so i dont know what to do

[FallenAnx]

First of I had my first panic attack OCT 06 and its Sept 07 now. When I started having them I was having them weekly and now Im barely having them but I have another issue. Before I developed the anxiety/panic I played hockey, bmxed, skateboarded, snowboarded, ran, lifted wieghts, everything to keep myself physically active. I don't know when this started but its been at least as long as I have had the anxiety, when I do any physical activity now my heart rate hits 160+ and stays there the whole time I'm doing the activity, granted it goes down the minute I stop. The thing is though it hits 160+ no matter what Im doing whether its from lifting wieghts or walking up the stairs at the stadium of my school to get out of the damn building. I dont know what to do I have had so many heart tests done to get checked out and everyone keeps telling me I'm fine, how the hell am I fine when Im doing mild physical activity and my heart is almost doing its max rate. Ive been taking .5mg of ativan since january and thats been working with the panic/anixety but I honestly dont think I have any of that.... ALLLLL my god damn worrying is about my heart. Any tips advice anything is appreciated. This fucking thing has actually made me cry and i havent cried about anything since I was 16 and now Im 21 almost 22. I dont get how this is going on, played hockey for 14years, played some sort of sport since i was 3. Always been health conscious I smoked for a year and a half and drank for a year and half but never anything serious and IVE NEVER DONE hard drugs. I dont get whats going on.... someone please help or give me some kind of advice

[doublem]

Hey there,

I have suffered from anxiety / panic attacks for seven years and what I find is that it needs something to hang onto, to "feed on" if u like.

What I find is when I take medication (citalopram, 20mg daily dose) it helps with the anxiety attacks, but i still have excessive worry about alot of things - breathing, health, what my friends think of me, wether my partner is messing around behind my back, all sorts of things!

What I think has happened here is that your anxiety is feeding on the fact that you have an abnormal heart rate - it might help to write down the fact that all the doctors have told you that you are fine and look at it occassionally when you feel tense about your heart problem.

Also ask yourself - "would i have felt this way about my abnormal heart rate before i began having these attacks?" if the answer is no, you have the reason for your worry - its the anxiety, nothing more, nothing less, and it cant hurt you!

My advice is to keep doing whatever you enjoy - dont let the anxiety get u down and let it run your life! play hockey, lift weights, force urself to do the things you were doing before anxiety entered ur life and im sure you will feel better about yourself and your heart condition in the long run!

Take care,
Double-M

[RichB]

The most obvious thing, especially if a doc's checked you out is that your heart rate monitor is giving a false reading. How are you checking it?

Other than that, you could be just scaring yourself and worrying about it which will bring raise the rate. it's not like your HR is going super high or anything so the less attention you pay to it the better. Maybe don't even wear the monitor.

[FallenAnx]

im actually wearing a event monitor ordered by the doctors.... im not worried about how high its going parsay more so that its sitting at like 160 170 for intervals at a time when im working out or riding a bike or playing hockey

[RichB]

so it's going to 160 -170 when you're exercising? If so, it's suppossed to.
If your docs are reading the events and telling you it's ok, it's ok.