What just happened to my heart!?

[DaisyFay]

Hi,

I was hoping I could get some words of reassurance from someone who has maybe experienced something similar or have someone at least tell me what happened? It’s Saturday and I plan to go to my GP on Monday to discuss this but want to stop worrying in the meantime.

I’ve always had palpitations. I’ve had many ecgs over the years which always come back ok but I’ve never experienced anything abnormal while having them. I had a 24hr tape and an echo 5 years ago which was normal. Never had any kind of stress test however.
The doctors always put my fast heartrate and palpitations down to anxiety and never bother looking into anything further. Even when I was pregnant with a heart rate of 140 then just said “anxiety”

For me my palpitations are normally skipped beats but this morning I had breakfast then did a work out, during my workout my heart skipped a few beats and I carried on. However when I stopped the workout and sat down, my eyes went blurry and it was like the room spun then BAM really fast and really hard heartbeat pounding out of my chest, I could see black dots in my eyes and everything felt crazy. I called my husband as I was home alone with two young children. I did what I’ve done before with sudden, fast heart episodes and pushed down and coughed which stopped it after a couple minutes. I felt calm the entire time it happened but I now feel terrified.

I’m now really shaken up. I’ve had episodes before of where my heart suddenly goes really fast and hard and I’ve had to push down and cough to stop it. But I’ve always told myself oh it must be stress. The fact that this morning was triggered by a workout and I had blurry eyes and the room spun. I am now TERRIFIED that this means something is wrong with my heart.

I think my worrying is making me feel worse right now. But I feel like the workout and the vision along with the sudden fast and hard heart must be a red flag.

Was that an SVT attack or Afib? Or can panic attacks be like that? I know no one is a doctor on here. Would just like to hear if anyone has experienced something similar?

Thank you so much for any help.

[ankietyjoe]

You had an unusual physical sensation (blurred vision and dizziness) and had an immediate panic attack. You don't have to feel panicky to have a panic attack. The panic reaction can happen in milliseconds, before you've even had time to consciously react.

That's what it sounds like to me.

[DaisyFay]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it.

It’s amazing how I can have anxiety all of my 20s and still not understand it. So can a panic attack be a sudden very hard and very fast heart rate? It started suddenly and ended suddenly. Google obviously says SVT, VT etc which makes me panic even more.

For me anxiety has always meant I’ve felt incredibly anxious in my mind & body at the same time.

I feel anxious, shaken and ‘palpy’ now but when it happened it was out of nowhere. Of course then my mind races thinking if this happens when I exercise something is Definitely wrong with my heart as it can’t work hard.

I don’t normally exercise, I have just started as I thought it would reduce anxiety.

[ankietyjoe]

A couple of things that are probably worth pointing out -

1) Never Google, ever. All you're doing is feeding the subconscious with a list of worst case scenarios. There is no benefit to Googling, ever. 'That guy' who had the extremely rare heart condition you read about 3 years ago will be the FIRST thing your mind drags up next time you have an even vaguely similar symptom.

2) Exercise IS good for anxiety, but it's also not. Exercise is a stress, and anxiety is always a result of stress. It's a reaction to stress and/or danger, nothing more. If you push too hard, it no longer becomes beneficial to anxiety, it becomes part of the cause. It's something you need to ease into, even if it just means walking outside to start with (by far the best anxiety reducer anyway).

[DaisyFay]

You’re completely right. I should know better than googling. I read it and then think, well that’s it, best case scenarios it’s SVT worst case it’s VT. I don’t think about other stressors. exercise being stress probably was the trigger. I woke up feeling happy and energised so went for 40 minutes cardio, sweating and out of breath went normally I would just go for a walk or do some relaxing yoga.

The other thing that worries me is I’m out of breath often. Can being breathless just in general everyday be anxiety.

Anxiety is an ever changing beast it seems!

[ankietyjoe]

40 minutes heavy cardio is way, way too long.

Breathlessness is common. It happens to me as a main symptom when I'm stressed.

It's caused (mainly) by tense and exhausted muscles. Breathing is controlled by the diaphragm, a muscle. If you are constantly tense, you don't breath properly, then you try and breathe properly to compensate which causes you to mildly hyperventilate, which in turn causes shortness of breath. It's extremely common.

