I think that I have always had some small level of autonomic dysfunction since early childhood ... there were signs such as severe exercise intolerance and occasional syncope. However, I still consider myself "sudden onset" because there is an exact day on the calendar that I can pinpoint when my symptoms went from "my normal" to "holy cramole, there is something horribly wrong here!" That day for me was 17 Aug 2006.
As far as what treatments help with POTS, you may want to take a look at this document we generated for this community, it should give you some rough ideas:
http://www.medhelp.org/tags/health_page/24598/POTS-Dysautonomia/Dysautonomia-Treatments?hp_id=171
That page is one that I need to get in and update, but the only info on there that I know for sure is outdated off the top of my head is that SSRI/SNRI medications have fallen out of favor after some clinical trials showing they help with depression from dysautonomia but not with the autonomic dysfunction itself. However, opinions on this are still mixed within the medical community, so I'm not going to remove them at this point.
Looking toward non-pharmaceutical treatments, there are a wide range of things that you can try to help get you back on your feet again:
-increased salt intake
-increased water intake
-compression hosiery (thigh high preferably) and abdominal compression
-physical counter-maneuvers
-gentle exercise of the legs (recumbent bike on low setting, swimming)
-taking time to slowly change position when standing from lying down or bending over
-cooling garments for heat intolerance
-caffeine in moderation helps some people, but pay attention to your response to it and avoid it if it makes your symptoms worse
If you want more information on compression hosiery, there are a couple of links here on MedHelp that I can send along.
I will be completely honest with you about how I cope with (generalized dysautonomia in my case, but similar to POTS). I have found ways to muddle through leisure activities that I really don't want to miss out on, but I have not been back to work since 2006 when this started for me. Do realize, though, that the majority of POTS patients are able to work or attend school with proper treatment, so don't let my experience discourage you. When it comes to leisure activities, I use compression hosiery, cooling garments, and salt/water loading to help me get through, but I also know that inevitably there will be a crash after I push myself through something like that and I set several days aside afterward to just rest and recuperate. The other thing that I did when I was just starting out with this stuff and didn't have one of my own, is renting a wheelchair when I went places where lots of walking was involved. Most amusement parks, for example, have both manual and power chairs for rent.