Born from Experience.
Built from Necessity.
Practical tools for navigating POTS — from understanding your diagnosis to advocating for yourself in the healthcare system.
Created by Devin Peters, BCPA — a Board Certified Patient Advocate living with POTS.
If you've been dismissed, told it's anxiety, or spent years searching for answers — you're not alone.
POTS is one of the most misunderstood conditions in the healthcare system. Getting diagnosed can take years. Getting taken seriously can take even longer. This site exists because that experience is real, and you deserve better tools for navigating it.
Start here — it’s free
When you’re newly diagnosed — or still trying to get diagnosed — it’s easy to spend hours searching and still feel like you’re missing the full picture. The POTS Starter Guide pulls together what POTS is, what causes it, how it’s diagnosed, and where to find help. Every claim is cited. Every source is linked. Nothing is behind a paywall.
Inside this free resource:
Plain-language explanation of what POTS is and how it affects the body
Overview of common comorbidities and overlapping conditions
How POTS is diagnosed — and why it often takes so long
Where to find reputable information, support communities, and specialist resources
Sourced and cited throughout
If you’re looking for a place to start, this is it.
Free download. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA — Board Certified Patient Advocate living with POTS. This resource provides educational information only. It does not constitute medical advice or replace the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider.
If you're still trying to understand what POTS is, what's happening in your body, and what comes next — this is where to begin. Researched, cited, and written in plain language. You shouldn't need a medical background just to understand what's going on in your own body.
What POTS actually is
Common symptoms and triggers
How diagnosis typically works
What management can look like
Where to go from here
The POTS Starter Guide
More Free Resources
Something feels wrong, but you don’t have the words for it yet — and you’re not sure a doctor will take you seriously without them. This checklist helps you organize what’s happening before your next appointment so you can walk in prepared.
Inside this free resource:
Symptom tracking checklist covering the most common POTS presentations
Step-by-step instructions for the home orthostatic test (a simple DIY tilt assessment you can do before seeing a specialist)
Prepared questions to bring to your doctor
This is a starting point, not a diagnosis. Use it to get organized and get the conversation started.
Free download. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA — Board Certified Patient Advocate living with POTS. This resource provides educational information only. It does not constitute medical advice or replace the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider.
You have a diagnosis. What you might not have is a clear way to describe how POTS is actually affecting your daily life — to your doctors, your care team, or yourself. This scored self-assessment gives you a framework for understanding your current severity level and figuring out what to focus on next.
Inside this free resource:
Scored self-assessment across key functional areas
Severity level breakdown with plain-language explanations
Next-step guidance based on your results
This isn’t a clinical tool. It’s a way to put language around what you’re experiencing so you can communicate it more clearly.
Free download. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA — Board Certified Patient Advocate living with POTS. This resource provides educational information only. It does not constitute medical advice or replace the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider.
You know flares happen. What’s harder is explaining the pattern — what triggered it, how long it lasted, what helped. This Google Sheets tracker makes it easy to log symptoms over time so you can actually show a provider what’s been going on, not just try to remember it in the exam room.
Inside this free resource:
Google Sheets tracker (you make your own copy — no account needed)
Daily symptom and severity logging
Fields for tracking potential triggers, interventions, and notes
Designed to be used consistently, not just during bad stretches
This is the same quality and format as our paid spreadsheet tools. Because free things should actually be useful.
Free download. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA — Board Certified Patient Advocate living with POTS. This resource provides educational information only. It does not constitute medical advice or replace the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider.
Featured Guides
You've done the research. You know your body. And you've still walked out of appointments feeling unheard, dismissed, or talked over. This guide was built for exactly that — the gap between knowing something is wrong and getting a provider to take it seriously.
Inside this guide:
BCPA-informed communication scripts for medical appointments
Power phrases that reframe conversations without escalating them
An appointment preparation framework so you know what to say before you're in the room
Documentation strategies for presenting symptoms in a way providers respond to
Scripts for specific situations: being dismissed, being told it's anxiety, requesting a referral, pushing back without burning the relationship
Honest guidance for what to do when advocacy still doesn't work
Advocacy Dismissal Log (Google Sheet) — a structured tool for tracking dismissals, patterns, and outcomes over time
This guide doesn't promise that every appointment will go well. It gives you a better framework for the ones that don't.
