Does anyone else have this?

[Peak]

For a few years now I get palpitations/irregular heartbeat. I've been checked by my doctor & the hospital and despite the fact that, to me, my symptoms feel exactly the same as Atrial Fibrillation, all the tests say theres nothing wrong with my heart. My doctor now thinks its anxiety related but whilst I would 100% agree that I feel anxious when I've had palpitations I really don't think I'm feeling anxious before I have them.

I'm just wondering if others have the same symptoms as me?

Sometimes I will get one, some or all of the following:

Palpitations:- sometimes a fast regular heart rate but mostly an irregular heart rate with skipped beats and extra beats and always a sensation of a half beat where it feels as though the heart contracted but didn't actually beat.

Fluttery Feeling:- This is a difficult one to explain. It feels to me as though its is my heart (or at least it feels as though it comes from that area of the chest) that is trembling but my pulse is unaffected and remains regular and not fast.

Light Headed/Dizzy:- This one is really hard to explain as it seems to vary. Sometimes it just feels like when you get up to fast. Other times it just feels likes I'm ever so slightly off balance. Other times it feels a bit like when you are really tired and can't quite focus on things mentally. Often there is also a sense of pressure in the head and in the eyes. Speaking of eyes it's also quite common for my vision to not feel quite right. Again this is difficult to describe but I guess it kind seems as though very briefly I loose sharpness on the edge of my vision. If I concentrate it disappears but it's almost like my eyes just want to stop focussing. ( I don't have any sight problems)

Occasionally I've also felt a little breathless but that's not common.

Anyone else recognise these symptoms?

[alankay]

We all get palps. But anxious folks notice them much more. Rest assured if you have had EKG's a couple times, etc, you're fine. You're anxious and that's the problem. Focus on treating and getting educated on anxiety. PM me any time at all. Alankay

[Jinaiya]

I have this too.

I started getting palpitations last year. In the last 10 months, I have had 2 EKG's, a echo cardiogram, blood work, and a 24 hour holter monitor. Everything has come back completely normal except for the echo where they said one of my valves doesnt quite close all the way but that it was perfectly okay.

Despite all the tests, if I get a string of palpitations I panic. I tend to always assume that I am dying or that something horrible is about to happen. In fact, I am online right now because I began feeling dizzy and my heart started racing so I needed a distraction.

It's really hard :(

I hope you start to feel better soon.

[Peak]

Thanks for the replies. I think one of the things I find so hard to deal with is that the palpitations can and do happen every few seconds or every few minutes or every few hours and can last for seconds or minutes at a time and that this can and does happen every single day. To the point that if I've not had one I'm then just waiting to see when it will happen. I know people keep saying to just ignore it but when it's that frequent and feels like your heart is trying to escape from your chest and can make you feel dizzy it's impossible to ignore.

Jinaiya, I sympathies with you completely. I've had ECG's, 24hr holter and an echo and whilst one ECG and the holter did record the palps the hospital said it was nothing serious and the echo came back clear. I think for me the thing that I fear is clotted arteries, being overweight and have been all my life, and am unsure if any of these tests would detect this problem or not. I don't know if you are like me but I need explanations, I need information. If I don't know or understand something I then fear the unknown. The very fact that my GP and the hospital where unable to tell me why it's happening makes me fear the unknown. The very fact that I have no control over it i.e. I can't do anything to trigger it or make it stop, makes me fear the unknown.

The one thing that I do keep telling myself and which gives me comfort, although only for a few seconds, is that this first started about 15 years ago at a time when I was without questions desperately, desperately stressed. More stressed than I had ever been before in my life or since. In fact I would describe it as panic. I started getting palps and it got so bad that I couldn't even get off the sofa without my heart racing like a Formula 1 car. I eventually plucked the courage to see the doctor who was able to deal with the cause of my stress and the palps stopped instantly and didn't come back for another 10 years. The very fact that I know that they were, without question caused by stress before allows me to believe they could be caused by stress now. I have been through a period of what I understand anybody else would call a great deal of stress and anxiety for the past 7 years but during that time I honestly wasn't aware of feeling stressed or anxious, it was just 'life' and not very good. In the end I started to realise that perhaps these events had had a bigger impact on me than I thought - breaking down in the doctors office was a big surprise and wake up call for me. I ended up going for counselling but that actually started to trigger what I now understand were panic attacks, not during the counselling sessions but at other times. I'm currently on a waiting list to receive CBT which I really, really hope will be the answer I desperately need because I really feel like I can't go on like this.

