Pots Symptoms Worse In Car?

[DriftingDolce]

When I'm in a car (driving or riding), sometimes my POTS symptoms flare up like crazy - my heart starts racing, I get chest pain, nauseous, and dizzy. It always happens on long trips (over an hour) but sometimes even on short trips after only twenty minutes or so in the car. If I pull over and stop the car for a while, things gradually calm down until I resume driving again.

Does this happen to anyone else? Does anyone know why it happens or what I can do about it?

[gjensen]

When I first became sick, bumpy roads sent me on a roller coaster. That has sense settled. For me anything that is stimulating or stressful complicates my POTS. I have not been driving, but I intend to try again. I was getting too dizzy to drive responsibly. The position that it required me to sit in, gives me some trouble.

[Goschi]

Definitely yes - when I was at my worst, even 10 minutes driving (as a passenger!) sent me into a POTS crash...

Before I got POTS, I never realised, how much and suddenly your body needs to adapt to slightly new positions when driving.

[Christy_D]

My son always got sick when he was in the car, short and long trips. He is better now, now it is hit and miss whether or not a car ride will make him sick.

[artluvr09]

When I was younger I used to be able to read in the car all the time. Now I can't do anything in the car except look out the windows. What really makes me dizzy is when im riding in the car and the sun goes in and out of the trees flickering. I have to cover my eyes.

[bellgirl]

I had three incidents with misjudging curbs, scraped the side of my car and ruined the undercarriage of my car, and I didn't want to have a major accident, so I stopped driving, prayed for a solution and finally found an ENT in Birmingham, who without me knowing, had done a thesis on Autonomic Vertigo, and referred me to the Mitral Valve Propapse/Autonomic Dysfunction Center of Alabama, and the rest was history. I have zofran for long car, plane or boat trips, but I'm much better on my medications for POTS.

[Katybug]

Between pots and migraines, the car is not a nice place to be for me either. The adrenaline that is released becomes ridiculous and any form of flickering light while moving is completely disorienting due to my migraines. I fare better when I'm driving because that reduces the motion sickness but I can't drive for any trips more than 1/2 hour because I become too ill.

[xRobin]

When my POTS was very bad I had chest pain in the car, even when lying down in the back seat. I wondered if the air pressure is different in the car vs. not in the car, and my ANS couldn't compensate? I don't know.

I too can't handle a lot of sensory stimulation, I find it very very tiring.

[bellgirl]

I still can't drive long distances either because of sensory stimulation more than motion sickness. It does wear your autonomic nervous system out! I limit myself to a half hour at the most, but the most of the time drive only 5 to 15 minutes away from my home. If I'm being driven I can be in the car or plane for longer distances, because I don't have to focus on the road and all the stimulation of lights, people, stores zipping by, children on bikes, animals and whatever else is in my peripheral vision, but that is with the zofran for motion sickness. I actually tried once without the medication, and I suffered the consequences. I am actually better in a plane than a car, and a boat can make me very ill, but that is true for many without dysautonomia, too! It is much better when your illness is controlled with medication, but it's no cure either.

[Goschi]

It was very interesting to read that for many of us the overstimulation from lights etc. seem to play a bigger role in driving/riding-intolerance than the "motion sickness".

For me, it was always quite the contrary - when I succeeded in getting focused on the many visual and audio-impressions while driving (riding) it was much, much easier to get distracted from the motion sickness.

In general, I never became "overstimulated" when being in large crowds, malls with lots of lights and noise and the like. Such surroundings always rather "calmed" me down... Instead, I could almost go crazy when being alone in my apartment (laying in my bed) with NO Stimulation from outside.

Again so astonishing, how different we all are...

[Dyspatient]

Driving is tough for me now too, riding isn't great but at least I don't have to worry that feeling poorly as a passenger is going to get someone hurt or killed.

I have migraines too - as a passenger, if light is pouring in right into my eye - or worse - strobing in, I can put on my ridiculously oversized visor that I keep in the car for just this reason, pull it way down over my already very dark very large sunglasses, and block out as much of the window as possible with the visor. I can take the time to fiddle with the in car mechanisms too. I can do some of this as the driver, but reaching up for this thing and down for that while I'm driving accelerates the feeling bad. It's likely to end with me feeling extra awful and "adrenaliney" (pounding/rapid heart rate and whatever feels like going with it that day), which wears off to nauseous and shaky, so it's often a toss up whether it's worth it to try to take steps to address things like light while driving, or to just put up with it.

