First time poster - Heart Palpatations main symptom.

[marsbar07]

Hoping to get some insight, I'm the only one in my circle that has been dealing with this type of anxiety. Most times I hear of other people dealing with anxiety and they have trouble catching their breath, feel like crying but for me it all centers around my heart when it gets back.

I was diagnosed as PMDD two months ago and am trying Beyaz to get my progesterone levels out of whack. When I'm taking the progesterone tablets for the most part I feel great, nothing I can't handle but I do take Xanex periodically through the month on an as needed basis (0.25/0.5mg once a day, usually at night). However, when I'm on the 'placebo' pills at the end of the month anytime I have anxious thoughts my heart palpitations go crazy! I was finishing up taking a final exam online and at the end of the exam (I was having little heart flutters here and there) my heart palpitations was so intense to the point where I was about to drive myself down the street where the fire department was. Idiotically I left my Xanex on the countertop of my house....dumb move. I did some breathing exercises and talked to my husband the entire drive home (about 15 min drive) and pulled myself out of a full blown attack. Full blown attack for me usually means heart rate above 140, high blood pressure and dizzy to the point of passing out.

I am now at home relaxing, doing breathing exercises, drinking some chamomile tea and breathing in some lavender oil (trying to take as little meds as possible to control anxiety). My big question is does anyone else have symptoms like these with their heart? I have been hooked up to an EKG while I was having these before and there were abnormalities but it was all attributed to my anxiety, so I KNOW they are there. Sometimes the heart palpitations come out of left field....ALWAYS at the end my cycle. Heart palpitations scare the begeezus out of me.

My midwife (who I feel confident with) says the next step is trying Prozac 10 days before my cycle would start...will Prozac work as an anti-anxiety med? I'm so clueless with SSRIs and anxiety. Thank you for listening and any feedback!

Sidenote - I've been worked up by two different cardiologists a year ago and initially I had low potassium causing real palpitations but everything else is totally normal.

[dont_worry]

Welcome. And let me try to give you cause to lessen your worry.

My anxiety attacks were largely (and irrationally) based on what I perceived to be heart problems (I have none.) Like you I became obsessive about my heart rate and found myself researching what the ideal rate should be, what mitigates that, etc etc. With no medical basis whatsoever.

There are several pieces of good news. On a purely physiological basis, a nurse friend of mine once sat me down, when I was most in fear, and talked me through the workings of the heart. He reassured me that the heart is pretty much a dumb muscle whose sole job is to beat.

I had invented this fiction whereby I convinced myself the heart should never beat too much. I avoided exercise for that reason, despite a lifetime of it. My nurse friend said there is no connection between the heart beating - even a little too fast, in times of anxiety - and associated physical problems with the heart.

This isn't, of course, to say that a super-fast heart rate is what you want, of course. Which brings us to more generally dealing with your anxiety.

If you are interested, I posted a long post the other day (entitled "There is hope - here's what helped me") in which I detail 15 points that really helped me out of anxiety... and none of them involve medicine.

The US in particular has a predisposition with patching perceived problems with medicine. The answer, however, is within you. Meds will just get you to the end of the day, ultimately. The longterm answer is within you.

Finally, it's great you're doing breathing exercises, drinking chamomile etc - just try not to turn these things into a combined mascot for your anxiety. Regard them with love, objectively, as tools that help. And as for breathing, I remember being told that, contrary to what may seem intuitive, faster, deeper breathing during an attack is actually worse than trying to slow your breathing down. Please look into something called the Buteyko method - I can vouch for it. A simple, short book off Amazon, and it'll change your breathing forever.

Good luck to you!

[Stephj526]

You have normal health anxIety, as sucky as that may be. For me, my heart is almost always the culprit (with strokes and clots in a close run for 2nd). I get palpitations, fast heart rate, numbness, jaw pain...the whole shebang. I've had EKGs, 24 hr monitor, 30 day monitor, stress test, echoes, blood work...you name it. I do have sinus tachycardia where my heart beats fast for no reason sometimes, but it's physically healthy.

Just tonight I had pain and swore something was wrong. Now an hour later I'm feeling better. Definitely try breathing through, and maybe something to take your mind off it. I play games on my phone or talk on the phone. Sometimes just telling someone what you feel helps too. Hope you feel better!!

[sae]

It's been my experience that when it is actually a heart attack you just plain know. I have had two heart attacks and multiple panic attacks and at least for me they feel completely different. During a heart attack I am cool as a cucumber, just in pain. Hell my first heart attack I thought was just heartburn from eating a hamburger with onions until I took a face dive off of a porch and woke up in an ambulance.
Understand my case is really stupid rare and unlikely. I had syptoms long before my first heart attack. My panic attacks always come suddenly, out if nowhere, with those awful "what if I die" thoughts. The anxious mind is a lying butt muncher. Sometimes you just gotta smile at it and say "ahh, stupid brain... I see what you did there, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I will stab you with my silver lining thinking!"
I definitely agree with the breathing exercises. They have helped me immensely over the past year.