I Feel Just As Lightheaded Sitting As I Do Standing.

[DSM3KIDZ]

Does anyone know why I feel lightheaded when I'm sitting or standing. I feel just as sick in both positions except when sitting it's without the heart rate increase. I feel like something more is going on but don't even know where to begin looking for answers. I'm finally tolerating an SSRI so maybe that will help with some of these crazy symptoms. I've only been on it about a week so I know I'll have to wait awhile to see any positives.

Dayna

[futurehope]

I can be really miserable sitting. As far as I'm concerned, anything vertical is rough. I recline a lot unless I'm in motion, in which case I can last a bit longer.

Feeling miserable for me is not really feeling lightheaded, it's just feeling real sick like there's not enough oxygen going to my brain, if that makes any sense. Like a hypoxia headache, sort of. Once after sitting in my neuro's office, he took my blood pressure and he could see the upper and lower numbers closer together than they should be. (They should be about 40 points different.) This meant my "pulse pressure" was low. Have you taken your blood pressure while you are sitting and feeling poorly?

Anyway, I hope you feel better soon. Is this symptom new for you?

[nikigrl8883]

i feel the same almost all the time i feel light headed while sitting or laying too but with the high heart rate until i stand i dont know why i have pots so i cant help ya out yet....im just as lost as you

[DSM3KIDZ]

futurehope - this symptom is not new it just used to come here and there but now it seems so constant. I am improving in the gastroparesis area but feel a major decline in the POTS. It's always one or the other.

dayna

[kmpower]

Me, too.

I am more likely to get suddenly lightheaded while sitting rather than standing. I think part of it is because if I am standing I am usually moving. I think that being very still -- eg., reading, doing paperwork -- will reduce blood flow to my head.

Or maybe if my head is forward, the sinus/inner ear pressure changes.

Or it can be coming from my neck somehow. Being old and from Los Angeles, I have had my share of fender benders and other traumas.

No fun.

OLL

[Sunfish]

i can't sit long at all. it's better than standing for me (wherein i last less than a few minutes on a "good" day) but sitting - especially if i can't have me feet up is very limited too. it's one of my most disabling issues.

i hope it goes back to being a periodic thing for you (or even better...disappears altogether) and isn't here to stay....

melissa

[calypso]

Dayna,

I have found that in the last year, my sitting heart rate is almost as high as my standing one. But if I lie flat or squat down, it goes down to a normal range. It's almost as if I am getting worse with being upright in any form. I don't really feel any worse; it's just annoying that my heart rate isn't slowing like it used to when I sit.

Amy

[wareagle]

I may be missing something with this post....but isn't the cause of the lightheadedness and overall yucky feeling when upright due to blood pooling into the abdomen and lower part of the body resulting in less blood flow to the brain? It would make since that the tacky is less when sitting because the blood is pooling mostly in the ab. vs. all the way down to your feet and therefore doesn't require a significant increase in hr to circulate it back to your brain.

Since having POTS sitting is not much easier for me than standing and I was always under the impression that it was b/c of the pooling issues. I also feel ill when laying down...my doc. says this is the sympathetic involvement kicking in...(ie. even though the tacky. is gone my sympathetic NS is still over exerting itself in response to me moving about earlier in the day).

Like I said...I may have read this post wrong...if so, someone please correct me!!

[Jacquie802]

Hey,

This is also one of my more severe symptoms..