I have noticed that whether I am a passenger or a driver in a car, some cars have a seating set up that seems to make my POTS worse in a passive, sneaky way. It's not easy for me to identify, the dysautonomia symptoms are so like the boiling frog story, you know? They often come on gradually enough that I don't always realize what's up until I'm on full boil, so to speak. I've passed out as a passenger in my husband's car before realizing I had to take countermeasures. While my BP sitting can be just terrible on a bad day, usually if I'm sitting and have been sitting stably for a while, I'm not at risk for passing out. But that's sitting on a device made for me shaped people. The seats in my husband's car? Not so much. My husband's car has "sport" seats. I hate them. The seat pan is long and deep, and the back of the seat curves way in where it meets the seat pan, so these seats are essentially built for a sway backed giant man (man because the depth of the seat makes for an unpleasant bolstering/bounding of lady-shaped hips if you're a normal size 6 or up).

I also have a connective tissue disease, and these seats really strain my lower back, sacral area, pelvis, and hips - this was relatively easy to determine when I'd go to stand up and everything was out of whack, or we'd go over a pothole and I'd have to spend a day on the couch with hot and cold packs and braces just to get my pelvic ligaments and tendons to calm down. Having had that one syncopal episode in my husband's car as a passenger, and having gotten out like a drunken sailor after longer car rides, I am pretty sure these seats also contribute to a lot of blood pooling too. My own little mid-2000s civic with it's totally flat, not terribly "long" seats is much easier on me. Two things I do now to help with the large man-sized "sport seat" effects on me:

- I wear a hip brace when I'm in the car for long periods now.

- I use pillows, one in the seat pan and one behind my back. This makes for a less long, less deep seat which fits my smaller, female body better....and I think it helps the pooling issue.

Next step is to try compression hose, which I will save for road trips because in general I do not tolerate the hose.

[Katybug]

I have a special cushion, a cervical rest, and a lumbar support. I hate the seats in my mom's car but my stepfather ' s is ok. I even have a harder time at dinner at my mom's kitchen table as opposed to her dining room or my dining room table. Weird but true.

[N-irish]

Does anyone have issue with just driving on the freeway vs regular streets? if i’m driving at lower speeds and shorter distance I seem to be fine. If im on the freeway it seems overstimulation that triggers everything. 

[MTRJ75]

Makes a lot of sense. I had one of my first attacks on the Garden State Parkway. Being on highway like that, not close to home, especially if nobody else is in the car does trigger me now, but I expect a good chunk of that is mental. The brain now recognizes this situation as dangerous. And anything stressful or dangerous is going to make our symptoms worse. 

[MikeO]

I do get stressed out driving in Madison WI. I do live in rural WI and waiting for a flock of turkeys to cross the road does the same.

[Pistol]

@N-irish I do not drive but even as passenger I get very stressed out from highway driving. Even driving in my rural home state is too much! I contribute this to the overstimulation, which causes an adrenaline rush for me, which in turn is a trigger for my symptoms

[Circa1990]

I live in Los Angeles. That’s it. That’s the whole post because driving here is a nightmare and mentally exhausting! Lol
I get a panic attack before I know I have to start driving which inturn flares every possible symptom. What I have to do is have a crunchy salty snack with me. It helps relieve the intense globus sensation and nausea I have. Tremors are often unavoidable but, compression socks help tremendously! 

[Water Lover]

I have issues with long car trips, and I think it’s about posture. My symptoms are triggered by sitting up as well as standing; I don’t have issues walking long distances, but will start feeling bad after a few minutes sitting upright in a straight-backed chair. Over the years I habitually adopted lots of ways to compensate: sitting with my legs tucked under me or stretched out, sitting sideways in a chair, slouching back, fidgeting/shifting a lot. There’s something about car seats that is uniquely immobilizing and forces you upright, and I think that is a lot of what makes long car rides tough. (Worse when driving, because then you’re even more limited.)