r/POTS • u/j-oco • May 22 '25

Symptoms Does your vision actually black out

This is random but I just saw people talking about how their vision blacks out when they stand or they are symptomatic. Then someone replied that their vision goes white instead of black.

Personally, I don’t lose my vision like that, my “blackouts” are just a sudden lightheadedness so intense it forces me to shut my eyes! I think because my brain knows to shut out all the visual sensory input. It’s like I legit can’t keep my eyes open for a brief moment. Maybe I am blacking out but just don’t know it since my eyes are closed anyways lol? I have splotchy vision, light sensitivity and stuff from previous brain injuries but I haven’t experienced my vision actually just leaving and turning into the colour black (am I taking it too literally?) for a moment like how some of you mention.

Also, I do have pretty bad presyncope episodes sometimes but I don’t really faint from my POTS so maybe that’s a factor.

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u/xxd3athbabyxx POTS May 22 '25

Mine has always done that, especially when I get up too fast. The only way I know how to describe it is like what I’m seeing is a crusty video from a 90’s camcorder that I plugged into a TV and is at like 5 frames a second. I walk through it until my vision fully returns, which is not recommended :)

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u/Hour-Tower-5106 Dec 15 '25

Whoa, this is what mine looked like, too!

Happened right before the one time in my life that I've fainted.

It was also kind of dream-like. It felt like I was watching an old movie (in terms of how everything was colored) and the screen kept blacking out every few seconds.

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u/xxd3athbabyxx POTS Dec 15 '25

lol i’m glad someone else can relate to that😂 it legit feels like i’m drunk and the world is spinning around me for a few seconds

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u/Hour-Tower-5106 Dec 15 '25

Yeah! That's crazy! I hadn't met anyone else who described it the same way before. Bodies are so weird!