 30 bpm or more within 10 minutes of standing, alongside symptoms of orthostatic intolerance and without the significant blood pressure drop that would point more towards orthostatic hypotension.
So while one smartwatch reading alone does not diagnose POTS, a jump like 88 → 134 bpm shows exactly why simply standing can be difficult.
Thankfully, I have been diagnosed and have managed my POTS for years now.
And this is something people often misunderstand.
Someone with POTS can sometimes manage sitting, moving around or even walking better than standing still. That doesn’t mean the condition is mild. It means the body is having to work differently to keep blood circulating properly while upright.
People don't understand why I struggle standing, and it's not always because of my mobility struggles, because I struggled even as a teenager, which makes sense considering my later diagnosis.
POTS can cause dizziness, palpitations, weakness, shaking, nausea, brain fog, fatigue and near-fainting or fainting. I often don't know if it's pain causing shaking or if it's POTS or something else.
That’s why looking at somebody and thinking, “Well, they look fine,” tells you absolutely nothing about what their body is doing internally.
The image is one of my own watch screenshots showing my heart rate at 133 bpm.
People with chronic illnesses often become incredibly good at making difficult things look ordinary because we have had to adapt to doing them every single day.
That does not make them easy.
And it certainly does not mean the condition should be downplayed.
POTS can be debilitating, and people living with it deserve to be taken seriously — especially when disability and chronic illness are being discussed by people with influence, power or responsibility for policy.
Stop judging the effort by how effortless somebody has learned to make it look.
Thank you kindly, and thank you for reading about one of my conditions, I believe understanding is the key to positive change.
Sarah Wingfield ❤️
KawaiiDollDecora.uk
#POTS #POTSAwareness #Dysautonomia #DysautonomiaAwareness #InvisibleDisability #ChronicIllness #DisabilityAwareness #OrthostaticIntolerance #AutonomicDysfunction
Alt text: Circular smartwatch face with a pale pink floral background. The time reads 22:09 and the date shows MON 14. A heart icon near the lower left shows a heart rate of 133 bpm. Other watch data includes 1,168 steps and a battery level of 11%. The screenshot is being used alongside a POTS awareness post to show a high heart-rate reading while upright.
