Frightening

[mummyanxious]

Well I just had one if the most frightening experiences ever. Just waiting for the dr to call me.

Was out with friends and suddenly my heart went slow and when I felt my pulse it was going extremely slow and irratic. Felt like it was stopping for ages. Got up and coughed but didn't stop. Eventually subsided and went back to normal but I felt sure I was going to collapse.

Then when I sat back down and stretched it started again.

This really is not normal. I'm so fed up if these symptoms. I'm pretty certain this is not just anxiety. I'm shaking like a leaf.

[kurtis1990]

Big hugs mummy anx. Hope you feel better soon. Let us know what doc says

[paula78]

Hi hunny, aww pleaze dnt think like this, I know better than you can imagine how this feels! I get this all the time just 2 weeks ago I felt dredful an had palps and chest pain which subsided then I went to collect something from the washing line an the pain was terryfying, that kicked me off so badly, then it all calmed down I think when you have a panicky moment like you did with no warning your muscles get so tense and cause spasms and then the cycle starts with more palps etc, I remember when I felt this way you were one of the lovely people who reassured me I'd be fine, I think that sometimes when we start to feel better we have these relapses an forget just how frightening they can be so we start to think irrationally its not your fault an I'm sure you will feel more relaxed if you take half hour out and have a cup of tea an do some breathing exercises, I know you have children so it may be a good idea to ask them to look after you for the half hour they may enjoy it as they can turn it into a game, that's all I know what to say hunny, but plz msg me back if you want to talk it through or just need a shoulder to cry on, I'm here for you as I'm sure we all are ((hugs)) xxx

[mummyanxious]

Dr said it was a vaso vagal attack and not at all harmful in any way. She was lovely and spoke to me at length. Again reiterated that my latest ECG was normal.

---------- Post added at 13:52 ---------- Previous post was at 13:51 ----------

How are you kurtis?

---------- Post added at 13:52 ---------- Previous post was at 13:52 ----------

Paula I hope you're feeling a bit better today Hun and thank you x

[kurtis1990]

In some discomfort but still soildering on x

[mummyanxious]

Bless you kurtis

[TooMuchToLiveFor]

Hey MA,
Just want to tell you I am thinking of you-- remember this season WILL NOT last forever. It is a season of immense hardship, but it will pass. With each episode that is more frightening than the last (whether this is because it is a new kind of episode, a more intense episode, or just the fact that your episodes have been relentless as of late) you have had continued reassurance from your doctor that all is well and your heart is healthy and normal. Because you are in a state of being so overly sensitized you are feeling everything amplified that many people probably don't even notice on a given day. Lately I swear I can "feel my brain" at all hours of the day. It is driving me batty and keeps me so focused on my "mental (anxiety) disorder."

I am truly praying for you to find some relief SOON! I'm sorry- I think I am a little out of date on what you are currently doing for treatment of anxiety……I know SSRIs are out for you, but I can't remember where you thought you might go from there…..

Take heart (no pun intended, but now it's making me smile)-- you can and will overcome this!

[I'mdave27]

Happens to me all the time... I laugh it off...

[mummyanxious]

Happens to you all the time Dave? Hard to believe its normal but apparently it is. What happens to you?

---------- Post added at 14:48 ---------- Previous post was at 14:46 ----------

TMTLF I'm currently calming down on diazepam.
I'm waiting for my assessment for counselling. There's a waiting list as usual.... Reading my Claire weekes, signed off work, trying to carry on as normal as I can

[I'mdave27]

It is normal. My heart goes slow sometimes at other times it will slow down then beat really hard and fast I don't know why it does it but it does , i'm not scared. If something is going to happen it's going to happen regardless of wether I worry about it constantly you can't stop life , it is what it is

[mummyanxious]

I seem to have a 'problem' with breathing. When I've been talking for too long I can't breath. My mouth goes weird. I get a pain in the left side of my chest. And my chest goes tight. And then I feel a bit nauseous.
I've been told there's nothing wring with my heart. ECG normal. But look at poor kurtis in a hospital bed, and this other post whose uncle had a heart attack after having clear tests. Agghhh

[I'mdave27]

I often feel I can't breathe at times but nothing has happened yet.

