atrial fibrillation

Does anyone else have this fear,because of the palpatations that plague so many of us .I have a terrible fear of my heart going in to afib(atrial fibrillation) as i have terrible scary beats .I have never been diagnosed with it ,but everytime i have a ecg or 7 day holter to record them it never happens my heart always behaves then.The scariest episode was around a year ago when i was just walking in to a shopping centre and all of a sudden i felt this terrible fluttering in my chest it kept going ,i tried to ignore it but i then felt my heart beat and it was really fast and all over the place ,i then went into a full blown panic attack and my heart started racing so that seemed to kick it back to normal rythm i feel if i didnt panic and my heart hadnt started pounding in panic it wouldnt have went back to normal .I am convinced this was afib ,i went to see cardioligist after this and he gave me echo and 7 day holter but nothing happened with the tape on .He said it was probably lots of extra beats without the pauses.But how does he really know.I have became a prisoner in my own home because of this.I heard from someone with afib that it can happen because of sress and anxiety and caffeine.I suffer badly from them both stress and panic.I thought that afib was genetic and didnt realise it could happen to anyone even after all these tests . I AM SO SCARED ALL THE TIME.PLEASE HELP kind regards molly p.s i suffer from lots of ectopics and flutters all the time but not as scary as a year ago

Does nobody have this fear ,kind regards molly

Yes I do. Having bad palps now. You just have to live your life - everyone has a cross to bear, this is ours. Be thankful it's not cancer or something.

Molly, I did answer your post on RLR's. I looked back and he said that AF rarely stops by itself, so I assume yours are a run of PVC's.

I posted this ages ago and the answers really helped me:


http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=73641

Thank you for you reply.Typer have you managed to overcome the fear of afib kind regards molly

Molly most of the time I am okay. Then my husband mentioned someone having that and it started me off again :unsure: Just someone talking about it can get me worrying again. But when I see that most people who suffer from palps have it, I try to tell myself its just a long run of them. Whatever they are, I do find them pretty scary I have to say.

I think though people with afib do not report it stopping without treatment, so I assume while they felt the same, they were different. I think palps can feel similar but are coming from outside the heart and not the same.

Take care

Hi Molly, your post could have been written by me! I have the same symptoms and worry about the same thing! I've never been to the docs though and so haven't had any tests to rule out a heart problem.
Sometimes I feel like a fast rumbling in my heart rather than a fluttering (which I also get) the rumbling gets more persistant and it feels like my heart is going to implode any minute. Then I panic and the rumbling turns to massive quick thuds which feels like at least my heart is beating rather than stuttering. I'm so sick of this. It's ruining my life and sometimes I just think ~ for God's sake just get it over with and have a heart attack, you've won, I don't care if you stop working, it's preferable to living with what feels like a ticking bomb.

Thank you for you reply ,its awfull living with this fear isnt it .I know at the end of the day i cant tell the future so i try to say watever happens will happen and me worrying about something that may never happen is totally ruining my life .Thank you again kind regards molly

Hello Molly17,
It definitely sounds like you are having pvc's which I suffer from on a daily basis. They are a nuisance, but you can learn to live with them. Never let them stop you living your life. You'll find that when you're busy then they'll fade into the background. My mum suffers from atrial fibrillation. She's in her 70's and it just came on overnight. There was no doubt that this is what it was and she was admitted to hospital for a few hours, given meds to stop it, and sent home on meds to take every day. She has been absolutely fine ever since. So atrial fibrillation isn't the end of the world!! PVC's as I said are an absolute nuisance but they are VERY common with anxiety sufferers and are completely different from atrial fibrillation, so please don't worry about them. I know it's so difficult when you are anxious, but it's almost never what we fear the most!!
Myra x

hi thank you for your reply ,i just wish i wasnt so blooming scared all the time kind regards molly