This would also explain the dizzy spell/spinning. Tense neck and shoulder muscles that are 'released' by a bit of exercise can cause extremely intense sensations. For me it was always when I was sitting at my desk, I would move a certain way and it felt like falling off a cliff, or as if my head was tilting sideways when it wasn't. Kind of similar to the feeling you get when you close your eyes if you've had too much to drink. I can also sometimes wake up with severe vertigo because I've had muscle tension during the night.

It's all explainable by stress and anxiety, but Google will never get you there, it will only get you to the fatal causes.

[Carnation]

I agree with ankietyjoe, he's pretty much summed it up.

[DaisyFay]

Thank you so much for the replies. They made me step away from google and calm down. I’m feeling much better this afternoon now I’ve stopped panicking.
It’s so hard to think that when something feels so awful that it can be anything other than something bad. Thank you for the rationale.

The breathless explanation sums up exactly how i feel most of the time at the moment. Maybe I was more stressed than I realised and pushed my body too far today.

Have you ever had a heart episode like this in public? When I’m at home I literally curl up and do things to stop it, like coughing and pushing down. I always worry what I would in a crowded place if my heart suddenly started going crazy.

[Carys]

I've had things like you DaisyFay, infact I did this morning. Triggered by the vagus nerve I had a run of palps and ectopics that seemed to go on forever and contained some very fast racing bits, though in reality it was no more than 20 seconds. I can usually stop mine by standing up and drinking water.breathing in very deeply, which didn't work this morning. I won't deny it scared me also, but I'm sure that the moment I felt the first 'odd feeling' I added to the scenario and increasing its severity by tensing up and releasing instant adrenaline.

[DaisyFay]

It is scary. I’ve been left having a lot of “why can’t my body just be normal” thoughts today, which I know I shouldn’t think. Trying not to panic over these things is definitely easier said than done. It’s a huge reassurance to know I’m not the only person who experiences them and what happened this morning doesn’t automatically equal a heart problem.

[Carys]

I know what you mean, I've had ectopics for ummmmm 30 years now and they still scare me when I get an 'odd run' like the set today, very very occasionally. I am used to them all the time, most days, but like you this felt 'different' and 'worse'. I had a similar event to you last year, sudden fast racing, felt dizzy and fainty, the room span and I thought I was going to fall over. Thinking about it afterwards, analysing it to try and reassure myself, I felt the fast race bit of the heart catching up after a missed beat and entered an instant 'panic/something is wrong/send adrenaline out asap mode' within a split second and that caused the second part of the symptoms. So, I'm just saying it is definitely true that an instant fear response can cause the blurring/spinning room thing. If you are a pesron, like myself, who can cough and do postural things to alter your heart patterns, then it sounds like you are triggering your vagus nerve (near the stomach) and it could be that the exercises you were doing did just that - triggered it.

[ankietyjoe]

It is scary. I’ve been left having a lot of “why can’t my body just be normal” thoughts today.

It is normal. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to do as a reaction to perceived stress. It's the subconscious learned response that isn't normal, the anxious reaction to anxiety.

It's probably worth doing a stress audit. There are so many things that can cause stress that you might not even realise, even down to things like diet, alcohol consumption, not enough time outside, not enough exercise (non strenuous), confrontation at home/work etc.

In terms of dealing with it when it's outside, just let it run. Instead of reacting and trying to get your heart rate down at home, just let it do what it's going to do. All it really is is an adrenal response, and it sorts itself out in 5-15 minutes anyway. It might be uncomfortable, but it's not dangerous in any way, so try and retrain your perception away from it being a problem that has to be immediately stopped. Trust your body to do what it needs to do, whilst consciously not reacting to it.

[glassgirlw]

For what it’s worth, I also find mine can sometimes tie into hormonal shifts. When I’m nearer “my time”, I can have a day or two of pretty consistent palps or ectopics. Yesterday they were off and on all day, today I’ve had a few random ones here and there. Also went on a long walk this morning and didn’t have any during exercise so that helps me worry even less about them. I just put them out of my mind and move on! They’ll stop eventually. I think the less attention you pay them the quicker they’ll pass.