Sudden heart problems

[Apple86]

Hi everyone,

I've posted a few times recently about ongoing stomach problems I've been having for four weeks. I'm now getting a lot of heart symptoms and I'm really worried.

It started two weeks ago (so I'd been very anxious for the previous two weeks about my stomach) when I woke up in the middle of the night with a fast and pounding heart. It took about half an hour of controlled breathing to slow it down only for me to be woken up again an hour later with the same thing. The next day I was feeling my heart racing every time I stood up and walked around my flat. This got me very worried to the point that the next morning I went into the doctors in a very bad state. She took my pulse at 120 and gave me beta blockers to slow my heart down. That was almost two weeks ago.

Since then I've been really aware of my heart rate and I'm taking my pulse every half hour or so, even though I'm on beta blockers. I've also been consistently waking up in the night with my heart beating hard. I can feel it all over my body when I lie down: I'm very slim so I'm not sure if this is why. I've also noticed that my heart jumps to around 100 when I talk and when I roll over in the night it jumps for around 5-10 seconds. I've also been getting pains around my ribs at the back and sometimes near my sternum.

I'm really worried as I haven't ever had any heart exams - not even an ECG. I was given beta blockers as my GP said I'm really anxious - which I admit I am. However, I've got real worries that this could all be a heart problem that may kill me. I've always been a very active person with no heart problems, not even during previous times of heightened anxiety, and I just don't know why these symptoms have appeared so suddenly.

Thanks for any advice.

[nomorepanic]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your issue.

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

Please also read this post:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=213239

[Aaahhfreakout]

Hi, sorry to hear you're suffering from this.

Heart arrhythmias tend to appear and disappear instantaneously. From reading what you said, it sounds like it slowed down much more gradually than that.

If your heart gradually slowed to normal, then the chances are it's not a heart problem but likely it's anxiety.

I had the same thing but as soon as I realised it was anxiety, it stopped.

[ankietyjoe]

I've been through this exact cycle, and the cycle is being self sustained by your awareness and checking of your heart rate. Night time heart rate spikes are very common among anxiety sufferers, but still one of the most problematic for people to accept. It's incredibly, incredibly common for people with bad anxiety (which you've admitted to having) to suffer with these symptoms.

As the previous poster mentioned, if you can bring your heart rate down with guided breathing, it's highly unlikely to be a medical issue.

[Apple86]

Thank you both for your kind words.

I had an awful night last night. My anxiety about my heart had been rising since around 4pm and my checking was in overdrive.

When I tried to sleep my heart was going around 80 and quite hard. It took me a long time to go to sleep, only to wake up half an hour or so later with my heart pounding AND my arms both feeling numb. I totally freaked out that it was a heart attack/stroke and I started to feel numb all over. My left arm still feels funny this morning but to be honest I think I may have trapped a nerve and was perhaps perceiving everything else to be numb too.

I've booked an appointment with the doctor on Weds but not sure what to do in the meantime. I've been checking my heart rate constantly, partly to work out when the best time to take a beta blocker is (I take one when I start to feel it beat too fast). But my checking has become obsessive. Do I try to stop checking today and risk it going sky high?

Thanks,

[ankietyjoe]

Do I try to stop checking today and risk it going sky high?

Thanks,

You checking your heart rate isn't going to slow it down, it's going to have the opposite effect.

If you feel it beating 'too fast', then ignore it. It's hard, but try. You have to break the cycle of checking.

What's likely to happen is that you'll go and see the Doctor, they will check you, test you and tell you everything is normal. You will keep checking anyway and convince yourself that they've missed something (we've all done that). You'll keep checking and checking, and your heart rate will keep showing as 'too fast'. You will suffer for ages and ages, for no reason.

As long as the tests come back clear, just stop checking.

Trust me

[Ash J]

I would try to stop the checking and do your best to ignore it otherwise you just get in the vicious cycle of checking, it'll make you more anxious and just cause your heart to react further.
At one point I became obsessed with checking my pulse to the point that I would be doing it 60+ times a day. My therapist told me it was a reassurance behaviour and the quicker you can stop it the better. I know you may think well if I don't check it how do I know if something bad is happening, that's what I used to think. Only your Dr can advise on the best time to take the beta blocker, but I found it best in the morning after I woke as it atleast kept my heart calm for the rest of the day.

