Help! Constant Palps even with Xanax

[panicface]

Hey guys / girls,

I'm used to getting skipped beats - normally 2 - 4 a day at most.
If I'm getting sick (like the flu or infection) I'll get them more often.

If they're anxiety driven I pop 0.25mg Xanax and that cures it right away (20min) and then knocks me out for sleep.

However this time I'm getting palps out of no-where, not anxious, just laying in bed watching TV. sometimes 3 a min - or 10 a min..

Really freaked me out last night at 1am - drove myself to hospital - but by the time I got there the sliver of Xanax I took + the nice nurse calmed me down..

My Blood PRessure was fine, my pulse fine (105 - but i was scared) - I opted for the EKG - it was fine, but it didn't catch an actual palp event..

Doc's advice - take more xanax. I took another 0.25 and went home.. From 2am - 6am no palps at all - I'm CURED!!

6am and they started coming like mad..

Took another 0.25 (little less) and now they seem to be quieting down again (20 min later)..

WTF is going on here? I never get palps like these....

Can anyone advise?

Do I need to go get fitted for a halter monitor? Is this just normal for anxiety - after 4hr the Xanax wears off and palps come back?

I never get palps while exercising (normally) and no heart pain or anything else. I'm 40yo male.

I'm thinking there might be some kind of low level infection - so I might pop a Z-pac today to see if that wipes it out....

Any advice is appreciated - I'm alone in Asia at the moment with no one to call and TERRIBLY stressed...

Thanks...

PS - I've never taken more than 0.5mg of xanax a day - but i've been on it now for almost 4 weeks because of severe stress event before.

I'm nervous taking too much... the rate this is going I'll be taking at least 4 to 6 doses of 0.25 a day 1mg - 1.5mg to keep this in check..

[Aaahhfreakout]

Sounds like you might want to be careful with that Xanax. I'd check and see if it can also cause palps in high doses, just in case.

If you do have a low level infection that you think is affecting your heart, then you should lay off the exercise for a little while. I remember reading in a cycling magazine years ago that it can be a bit unwise.

Are you more stressed overall than usual?

You said you are in Asia, has your diet changed? Some food additives might be bad for those of us who get palps. I'd try to keep it healthy and simple for a few days and see if that helps. Also, is it warmer than you are used to? I wonder about losing electrolytes through sweating.

Also, some people in this forum suffer random palp flare ups for no apparent reason, then disappear for no reason too. Might be that.

[panicface]

Sounds like you might want to be careful with that Xanax. I'd check and see if it can also cause palps in high doses, just in case.

If you do have a low level infection that you think is affecting your heart, then you should lay off the exercise for a little while. I remember reading in a cycling magazine years ago that it can be a bit unwise.

Are you more stressed overall than usual?

You said you are in Asia, has your diet changed? Some food additives might be bad for those of us who get palps. I'd try to keep it healthy and simple for a few days and see if that helps. Also, is it warmer than you are used to? I wonder about losing electrolytes through sweating.

Also, some people in this forum suffer random palp flare ups for no apparent reason, then disappear for no reason too. Might be that.

Yup - mine seem to come and go with no apparent reason. Do get them with infections but other than that - just uninvited (and unwelcome) guests - seem to have gone away for the last month now.

[Ethansmom]

I am having the same thing going on. I've been getting daily palpitations for a few days now. I also have been taking Xanax for a few weeks due to high anxiety!

[Rosanna]

Curious, because mine came out of the blue without usual triggers on new year's eve. And I stayed in that night and did nothing different, no alcohol or anything.

Has anyone been run down with an infection. I think I was about 5 days ago and didn't eat as much as usual, wondering if that had an effect.

It definitely seems to be some kind of bodily hyperarousal thing as things that calm us, calm that too, that's not to say it's anxiety though. I know mine wasn't, I was calm when I woke up with them.

[panicface]

honestly, they seem to come on for no rhyme or reason.

i can say i 'think' that i get them when i get a systematic infection. for instance i'll start throwing random palps and then 2 days later i'll come down with bronchitis or strep throat. however i recently got another infection and had no palps at all.... (shrug).

often they just come out of blue, and then i get anxious - and i look for a rational reason they started. is it something i did? didn't do? something i ate? stress? sex? some underlying condition? i'll look for something i can STOP doing or START doing to fix the problem.

palps and anxiety feed on each other - like snake eating it's tail. if you get palps you get anxious, and you fear the next set of palps, and they come and you get more anxious.

if you get anxious palps often follow (but not always) etc.

could it be down to the sympathetic nervous system, breathing, the vagus nerve, getting irritated by alcohol or food, could it be unconscious stress? sure - any of those and a hundred more.

i just keep a spreadsheet that tells me i've had these before they always go away. so far that's true. i've had them only last a week, and sometimes months - but they leave and i'm fine for many months..

best of luck.

[Ethansmom]

sometimes I get them for no reason, but most of the time i'm dwelling on some sort of bodily symptoms that scares me, that then triggers the palps!