PVC's

[mgray]

I suffer from a generalized anxiety disorder and have been getting a few benign PVC's (premature ventricular contractions) here and there for many months but recently I've been getting them very often. We're talking 20 or 30 a day at times. I've had the holter monitor back when I wasn't getting them so often and the doctor said it was pvc's but now that its happening all the time its much more obvious and i get 3 or so in row and thats never happened before. I'm fairly stressed out about it and I'm thinking that probably doesn't help this situation so I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else and if this is normal for benign pvc's. I have an appt to see my doctor again about this and I'm wondering if I should push seeing a cardiologist or should I just smarten up that its all in my head. please let me know! thank you!

[jessed03]

The heart does insane things at times. Things you wouldn't expect it to be able to do, and still be healthy.

One of my big symptoms was extreme racing, almost at 120beats per minute... Then it'd stop... I'd count about 2.5 seconds before it beat it again, then it would go extremely slowly, like it'd burnt itself out, and was about to quit.

That was years ago, it turned out fine, I'm still living etc. ;)

When you've been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and have been given a clean bill of health, virtually everything your heart will do, bar stopping, isn't gonna be harmful. It's gonna be part of the craziness that comes with the condition.

The thing that I always think about - is anxiety is a condition of doubt. It's, it's just doubt, ya know? First you doubt your body, then you doubt the validity of tests you've had, and want more etc... So it's good to go to a point, where you reach the best level of conclusive feedback you can get (or afford)... Cos once you reach this point, you can more or less go back to 90% working on your mind.

If you don't get this, you stay at perhaps 75% mental awareness, 25% or more! always stays inside your body! watching for symptoms. That's ok, you can still overcome anxiety like that, but for a few sessions at a specialist, why not shorten the job right?

I'm not worried about your symptoms. I am worried about your mental progress going forward, as they aren't nice symptoms to experience, and are always gonna leave traces of doubt, ya know?

If I'm you right now, I pursue a cardiologist appointment, if you can get one, just to get yourself to that 80%+ belief that it's anxiety.

Then you can move forward more freely.

In the meantime, testing your health and lowering anxiety aren't contrasting styles, you do both at once :)

You can still use effective CBT techniques to lower the frequency and anxiety levels of these thoughts.

Ex: 'This heart condition could be dangerous'

The reply would be 'This is anxiety, I am in the best medical hands'
Or 'I am doing my best to have a healthy body, by living right, lowering stress levels and working with my doctor'

It isn't so much what the thoughts say, that causes anxiety, but your reaction to them. If you react to them positively and optimistically, anxiety levels will lower even if you do have any uncertainty in your life'

[ab123]

I suffer from a generalized anxiety disorder and have been getting a few benign PVC's (premature ventricular contractions) here and there for many months but recently I've been getting them very often. We're talking 20 or 30 a day at times. I've had the holter monitor back when I wasn't getting them so often and the doctor said it was pvc's but now that its happening all the time its much more obvious and i get 3 or so in row and thats never happened before. I'm fairly stressed out about it and I'm thinking that probably doesn't help this situation so I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else and if this is normal for benign pvc's. I have an appt to see my doctor again about this and I'm wondering if I should push seeing a cardiologist or should I just smarten up that its all in my head. please let me know! thank you!

Very often, your heart only wants to palpitate a bit, thump a few beats harder. Why? That’s the heart’s own business. It’s your mind that interferes and panics, causing the adrenaline to kick off a longer cycle of rapid heartbeats. So from now on, make a verbal agreement with your heart that you’re going to stop interfering and obsessing over its health and trust in it 100 percent. Then hand over the controls. Let go to whatever way your heart wishes to behave. By allowing the sensations to happen and simply getting on with your day, you release the anxiety that you hold around your heart as well as the cautious monitoring of every heartbeat. ---That came from a website talking about anxiety, it doesn't help me all the time. But it does help a little. I have the same fears as you

[mgray]

thank you both for the replies! I'm awaiting my referral to the cardiologist. we'll see what he says! but you both have relaxed me quite a bit about the issue.

[mistiblue]

Hi mgray- I just went through this exact same thing about 2 months ago. My heart was fluttering and jumping all over the place. It would skip about 3 time, and like Jessed said, pause for a few seconds before ticking again. It was making me crazy, literally. I finally went to the cardiologist. He did, holter monitor, U/S, blood tests, and stress test. Everything came back normal (I do have mild MVP) which is not life threatening. Anxiety can really make your body do crazy things. The heart is a very strong muscle and knows just when to beat and why. I try to tell myself now, if it skips a beat there is a reason and it's for my good :)
Good luck at the cardiologist, I am sure all is fine!