aware of your heart pumping

[fisher]

hi everyone i know this might sound stupid but i have suffered from anxiety for 4yrs now but it is better now, my biggest fear was feeling my heart beating faster but i have had all the tests done, i am 33yrs old now and when i was 27 i had a chest xray, heart scan 24hr tape, and ecg and it came back i had ectopic heart beats nothing to worry about, i didnt have anxiety then, anyway i started with a bad kidney infection when i was 29 and my heart was going fast, they checked it in work because i work in the hospital and my pulse was high, it really worried me and then thats when i started with the anxiety over my heart, i went private to see a cardiologist and again same tests as i had before, it came back fine, to this day i still worry about my heart, only last november i was getting loads of ectopic heart beats and my doctor said not to worry so i phoned up and went private again thinking my health ins would pay anyway they didnt so i have to pay the bill £189 all he done was listened to my heart and done an ecg, but he said everything is fine its just ectopics, so i have not bothered with my heart but today because i could feel it beating i am thinking its probably beating faster than it is, does anybody else ever feel there heart beating and its like you can feel every beat, it doesnt half make me anxious, please reply so you can put me at ease x

[catherine24]

hi fisher dont worry i feel my heart beating all the time my doctor said this was caused by the anxiety and is something called sensitizing i think that is the word lol i.e. you are more aware of you heart because in the back of your mind you think its going to stop i also developed a habit of feeling my pulse in my wrist dont know what i was looking for but i checked my pulse constantly i have read somewhere maybe on this site about sensitizing definatley on panic attacks site so it is common take care love catherine xxxxxxxx

[rosebud]

Hi Fisher
Hope your ok.
I am exactly the same.
I can feel my heartbeat all the time and the more i listen in the more anxious i get which usually makes it feel harder and louder.
I'me so worried there is something wrong.
I know deep down i am just obsessing about it.
We are just so tuned in to every little thing and thats what makes us so aware of it.
Take care
Traceyxxx

[weepinky]

Hi Fisher

Please don't worry about this, it is a typical symptom of anxiety although unpleasant is harmless, I have it quite often but know it can't harm me now so just find something to distract myself and take my mind of it, hope this helps a little.

Luv Pinky

Yesterdays history, Tommorows a mystery, today is a gift, thats why its called the present.

[seeker]

Hello - I can feel my heartbeat all the time, and can even see my skin and veins moving up and down in time with it! it's because I am quite skinny. If you are slender, that's probably it as well - it's perfectly normal. In fact, now I think of it as quite reassuring. LOL!

[fisher]

thankyou everyone for the replies, it was so reasuring lovely to here from you all x

[Elle]

It's ironic really. Babies in the womb listen to the mother's heartbeat all the time. I read somewhere that babies can be made to calm down after music has been played to them that simulates the mother's heart beat. They find it reassuring.

Odd that we can find our own heartbeat disturbing. I've only ever felt it disturbing when I've had a palpitation and that was only a few times years ago. What would be even more disturbing is if we had no heart beat! It's there to do a job and it does it for maybe eighty years or more. It never rests. The heart is an amazing organ.

Elle

[davidthegnome]

Fisher,

This is a normal thing with anxiety. In fact, it has definitely been one of my most bothering anxieties. For example, yesterday morning I woke up and my heart was really pounding. Over 100 beats a minute. Man was I spooked. It was just an anxiety attack though and nothing to really worry about. I practiced breathing deep and slow, took my medication (lorazepam) and had my mother (a nurse) check my pulse for me until it went down to normal.

I find that it has definitely made me uncomfortable. For example, even when I lie down to sleep (often on my stomach) I can feel my heart beating. I worry about how fast it's going and wish I had one of those nifty little things the nurses put on your finger to check it. This has been one of my anxieties for a long time. It's uncomfortable, frightening at times, but it is harmless.

One of my therapists suggested to me that I should thank my heart for beating so wonderfully and keeping me healthy and such. It sounded kind of odd to me at the time, but I find that it really does help. I'm still troubled by it, but it's nothing to worry about, particularly if you've had tests and everything is fine.

I know it's an irrational fear and that bugs me too. I also from time to time tend to think my heart is beating faster than it is. Again, this is all normal symptoms of anxiety, even palpitations are normal symptoms. Anxiety attacks can increase the heart-rate and make you more worried, stress and anxiety can also do this.

