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Thread: Sudden heart problems

  1. #11
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    May 2016
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    56

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Thanks Joe, it’s good to hear from someone who’s recovered to a large extent.

    Last night was better - I’d had a good day with no pounding and hadn’t felt the need to check as much. This morning, however, my heart seems to have gone off the rails again. When I got out of bed it was pounding - it went around 150 in the shower and thereafter until I left the house. I’m travelling to Oxford from London at the moment and I feel OK when I’m sat down (HR around 70) but when I stand up and walk around it’s soaring to around 130. Why is t doing this when I stand up? Could this also be anxiety? I haven’t taken a beta blocker as I want to see what my heart is doing naturally.

    Thanks,

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    4,889

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Quote Originally Posted by Belge du sud View Post
    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.
    It's true, it does take a while to get used to, but the good news is the solution is THAT simple!



    Quote Originally Posted by Apple86 View Post
    Thanks Joe, it’s good to hear from someone who’s recovered to a large extent.

    Last night was better - I’d had a good day with no pounding and hadn’t felt the need to check as much. This morning, however, my heart seems to have gone off the rails again. When I got out of bed it was pounding - it went around 150 in the shower and thereafter until I left the house. I’m travelling to Oxford from London at the moment and I feel OK when I’m sat down (HR around 70) but when I stand up and walk around it’s soaring to around 130. Why is t doing this when I stand up? Could this also be anxiety? I haven’t taken a beta blocker as I want to see what my heart is doing naturally.

    Thanks,
    I once had a 36 hour bout of tachycardia (actually twice) that put me in hospital overnight. In both cases by HR was 'stuck' at about 120-130bpm no matter what I did, and in both cases the specialists at the hospital said I just needed to 'chill out'. Yeah...right.

    At any amount of exercise (walking, washing up, laughing etc etc) my heart rate would spike. God forbid I had to climb a flight of stairs, for example.

    I've said this elsewhere on the forum, but I truly believe that almost all anxiety is caused by bad habits that we reinforce with practice. Your entire mind and body works as a feedback loop, and wants to do what it did the day before. If you worried about your HR yesterday, it'll be a 'problem' today.

    But....it took me 2-3 years to get myself to that place, and it took me several months to get back out again. I became almost completely inactive. The only exercise I got was walking to the car and back, literally. I became terrified of any and all forms of movement that would cause my heart rate to rise.

    Last night I worked out for about 30-40 minutes (not massively strenuous), but I could feel my heart rate at around 130bpm, and it was fine. I would sit down and recover, then do it again. But exercise is my ultimate goal, actually forcing myself into a state of high heart rate, and being fine with it.

    Then I realise my kids are running around with heart rates over 100 all day, because they run around. My partner likes to go on long walks and her fitbit shows average heart rates of 100-120bpm, yet I used to freak out if it went about 80-90? Like I said, bad habits reinforced with practice.

    The thing about anxiety, is that it squirts chemicals into your body whose main function is to open up the arteries and get your heart pumping, so in effect we are worrying about a system designed to protect us.

    Oh, the irony

  3. #13
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    56

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Hi Joe,

    I seem to almost be developing the same fear of moving around, as it makes my HR spike. I’ve lead a very active 31 year’s of life and have never worried about my heart until it started soaring 2.5 weeks ago and it hasn’t been “normal” since. It all seems to have come on so quickly and I’ve had no formal investigations. The GP gave me beta blockers imediately so that I stop the loop of worry about feeling my heart rate - as you said about the cycle. But these don’t seem to have worked in preventing the worry as I worry that they’re just masking a heart problem. But not taking them means my heart is spiking when I do ANY activity - like today.

    I seem to have reasonable control over my HR when I can do controlled breathing but I wish I could control it all of the time. I’m really scared that this is all out of my control.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    4,889

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Well you are in control really. If you can sit down and breath it out, it's not a problem.