[mummyanxious]

That's a great way of thinking Dave. I'm unsure what actually happened. All I know is I felt odd. I felt for my pulse and it was very weak and I could barely find it and my heart was going very very slow. Either that or it was going normal with feint beats in between. I just don't know. I tried to stop it by coughing and it wouldn't stop. I got up and moved away and it seemed to start to go back to normal. I was shaking massively afterwards like I hadn't eaten for days.

[I'mdave27]

Maybe it was a hypoglycaemia attack ? I have them often

[mummyanxious]

Also it feels like the insides of my chest is on fire when my breathing goes weird. Like I'm burning from inside out. And it isn't acid or heartburn either.

[Catherine S]

Sounds like you're overbreathing mummyA. I had it loads in the past but not so much these days as my anxiety has got much better. When we're anxious we don't breathe deeply enough, we only use half of our lung space and this upsets the oxygen balance, so when we are talking we're making it worse which results in overbreathing. Not harmful but very uncomfortable. Read through your Claire Weekes books, she talks about it in one or two of them.

[3tikes]

I haven't had the slow heart beat thing but I get the out of breath feeling when I've been talking sometimes, especially when I'm anxious, it's like I can't get my words out quick enough or my brain is going too fast for my mouth!!!!
:hugs:

[mummyanxious]

I love this book I really do. It's really helped to explain the vaso vagal thing.
I'm much better than I was and I'm clinging on to that. So I have come a long way in a week or so. Time really is a healer but as others have said, TMTLF, that new things pop up and set me back.

---------- Post added at 15:00 ---------- Previous post was at 14:59 ----------

Good description 3tikes

[Catherine S]

The Claire Weekes books are ace I know...they were like bibles to me when i was really bad and had heart and breathing difficulties just like you. Some people might think they are old-fashioned compared to modern techniques in treating anxiety and panic but I reckon she makes as much sense now as she did back when she wrote them. She helped me to recovery loads!

[mummyanxious]

So what's with the burning inside my chest? Is that just over breathing too? Muscle? Obviously its not my heart...;)

[Phuzella]

I had vasovagal attacks a few months back. I'd feel very faint and have to lie down. What I didn't realise was that panic attacks were causing them. I hadn't experienced bad anxiety for 25 years up to that point.
When I finally got my head found the fact it was anxiety causing then,they stopped happening. :)

[Catherine S]

Yes could be chest wall muscles...every muscle in our body is affected by stress and tension and the heart is a muscle too remember.

[mummyanxious]

I know but I'm trying to reason my heart isn't burning as that would be a bad thing ISB :(

---------- Post added at 15:24 ---------- Previous post was at 15:23 ----------

Really Phuzilla? Claire weekes says they're rare. If that's indeed what happened it was frightening. Can't be having them happen all the time with kids to watch! How long did yours last? A couple if seconds, minutes?

[Phuzella]

That's what my doctor says they were. They seemed to last for ages but I guess maximum was 30 minutes. But my panic about them made me very careful not to exert myself, which in my case was totally the wrong thing to do. I must say that I don't have any real fears about my heart so never noticed what was going on with it at the time.
Now I'm out the other side of my anxiety mostly, I've not felt faint at all.

[mummyanxious]

So would you say they've stopped or you just don't notice them? What would happen to you?
The dr suggested this is what they were before I even mentioned what I'd read in the CW book.
Is that right then, should you actually exert yourself? I'm confused about how to stop them. Of course they've got me paralysed as to what happens if it happens again.

---------- Post added at 15:39 ---------- Previous post was at 15:36 ----------

Funnily actually the dr I spoke to said they happen to her all the time. She just laughed it off. Not laughed me off, laughed off the fact they happen to her. She said her heart is normally around 50bpm but these happen to her. She must be fit lol.
Anyway she said my heart couldn't have gone as low as 30bpm (I was guessing) as I probably wouldn't have been upright.
Tbh I can't say I felt particularly unwell with it, just a bit panicked as to what was happening and was it going to stop.