[Apple86]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I’ve really cut down on the checking today and I haven’t needed a beta blocker either. I’m starting to get anxious as it’s coming towards the evening and I’m dreading another night of little sleep, pounding heart and worry. If I can get one good night’s sleep I think it’ll really help. I’m finding it impossible to even doze in the afternoon as my mind starts working overtime every time I try to close my eyes. Fingers crossed for insight.

[ankietyjoe]

The solution is one of those things that's really, really easy.....to say.

You just don't think about it or react to it, it's that simple.

I used to be exactly like you, word for word.

You wake up with a pounding heart? So what? It's not dangerous, it's just your perception of danger and your resulting reaction that's the problem. I know, because I used to be the same. I'd wake up, realise my heart rate was banging away at 140bpm and say 'oh shit oh shit oh shit......'. I'd tell myself I couldn't take it anymore, which is a waste of time. I had no choice. Once you 'get' this, it becomes easier. It rarely happens any more, but when it does I just get up, go for a pee, shuffle into the kitchen and get some water, sit down and take a few sips, and lay back down again. All the while my heart will be banging away at 120-140bpm. By the time I've done it all and actually got back into bed, the worst has passed though. Usually takes about 5-10 minutes.

To be clear, the heart rate isn't the problem, it's US and our reaction to it that's the problem. I also don't think a beta blocker helps (I used to take them) as they're not a quick fix. If anything, they're a placebo in the short term and have little to no effect in the first hour or so after taking them, by which time the panic is invariably over.

I found it much better to find the solution within myself, as it's then portable and I can take it anywhere, in any situation. And to be clear, my heart rate obsession used to be deeply ingrained. I could tell my partner what my heart rate was within about 1-2bpm at ANY time without even checking. I could feel it I was so obsessed with it.

But anyway, like I said...it's easy to say, less easy to do.

Just try ignoring it tonight. Even if you wake up with your heart rate banging away actually say out loud 'so what?'. It always passes and it's NOT dangerous in any way.

Good luck.

[Belge du sud]

The solution is one of those things that's really, really easy.....to say.

You just don't think about it or react to it, it's that simple.

I used to be exactly like you, word for word.

You wake up with a pounding heart? So what? It's not dangerous, it's just your perception of danger and your resulting reaction that's the problem. I know, because I used to be the same. I'd wake up, realise my heart rate was banging away at 140bpm and say 'oh shit oh shit oh shit......'. I'd tell myself I couldn't take it anymore, which is a waste of time. I had no choice. Once you 'get' this, it becomes easier. It rarely happens any more, but when it does I just get up, go for a pee, shuffle into the kitchen and get some water, sit down and take a few sips, and lay back down again. All the while my heart will be banging away at 120-140bpm. By the time I've done it all and actually got back into bed, the worst has passed though. Usually takes about 5-10 minutes.

To be clear, the heart rate isn't the problem, it's US and our reaction to it that's the problem. I also don't think a beta blocker helps (I used to take them) as they're not a quick fix. If anything, they're a placebo in the short term and have little to no effect in the first hour or so after taking them, by which time the panic is invariably over.

I found it much better to find the solution within myself, as it's then portable and I can take it anywhere, in any situation. And to be clear, my heart rate obsession used to be deeply ingrained. I could tell my partner what my heart rate was within about 1-2bpm at ANY time without even checking. I could feel it I was so obsessed with it.

But anyway, like I said...it's easy to say, less easy to do.

Just try ignoring it tonight. Even if you wake up with your heart rate banging away actually say out loud 'so what?'. It always passes and it's NOT dangerous in any way.

Good luck.

I know you're right, but we, "young" HR sufferers (2 years for me), we need time. Time to hear and read good advices, time to believe what we're told by doctors and people like you, time to understand why we're not going to die at once, time to learn what happens in our body and time to trust our heart.