New here -have a few q's re: anxiety-related issues

[jamesaarra]

Hi everyone, great forum, have learned a lot in the past couple of days. I am a 30 year old male. For the past 3 months I have been experiencing panic attacks. This all new to me, having never experienced anything like this before.

Like so many others here, I was instantly worried about the intermittent and sometimes constant chest pain and on and off heart palpitations I had after my first panic attack. Saw my cardiologist -> EKG, Stress test, etc = all fine.

My question(s) ->

I used this experience to quit smoking (15 yrs) and really focus on getting healthier. I bought a Polar wristwatch, which monitors your pulse. I use it when I bike, but have begun wearing it almost every day to monitor my pulse, figuring that during the onset of another panic attack (almost always triggered by chest pain or heart palpitations), I could look down my pulse.. breathe & refocus... wait for my pulse to slow, and talk myself down.

A little naive and still educating myself on anxiety, but I believe wearing my watch every day has ended up being a reverse effect on me as now I am getting a little obsessive about my pulse and have attached a fear to not wearing it b/c I tell myself I won't know how to talk myself down.

I am an entrepreneur and am starting to worry that this watch will have to go everywhere with me and I can't have that.

I have also learned that my pulse is/can get extremely high during low stress & rest situations (resting can be up towards 102 bpm). I was up to 145bpm the other day standing outside of a restaurant for 10 mins while waiting or a friend.

Anybody else have these issues? Significantly higher pulse that normal, which sometimes lasts all day, though you are not exercising or exerting yourself in any way?

Stupid question - but anxiety can make your heart race that fast while standing for 10 mins?

Should I ditch the watch?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

[Foxfire]

A little naive and still educating myself on anxiety, but I believe wearing my watch every day has ended up being a reverse effect on me as now I am getting a little obsessive about my pulse and have attached a fear to not wearing it b/c I tell myself I won't know how to talk myself down.

Been there mate! Panic attacks triggered by palpiatations were my bugbear and at my worst I was checking my pulse upwards of 50 times a day.. While you're on the right track as far as acknowledging that you have anxiety and talking yourself around when you have an attack, it becomes very easy to focus and obsess about your symptoms which is what having the watch is causing you to do (if you didn't have it though, you would find another way- we all do).

Your heart is healthy, the palpitations are being caused by misfiring electrical impulses from your stressed out brain and therefore are no cause for concern. What I would advise you do is ditch the watch and come to the understanding that your heart has palpitated in the past with no damage, it's likely to do it for a little while yet until your system calms down and that when it happens it's not going to last forever so let it do its thing and don't let it ruin your day.

As I've said on the board in the past, palpitations were the last of my symptoms to leave when I mastered my anxiety and I still get the odd skipped beat. I can't stop myself from feeling an involuntary surge of anxiety when it skips, but now I just say 'you know what? It doesn't really matter because it's not going to kill me, my heart is doing a great job' and then I get back to whatever I was doing. Sometimes I catch myself feeling my pulse these days and laugh because the habit was THAT ingrained that I did it involunatarily. As soon as I realise I'm doing it, I take my hands off my wrists and focus on something else. Distraction and indifference to your symptoms are the key to getting past this.

Hope this helps,
Cheers

[jylcat]

i agree, you should definitely lose the watch. I stopped wearing a watch altogether because I would always check my heart rate while counting the seconds and I definitely felt like I wouldn't be okay if I couldn't check my heart rate. Increased heartrate is a symptom of anxiety and if you're obsessing over it, it becomes a negative feedback cycle.

Try to accept that your heart is healthy. Part of anxiety is thinking there's something wrong with you, maybe something the doctor didn't find, even though you have a clean bill of health. Our minds get way too imaginative about that and as foxfire said, distraction and indifference are the key. Try to dismiss your palpitations and rapid heartbeat, even though it may seem forced at first. Eventually it will work!