[Phuzella]

They've stopped completely. At one point I seemed to spend most of the in bed or sitting down in case i got dizzy and faint. I went to the doctors a lot, had blood tests, an ecg etc, all were ok.
I wasn't used to actual physical symptoms of anxiety, in the past mine were all mental so it took a while to realise it was anxiety.
So I gradually started to increase my activity. I remember walking back from town feeling so faint but kept going, talking to myself all the way home lol.
I've not hada panic attack for weeks now, you can get over anxiety, if I can, anyone can:)

[mummyanxious]

I can't remember how you got over yours. I know we've spoken but my memory isn't working properly at the moment!

---------- Post added at 16:07 ---------- Previous post was at 16:07 ----------

Was your heart going painfully slow at the times as well?

[Phuzella]

I just pushed myself to do things, accepting that it is anxiety is the key. Until you accept it, you can't get over it in my opinion.
The only thing I remember about my heart is that it would thud hard, like it was going to beat right out of my chest. I could actually see it through my clothes .

[Female healthanxiety]

Hello Mummy A,

Sounds to me like a good old Ectopic episode.

I hate them, they come from nowhere and really make you shook up.

I agree that walking will help, if even to get over your anxiety of this and also to get some good fresh air into your lungs...

You can do it... xxx:bighug1:

[mummyanxious]

It was very long. Like of it was missing beats rather than going slow it was missing about two to three beats in a row for about a minute??? Surely that's not normal!

[Phuzella]

The doc says your heart is ok though ? What I did, like if I experienced a pain anywhere, I'd make myself concentrate on it, reason with myself, examine it mentally to see if there was any worry behind it.
In my case, I'd had complication from an operation and was terrified of it happening again. The more I accepted the pain, the better it got, and now I don't worry about it at all.

[Female healthanxiety]

That is what Ectopics feel like! xxx

That is typical Ectopic!

Symptoms include:

Feeling your heart beat (palpitations)
Feeling like your heart stopped or skipped a beat
Feeling of occasional, forceful beats
Note: There may be no symptoms.

I know its easier said then done; but just think to yourself that feeling has now subsided, and you are able to actually express how that made you feel rather then focus on the what if's xxxxxxxx

[mummyanxious]

I've had palps, skipped beats but nothing like this.
I couldn't barely feel my pulse it was that light and it felt like it stopped for a couple of beats. So beat pause pause pause beat pause pause pause beat pause pause pause beat. Is that trigamy or whatever they call it. They're were NO forceful beats at all just very light pulse.

[Female healthanxiety]

NO -- THEY ARE ECTOPICS!

mine were sometimes - Pause pause pause beat-beat-beat, pause pause fast hard heart beat.... they were all different, and every ectopic beat is different, some last more then others!

I think the release in your oxygen (when you had the experience you must had, went into panic mode) and your body took over, hence ectopics, how you felt, your mind is telling you there is something wrong as this is something different.

HA then comes into force and starts talking for you!! xxx

[kurtis1990]

Mummy anx the british heart foundation offer a helpline service which i found usefull. It allows you to talk to a cardiac nurse about your worrys x. Here's the number 03003303311

[mummyanxious]

Ah I know they are there kurtis. We're they any use to you though? Dud they ever take what you were saying seriously? Did they suggest what you think you have? It just tell you everything was ok?

[mummyanxious]

I'm really nervous today. I'm going out with a big group if people on a social event and I can't get yesterday out if my head despite the ok from the dr its praying in my mind its going to happen again in front of all these people with no way of escape. Given Ive had something happen two days on the trot now. I know that's an open invite for it to come again today beings I'm worried :( wish I'd not agreed to do this today but I can't back out now. Why do I get so nervous about things I enjoy doing with people? It's crazy.

[Phuzella]

Go for it!!!!:shades:
Get some protein down you for brekkie

[mummyanxious]

I survived! I've however felt dreadful all day. Felt flu like and weak.
But I'm still here!