Heart racing for hours? [Archive]

mc2000

22-01-12, 21:12

I seem to get 'panic attacks' in which my heart starts racing and I feel anxious and uncomfortable staying in one place. I can usually control the latter two, but my heart rate stays elevated for hours. I'm being treated by a cardiologist and he can't seem to find anything physically wrong with my heart. Is this a normal result of panic/anxiety? Has anyone else had these symptoms?

I am going out of my mind worrying whether I have some sort of mystery heart disease, and that just makes the symptoms worse...

Wuboo

22-01-12, 21:25

Yes it is normal. Mine didn't race for hours, it was weeks! I then started to pay close attention to it which made me more anxious. I started to try and ignore it and it seemed to go away and calm down.

mc2000

02-03-12, 18:09

Sorry to bump this.

But I'm having serious trouble deciding whether this is anxiety or organic disease. I seem to get the fast heart rate attacks even when I don't feel especially anxious, and continue to have fast heart rate for hours even when I am calm.

Has anyone experience anything like this that isn't closely tied to feelings of anxiety?

spacebunnyx

02-03-12, 19:11

heya, sometimes I'm anxious in a physical way without being anxious in a mental way... sometimes i only have the physical symptom. Its all all to do with the body's wiring and it gets used to the anxiety so u end up in a continuous physical state.

If the cardiologists thinks its ok I would believe that.

xxx

LauraSmith27

02-03-12, 21:07

The first panic attack I ever had came completely out of the blue with no stress attached. I woke up at 3am one morning with my heart racing at over 180bpm and I had absolutely no idea why! I ended up in A&E being tested for everything, but after a few hours, the doctors put it down to anxiety and sent me home. For a long time I was unconvinced, but once I accepted it, the symptoms got less. I think sometimes we think we're calm, when subconsciously we're still worrying and it sets the symptoms off without us realising.

02-03-12, 21:53

The worst thing we do when we have anxieties is concentrate on our breathing the more we concentrate the more the heart races , please try not to concentrate on
On this , mine was exactly the same when I was really bad thought it was going to burst out of my chest , are you on any meds for your anxiety ? I found myself trying to stay awake all
night , you do not have some mystery heart disease , I used to concentrate on crosswords to keep myself from thinking about my heart . And used to make myself climb the steepest hills and if I could get to the top , and breath normally I knew I did not
have a heart problem . They say what we think about we bring about . You are and will be fine . Pm any time you need to talk .
Hugs Zoe
xx

dromedary

06-03-12, 16:52

First post here. I self-diagnosed panic attacks some years ago. They were pretty severe but once I talked to friends I realised that they were very common and I rationalised them until they disappeared. More recently, I have developed a more general level of anxiety that debilitates me for days on end - usually with severe tension headaches as well. I never went to the doctor because after a few bad days, I'd feel great again and decide it was all in my head.

However, a couple of weeks ago I started using a heart rate monitor and found that my heart rate was always between 100 and 120 bpm. Worried about heart disease, I went to the doctor today and she quickly diagnosed it as stress-related. Already I feel a lot calmer knowing I'm not about to have a heart attack but she has prescribed Citalopram.

I think a high heart rate and then worrying about it is a self-perpetuating circle. I find it worse in bed at night, when I can hear a blood vessel next to my ear pounding away!

Great to find this forum and read that others have the same problem. I already feel a lot more able to get over it.

Kendra

06-03-12, 18:03

Hi,

I'm the same as spacebunny some of the time I get all the physical symptoms of anxiety but my brain feels calm. Its very odd, I don't know which is worse.

Just start citralopram on day 6 and have felt more calm today and haven't really felt alot of physical symptoms other than the fast heart and the nasty nervous lump in my throat feeling. Arrrrgh gets on my nerves!!!!:mad:

ewood79

07-03-12, 03:47

Hey guys

My heart dosnt race for hours but its feels like it sometimes.... When I go through periods of anxiety I get anxious symptoms like all the physical ones.. Palps, dry reatching, heart worries etc

I forget about all the times I've had this before I forget about all the medical tests I've had to clear my worries, countless ECGs, blood tests, stress test from cardiologist all come back fine..... Yet when I get them I forget about where I have come from, how strong I am with my anxiety, but I always feel like its doom and gloom I forget and I'm sure we all do that our minds are our worst enemy and those thoughts we feel add to it all!!!!

I wish there was a off button!!!!!.

Thanks for reading

Jarrod

AngelHeart

07-03-12, 09:23

Hiya, my heart does this too at times so I've been prescribed beta blockers for it which slows it down in about 20 mins. I find they really useful when I go through this xx

miniminx

11-03-12, 17:59

hi there i oinly joined yesterday, and tho im after some reassurance myself. i can offer you some too!
my hearts racing now and has been for the last 3 days. Its the only thing that isnt upsetting me as it goes!! I had an ecg the other month while my heart was racing and id got chest pain at the same time, and my heart was fine!! just a little fast due to my anxiety..hope that helps you x

xvolatileheart

15-03-12, 00:14

ewood79

15-03-12, 00:38

It keeps racing because you are fearing it..... Try and distract yourself and reassure Urself that your ECGs are fine...