Try taking some deep relaxing breaths. Breathe in slow and deep and feel your stomach fill with air, then breathe out slow and deep and feel it go back down. May help to place a hand on your stomach and another on your chest.

I'm on the same boat with the fear of my own heart beat. It's a pain in the rear, a massive pain in the rear, but it will never hurt you and is completely normal to worry about when you have anxiety.


Good luck and God Bless you, remember that no anxiety lasts forever,

David

[looking4answers]

I too am aware of mine and always have been but now hear it in my ears everyday as a constant reminder that it could stop.Im sorry you too are aware and wished i had a magic spell that i could help everyone on here with this issue but im pretty sure its just us being hyper aware.. of it.. maybe one day it will go away.. take care

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with sufferings of body and mind
quickly be freed from their illnesses.
May those frightened cease to be afraid,
and may those bound be free.
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May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wilderness--
the children, the aged, the unprotected--
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[fisher]

oh thats so nice of you all for your kind words, you wouldnt think it but i work in a hospital on a ward as an auxilliary nurse, i take blood and all sorts of things but i have got a health phobia, i see loads of people going into svt, that is super ventricular tachicardia were your pulse goes to ABOUT 200bpm they have to try and do a corotic massage or give them drugs, i think to myself if that was me i would panic and make it go worse,and i always think of all these people that just drop dead with sudden death syndrome, they have a heart defect, i have to keep saying to myself i have had tests and they would of found something x

[debbsi]

Hi
I work in a hospital too, I think thats part of my problem you see what those people suffer and you worry the same could happen to you. Although I work on a stroke ward, I see lots of other illness too. My problem is the slightest twinge I have I think its something more sever. Or if my kids arnt well I panic even more, then I end up being ill through worrying about them!

Deb xxxx

[David985623]

Im glad to see im not only person who worries about this. I sometimes think that mine is beating too slow or it will stop. Its hard for me to deal with sometimes. I think thats all thats keeping me alive. Same with breathing its best to try do something that take your mind off it.

[debera]

Hi Fisher
Dont worry I get this alot too.The doc says its just anxiety. We are more aware of what going on within our bodys than people with out anxiety. We are more sensitized to what is happening to our hearts. I get ectopics also. i just try to keep busy and try to ignore it hard I know.Somedays I can ignore it more then others.Hope this helps
Love Debera

[looking4answers]

Hey ,

Just a note to let you know that you arent alone..I have always been aware of every beat of my heart since i was a child..My chest and in my finger tips and now for the last year as if that wasnt enough ..My head pounds and although I have been told I cannot hear my heartbeat.

Someone needs to listen to my head.I hear it clearly and every beat whether its missed or half beat of just a plain beat all day everyday and sometimes almost unbearable.Its called PET ..its a condition that they say I have to live with because it caused from getting older and losing padding in my head and neck and on my chest.. and to tell you the truth im not sure there is much known about it at all..But well hopefully it wont be fatal.But I can assure you being aware of your every heartbeat is normal to anxious people and people that don't know they are anxious.Just be happy you don't hear it pounding in your head..all the time..I really don't know what to say other than to try to just ignore it.. I have been told laughingly by medical personel dont worry when you hear it but you know you might have a problem when you cant..Take care and hope this helps..

[soulsurfer]

hi fisher
I feel my heartbeat when feeling anxious but normally ok,
phil

[Kathleen]

Hi Fisher,

I am so relating to what you said. I too am aware of my heart pumping. Not just aware, totally distracted by it. It has done this for years, beats so fast it wipes me out, particularily when I try to sleep. (I am a stomach sleeper too, although it doesn't seem to help changing positions) I have the whole gamet when it comes to weird heart symptoms and it drives me crazy. I think that this was what caused my first panic attack. It kind of becomes an obsession when it is constantly in your ears. It is kind of reassuring to read on here and find out it isn't lethal and it is just part of the anxiety/panic thing, but at the same time, hard to discover that you have some other reason for it.
But at least we don't have to stress about our heart stopping right?

Kathleen

[Airz01]

I am also aware of my heart beat, sounds like its beating out of my chest some times, also have been having really bad panic attacks that started abroad for no reason what so ever, i was just sat there chatting and it started, felt like i was going to die. Have had ECG's and blood test they all seem normal - can also feel when my heart skips a beat sometimes.