Im new here but it took me over 22 years to get diagnosed. It started my sophomore year in high school 1988. To be totally honest I was craning my head out my bedroom window trying to smoke pot (how ironic) it was real hard to do and all of a sudden I got tachycardia, I had to wake my parents and go to the ER with a heart rate of 220 lol. I had only did drugs once before and the doctors said I must be allergic, I never did them again. Whenever I would have a flare, I would always blame the pot on my problem, back then I though maybe it had changed my bodies chemicals or something. It took me years to piece together the whole neck tweaking thing. Then after that whenever I would tweak my neck (car accidents/turning wrong/opening my mouth too far etc.) It would be extremely noticeable for a few months or so and then I wouldn't feel it anymore, everyone including doctors would tell me it was anxiety. The only time I had problems with a racing heart etc was trying to run, after about a 1/2 mile my heart would just be going crazy. In 2000 it started again after leaning my head backwards and cracking my neck. I was diagnosed that time with PTSD from being in the military(even though I had only worked in an office, the doctors didn't believe me though.) This lasted until 2003 and I found out about POTS from google and stopped worrying about it. In November of last year I was passing a kidney stone and got worried I was having an intestinal blockage and pushed real hard about 50 times going to the bathroom, two nights later my POTS made a huge reappearance. This is the worst its ever been, but every time its been noticeable seems like the end of the world. I finally went to the ER a few weeks later, then a cardioligist who had to call 3 other cardios to diagnose me. Its always been there, but not in a front and center fashion as during the flares I've had.