Hard I know but give it a try...

mc2000

15-03-12, 02:17

I've just signed up for this exact reason. Everything I read about panic attacks says they last up to an hour, but my heart can sometimes race for hours. I'm so worried that I have some kind of heart condition. If I go to my GP, do you think she will refer me to a cardiologist to try and give me some peace of mind?
From my experience, probably. I went to hospital, because I didn't know what it was (although I still don't to be honest). They did blood tests, ECG, x-ray and ultrasound of the heart. They then gave me a 24 hour heart monitor a few weeks later.

If you go to your GP you might not get the x-ray or ultrasound but it's likely you'll get the others.

I can't say it has given me much peace of mind unfortunately, since answer was just "we don't know". :(

I can deal with all of the other symptoms, but this one gets me so on edge and I can't calm down. I also don't want antidepressants because my mood is fine, but I would consider beta blockers.
Agreed. I'm having a tachy attack right now, and have had one all day. I can actually function ok with it now, not panicking/anxious all the time, but it's more like still on the edge of my thoughts constantly that I might be dying. Really horrible.

xvolatileheart

17-03-12, 00:26

So I saw the GP today and asked for a 24 hour Holter monitor and an ECHO which she said wouldn't be a problem. I assume I'm going to be referred to a cardiologist for those, but I didn't think to ask until I left.

Apparently the hospital did bloods when I went to A&E a couple weeks ago and they were all normal.

I was also referred for CBT but the waiting list is 6-8 weeks and I'm not really sure it's the right solution, but I guess it couldn't hurt.

How are you feeling? How old are you, if you don't mind me asking? I've managed to stay relatively calm for the past couple of days but still feel like my heart is beating quite hard most of the time. Still feel like it's in my thoughts ALL the time, even when I'm doing something else or having a different conversation. I hate how much effort it takes to try and constantly keep myself calm.

pablo22

17-03-12, 18:17

hey i have a racing heart for large chunks of the day, but its normal and the cardio doc can find nothing wrong with my heart so he said not to worry about it.. i mean ive been to A and E before and had a heart rate of 210 bpm for half an hour.. now that was scary.. but that was almost 2 yrs ago now and im fine!

Jay72

18-03-12, 19:55

I went to the GP saying the racing heart CAUSED, the panic symptoms. I wasn't panic-like until the physical stuff happened. I'm afraid I dunno why I got that but I was put on Propranolol and I have had no issues ever, since I got put on it. But, truth be told, I don't know what it is.

---------- Post added at 19:52 ---------- Previous post was at 19:48 ----------

Sorry, I meant to say, I don't know why I got rapid heartbeats to begin with. Meds just masking it, I have never worried too much about it because beta blockers keep it at bay. Stupid - yeah! Probably

---------- Post added at 19:55 ---------- Previous post was at 19:52 ----------

Jeez, everybody sounds like I was. Have u lot had thyroid checks, do you suffer from acid indigestion?

I reckon I got thyroid issues but I'm too blokish to check em out

mc2000

26-03-12, 20:27

How are you feeling? How old are you, if you don't mind me asking? I've managed to stay relatively calm for the past couple of days but still feel like my heart is beating quite hard most of the time. Still feel like it's in my thoughts ALL the time, even when I'm doing something else or having a different conversation. I hate how much effort it takes to try and constantly keep myself calm.
I am 21.

I actually feel fine between 'attacks'. I am not sure how much the attacks even "really" affect me or whether most of the discomfort is caused by worrying about them. But my feeling at the time is that they cause the anxiety rather than being caused by it (although I might be wrong about that), which makes me worry what else it might be.

mike07

26-03-12, 20:46

I have been feeling like that most of the time since the end of last year

xvolatileheart

26-03-12, 22:58

I am 21.

I actually feel fine between 'attacks'. I am not sure how much the attacks even "really" affect me or whether most of the discomfort is caused by worrying about them. But my feeling at the time is that they cause the anxiety rather than being caused by it (although I might be wrong about that), which makes me worry what else it might be.

I know exactly what you mean. It's impossible for me to believe that I'm causing these heart sensations. It just seems like they have to be caused by something else and now my fear of these episodes is making me anxious.

Have you had any palpitations? I just had a terrifying one and I'm having a hard time calming down.

mc2000

28-03-12, 00:59

I know exactly what you mean. It's impossible for me to believe that I'm causing these heart sensations. It just seems like they have to be caused by something else and now my fear of these episodes is making me anxious.

Have you had any palpitations? I just had a terrifying one and I'm having a hard time calming down.
About 3 weeks after it started I began to have palpitations at night, although this went away after 1-2 weeks. This happened, incidentally, at the height of my worrying about the condition, which maybe suggests it is partly psychological. I still very occasionally get them, but I did before, so I think I just pay more attention to them now.

xvolatileheart

03-04-12, 22:35

Yeah, mine seem to be partly psychological as well because I can go days without them. But when I have them, they seem to come out of nowhere and are really scary.

I haven't noticed racing heart as much lately, so maybe I'm finally coming to terms with it all! How have you been?