Having experienced this I truly wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. This forum though is nothing short of superb. There is something about being able to talk to others who are going through the exact same thing, who know exactly how you feel, what your fears are and understand that there are days when you can be strong and then there are days when it gets the better of you, but are able to calm you down and get your feet back on the ground and your head clear which can't be bottled, can't be got on prescription. I always come on here feeling tense and by the time I've finished writing there is a sense of calm that comes over me. I truly hope others feel the benefit.

I think one of the things with anxiety is that feeling that you are on your own, that only you feel like this. Coming here it's clear that you are not alone and whilst I wish I could rid everyone here of their anxiety, I'm very glad to see I'm not alone.

Cheers all

[Jinaiya]

Your reply really hit home with me.

My issue like yours is that there are never any answers for my problems! I suppose I could always try to go in the positive direction of thinking that if there are no answers than I must be fine. I always go to the worst case scenario. Trying to reassure myself that I am okay never seems to help much because I often think "this time it's really happening".

Along with my palpitations I am currently dealing with excessive heartburn and acid reflux. I constantly feel like there is something in my throat. Swallowing feels funny too. My chest often burns and aches. My body feels wrecked. So far there have not been many answers. I have tried meds without luck. I automatically go to thinking I have cancer. :( It has gotten way out of control. I am scared all the time and bounce between my heart problems and my stomach problems. :(

I feel if I just had some answers... maybe things would get better.

Like you I am relieved to see that I am not alone in this but it is sad to hear of others going through this. I hope you do get some answers soon. :)

[dazza]

Palps are common-place with anxiety / panic / stress.
Moreso as we become more aware of them & begin to focus on them.

There are many influences in governing the heart rythmn & rate. During times of imbalance, one or more of these control influences can & often does become affected & thus the heart may go a little wobbly from time to time.

Coughing is supposed to stop them... or just focusing on something / take your mind off them.

More often than not the trigger comes from a brief, anxious thought which emits nerve messages that instantly influence the heart.

A good test / proof is to keep yourself absolutely occupied with something pleasant & non stressy... see if you still get them.

[Peak]

The trouble is that 99% of the other symptoms I get do go away or don't occur if I can concentrate completely on something else. The palps though have a mind of their own and just seem to occur whenever and wherever they want. I think that they might possibly reduce if I can concentrate on something else but invariably they just start up. The recent occurrence of them is typical of how they start:

I was getting palps (can't remember how they started this time) and over the course of a few days I noticed that they were getting more and more persistent. Then started to notice that if I wasn't having palps my heart rate was around higher than normal (around 100-120bpm at rest normally 70). This went on for a few more days and the longer it went on the more palps I got, the faster the heart rate was and the more anxious/scared I was feeling. I went to the docs and he said that since I'd been given the all clear from the hospital a couple of years ago it couldn't be anything serious and put me on Bisporol Fumarate which helps reduce palps and slows heart rate. On taking the first tablet the palps almost stopped entirely (I just had 1 all day). Over the course of the next 10 days the palps had dramatically reduced both in intensity and frequency to the point where I could ignore them and they didn't really bother me. Then over the course of the following three days the palps started to increase again both in frequency and intensity and this caused the anxiety to return.

This is the viscous cycle I find myself in. Everyone, including myself, says it's anxiety causing the palps yet I feel perfectly happy when I don't get them and if I've not had them for several days I completely forget about them. Then they start and I get anxious. So in other words it often feels to me that it's the palps that cause the anxiety and not the other way around.

That said I do know that whenever the palps get too bad I end up going to the docs for a check up and invariably they don't actually do anything other than check my BP and tell me it's probably anxiety and that almost always makes the palps go away for a while. And that's the thing, on the one hand I know I'm being ridiculous, over worrying, getting myself worked up other nothing, but then the other part of me just goes into meltdown as soon as the palps start and the rational side of me just gets thrown out the window. God I hate being like this!