r/POTS•
PleasantForce4566

Nervous system stalling?

Symptoms

So this is a newer one for me and I'm curious to know if anyone else experiences this;

I have been struggling with my heart for the better part of the past decade. I was originally diagnosed with afib back in 2020 after 6 years of fighting cardiologists to actually check. I ended up having an ablation in 2021 and I thought at that point - surely my struggles would end. I was of course, wrong.

I'm 31 now, and my symptoms every year seem to only get worse. At this point I am working on trying to get disability - but not the point of this post.

I was diagnosed officially with POTS at the end of 2023 after a pretty traumatic fainting session on the tilt table. Everything up until this point seems to be (relatively?) normal POTS things from what I am reading, but I've yet to read about this specific symptom.

The last few months I have been having these brief moments where I will just be going about my day to day and suddenly it feels like my nervous system just COMPLETELY shuts down for a second. I could be sitting, laying down, standing, it doesn't matter. I have these moments where I am genuinely afraid I might die and symptoms are as follows;

-my mind goes blank and I can /see/ and understand things, but my vision gets relatively blurry, but I'm not fainting

-it feels like for a VERY short moment my heart completely stops and I get this cold chill throughout my body. This usually lasts for a few seconds and then it starts to "flutter" back to normal very rapidly

-my brain forgets how to breathe entirely. I suddenly feel like I am about to suffocate and I gasp for air like a fish and a deep panic sets in

-I get incredibly tired immediately after like it was a shock to my system and I just need to lay down and recover

-I get pretty bad tremors for about 20 minutes after

Before anyone asks - yes I do have diagnosed anxiety and panic disorder. I am very aware of the symptoms associated and it sounds very similar, but this is different. When this happens it is entirely random, I am not panicking, and it only lasts a few seconds. I feel stressed afterwards, but mostly exhausted. My partner also says I have been waking up from sleep like this a couple times at night as well, though I was just tested for sleep apnea and that came back clear too.

I have had recent EKGs and chest xrays within the last few months and everything was clear. I'm just not sure what to do at this point or how else to describe it other than "it's like a switch in my brain flipped off".

Posted Aug 21, 2026, 2:30 AM UTC

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