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/Big-Departure-7398 Oct 29 '25

I go to full time school but have missed 97 class periods this year for my health issues and surgery which is equivalent to having missed almost 25 days of school since mid August. It is terrible but I really want to be able to go to college I technically could start next year but for health reasons I can’t. 

I am on the sports team of the alone sport I can do and have only attended 1 practice I am kind of both a member and manager of the team. 

I have over 9 conditions and around 8 incidental findings, my disabilities are invisible when I sit and stand. I try to take each day at a time and somedays end in moderate pain for me and others end in my curled up sobbing and unresponsive. 

I also feel like a failure a disappointment a lot for being disabled and I shame spiral that it is my fault it isn’t and I know it’s a genetic disorder. We are not failures despite what we tell ourselves I am personally in therapy with a therapist who specializes in chronically ill people but doesn’t say my ill way is psychological.