    Your heart rate is an autonomic process that you have no overall control of. If you exercise, it'll go up. If you're stressed, it'll go up. You cannot stop that happening.

    Just look back at your posts here. There has been concern and worry about many different things (as with many others of us), so this heart rate issue you're having hasn't 'suddenly' happened. It's a culmination of months/years of anxiety.

    What's happening is completely normal under these circumstances, and not medically problematic. In other words, it's not dangerous.

    Focusing on acceptance and overall calming/relaxing/meditating will absolutely calm your symptoms over time.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Posts
    56

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Thanks Joe.

    I made it to and from Oxford without dying although I felt like I was in a constant panic attack with rapid HR. I’m now going to focus on practising my breathing exercises this evening.

    Can I ask: do you believe in exposure or in resting the nervous system? I seem to have read contradictory things online. Should I be pushing myself to keep going or should I rest my nervous system? Pushing myself, like today, seems to have really hit my nervous system. But I don’t really know what resting the nervous system entails.

  6. #16

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Quote Originally Posted by ankietyjoe View Post
    It's true, it does take a while to get used to, but the good news is the solution is THAT simple!
    I'd like being sure about that, but each person is different. My problem is not heart racing. It's usually quiet. My problem is mainly PVCs while digesting, exercising, moving, leaning forward, lying in bed.... They are functional and mainly related to digestive problems (bloating, stomach reflux, constipation...), not to anxiety.
    But I'm sure anxiety plays its part in my second problem: PACs and A-fib attacks, which nearly always appear nightly. This crazy thing happens two or three times a week, and that's something I'm anxious about, because it's potentially harmful. But how can I manage this? I don't think about my heart rhythm while sleeping!


    Quote Originally Posted by ankietyjoe View Post
    The thing about anxiety, is that it squirts chemicals into your body whose main function is to open up the arteries and get your heart pumping, so in effect we are worrying about a system designed to protect us.

    Oh, the irony
    Do I squirt chemicals into my body by day while feeling PVCs? They don't frighten me, I'm used to them, but they're annoying. And do those chemicals fill some kind of battery which discharges nightly when I'm just doing nothing?

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    4,889

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Well this thread is specifically about heart rate, not other issues. Saying that, I used to have plenty of skipped beats when I was overly anxious too.

    The phrase 'everybody is different' comes up a lot here, and it's often used when acceptance, CBT or meditation is mentioned. Whilst every persons experiences are different, the functional causes of anxiety are more or less the same across the board, in the absence of a medical cause for anxiety (thyroid imbalance for example). If self help hasn't worked for you, it's often because you haven't put enough effort or time into it. It's not something that works overnight, or even in the first week or two. It's a complete lifestyle and thought pattern change that requires lots and lots of effort and practice.

  8. #18

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Thanks for your help. I'm trying to manage all that, but it's not easy. Those troubles are young for me. When I remember all the things I've passed through during the last 26 months, I realize how I've been (and I'm probably still) anxious.
    Reading from people living those troubles for many years and having learnt to manage them is reassuring.

  9. #19
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    Aug 2011
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    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Quote Originally Posted by Belge du sud View Post
    Thanks for your help. I'm trying to manage all that, but it's not easy. Those troubles are young for me. When I remember all the things I've passed through during the last 26 months, I realize how I've been (and I'm probably still) anxious.
    Reading from people living those troubles for many years and having learnt to manage them is reassuring.
    You're absolutely right, it's not easy at all.

    It probably took me 5 years or more to really, really understand that most of the anxiety I was suffering was simply my own reactions and thought patterns (like checking your heart rate when it's fast, then checking it MORE the next day).

    I always try and use the analogy of losing weight. If you are 20kg overweight, it probably took you several years to get there. If you decide you've had enough, it'll take you at least a year to get the weight off again, safely. Just because the weight doesn't go on the first day of dieting, you don't give up do you?.....well.....maybe

  10. #20

    Re: Sudden heart problems

    Interesting analogy.

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