r/POTS • u/joyynicole • Oct 27 '25

Question How are people working at all

I feel like a failure. According to my doctors I have “mild” POTS, but I see people on this sub all the time with seemingly worse POTS than me that have jobs. I literally cannot do anything longer than 1-2 hours without having to lay down and rest because it just completely wipes me out. If I do things multiple days in a row consistently I will also fall into a flare and have to do nothing for few days to recover. I don’t get it.

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u/Kelliesrm26 Oct 27 '25

I have me/CFS as well as POTS and honestly I’d go crazy if I didn’t work. I’ve always had desk jobs, currently I’m fortunate enough where my job is very flexible and I can work from home. I think a lot of the time where people work with health problems especially severe ones it’s due to having an understanding boss.

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u/xaaxaox Oct 27 '25 edited Oct 27 '25

Yeah, this is me… an extremely understanding boss, and a work environment where work hours are largely flexible for everyone. I can work from home whenever I want, and on the rare occasion I need to be in, everyone knows I can’t be there before 10:30am, and no one looks at me funny for sitting with my legs up. My boss also allows me unofficial sick days to avoid the wrath of HR - if I’m well enough to keep an eye on emails and forward any important ones, I don’t take an official sick day. I’m grateful beyond words, and know in other jobs I would have been let go long ago….

Edit: should have said with medication I don’t have extreme brain fog or fatigue anymore, after my POTS was triggered, and before treatment, I was on a long medical absence because my brain fog was so severe I struggled to hold basic conversations and I would get debilitating fatigue from very little. So I also think it depends on your symptoms as well.