Instant download — PDF guide + Google Sheets link. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA — Board Certified Patient Advocate living with POTS. This product provides communication tools and frameworks. It does not constitute medical advice or guarantee specific outcomes.
Understanding POTS is one thing. Knowing how to navigate the healthcare system once you have that diagnosis is another. This guide gives you the practical tools to walk into appointments prepared, communicate clearly, and advocate for the care you deserve.
Communication strategies that actually work in medical settings
Appointment preparation frameworks
Scripts and language for common difficult conversations
Worksheets built for real-world use
The POTS
Self-Advocacy Guide
Explaining POTS to people outside the medical system — family, friends, coworkers, anyone who asks — is its own kind of exhausting. Too much and you’re overwhelmed. Too little and they don’t get it. This guide helps you find the words for the conversations that keep coming up, so you’re not starting from scratch every time.
Inside this guide:
Scripts for explaining POTS to family members, close friends, and new people in your life
Short explanations for different contexts — when you have five minutes and when you have thirty seconds
Language for medical appointments when you need to explain how POTS affects you personally
How to handle common responses: skepticism, over-concern, minimizing, unsolicited advice
Scripts for when you don’t want to explain at all — and that’s okay too
Guidance for disclosing to employers and in social situations
You don’t owe anyone a full explanation. But having the words ready makes it easier to decide when you want to give one.
Instant download — PDF guide. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA — Board Certified Patient Advocate living with POTS. This product provides communication tools and frameworks. It does not constitute medical advice or guarantee specific outcomes.
Talking About POTS
Getting your diagnosis is one thing. Explaining it to everyone in your life is another. This guide gives you the words for the conversations that keep coming up — so you're not starting from scratch every time someone asks how you're doing.
Scripts for family, friends, and new people in your life
Short explanations for every context — 30 seconds or 30 minutes
How to handle skepticism, over-concern, and unsolicited advice
Language for when you don't want to explain at all
A Personal Communication Guide
Featured Bundles
The Self-Advocacy Guide and the Appointment Toolkit cover both sides of the same challenge: knowing what to say, and being prepared to say it. The Guide gives you the communication frameworks and scripts. The Toolkit gives you the structure to get ready before you walk in the door.
Both Google Sheet tools — the Advocacy Dismissal Log and the Appointment Tracker — are included.
Instant download — PDF guides + Google Sheets links. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA. These products provide communication tools and frameworks. They do not constitute medical advice or guarantee specific outcomes.
Talking About POTS and The Support Person Guide cover both sides of the same conversation — you finding the words for your experience, and the people around you understanding what those words mean. They work independently, but they work better together.
Consider sharing The Support Person Guide directly with a partner, family member, or friend. It’s written for them.
Instant download — PDF guides. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA. These products provide communication tools and frameworks. They do not constitute medical advice or guarantee specific outcomes.
Every tool currently available from The POTS Library — medical advocacy, appointment preparation, personal communication, and support person guidance — in one collection.
Includes:
The POTS Self-Advocacy Guide
The Appointment Toolkit
Talking About POTS
The Support Person Guide
Advocacy Dismissal Log (Google Sheet)
Appointment Toolkit Tracker (Google Sheet)
At $59.99, this collection costs less than a single specialist co-pay and covers every communication challenge that tends to come up in the first year of navigating POTS.
Instant download — PDF guides + Google Sheets links. Created by Devin Peters, BCPA. These products provide communication tools and frameworks. They do not constitute medical advice or guarantee specific outcomes.
Built by someone who had to figure this out the hard way.
I developed POTS at 40 — after COVID, with no warning and no roadmap. I saw 11 doctors before anyone gave it a name. What came after the diagnosis wasn't much easier — navigating a healthcare system that didn't always have answers, and learning to advocate for myself in rooms where I wasn't always taken seriously.
I'm Devin Peters, BCPA. The POTS Library exists because I needed it and it didn't exist. Everything here is educational, evidence-informed, and built from real experience — not theory.
If you're somewhere in the middle of this — still searching, newly diagnosed, or just trying to figure out what comes next — this was built for exactly where you are. You shouldn't have to piece this together alone. Nobody should.
Get practical POTS tools and updates — without the overwhelm.
New resources, helpful information, and updates from The POTS Library, delivered in plain language. No jargon. No noise.