Panick/anxiety attack or SVT ?

[Tayharman]

:) Hi, I had a few attacks and granted they all occurred when I was stressed out and sometimes when I drank a lot which combined with my General anxiety.. however I still cannot distinguish between a panic attack and a svt... I had one an hour ago and lucky I had my heart rate monitor with me, I was stressed out and have drank last night...

when I realized something was wrong I checked my heart rate it was at 133 as I was walking, then it increased to 146, 155 then 166, it then lasted for around 2 mins and gradually went back down... during these attacks calming myself down did decrease my hear rate but I am still on the fence with this one...

Can a anxiety attack cause your heart rate to gradually increase or is this something that would happen during an svt episode....?

[kiwilaura]

Anxiety does cause heart rate to increase...I have anxiety and have also had svt which was completely different to the heart rate increase in anxiety..with my svt my heart rate was nearly 300 and I had to have my heart stopped to get back to normal rhythm. You could ask your doctor for a 24 hour holter monitor test which would show if it was svt or not..

---------- Post added at 18:28 ---------- Previous post was at 18:27 ----------

Also with my svt my heart rate didn't increase gradually..it started at 300 and stayed there

[sputnikmoon]

Yea, the key differentiator with a SVT is that it starts on a beat, goes over 200bpm and either doesn't stop for hours, needs a hospital visit to convert... or stops on a beat.

It doesn't gradually rise or ramp up :)

Sounds like you were having an adrenaline surge due to a panic attack.