Heart squeeze skipped beats fatigue... Anxiety?

[Adrens]

Hi all,

I am almost 21 and a male. Since June last year I have been experiencing lightheadedness and fast heart rate.. I have been to the doctor plenty of time and they dismissed it as nothing and sent me on my way. Eventually got referred to a cardiologist in January this year and had an echo, ecg, bloods etc all normal. However I have been expericing a number of skipped beats lately, it feels like a sinking in chest then back to normal, they occur mostly during exercise at a heart rate of 160-180bpm. Should I be concerned? I also have been experiencing some random heart squeezes that last a second and send a wave of heat through my body lasting about 20-30 seconds if I don't panic. I am constantly checking my pulse rate/rhythm and become distressed when I experience these. I have had a 24hr holter but didn't have any symptoms on that day. My results have been delayed and I have to wait 8 weeks to hear back. From what I have read online I am naturally concerned and I am wondering if anxiety can do this?

Thanks in advance!

[Aaahhfreakout]

In my experience of studying myself with a little portable ECG, there are skipped beats that appear from exercise and stress and ones which don't.

Don't get too freaked out when you read that "an increase in ectopic beats with exercise is a bad thing" as it sometimes is true but sometimes isn't.

The doctors should refer you to a stress/exercise test to check you out but at your age, it's probably fine if you don't faint or feel dizzy and get a long series of ectopics without gaps.

There is the possibility that you are getting ectopics all the time but only with exercise is your heartbeat hard enough for you to feel them all, so they may not be increasing with exercise, perhaps your ability to notice them is. Hope it all goes well. :)

[Adrens]

Thanks for the response,

In all seriousness I do believe that anxiety is a contributing factor to increased ectopics etc.. Especially when googling the symptoms which seems to bring only bad news.. I will push for a stress test to be safe but that could take many month as the waiting lists are never good. It's just scary when it happens especially the squeezing sensation which doesn't seem to have a lot of coverage on the Internet.

Thanks for the input.