View Full Version : Heartbeat too slow?
Hi,
Straight to the point, have you ever had those situations where you believe your heart rate is too slow?
That's not for anxiety or panic I know, in fact when I have a full blown panic attack I'll be doing 140-150 bpm, thankfully although I am having panic attacks occasionally they're not as much of a part of my problem this time round as the more general anxiety.
Why am I asking? My normal resting heart rate is around 70bpm when I'm not stressed and 80-90 bpm when I am. When I'm doing something that I'm sure should be raising my heart rate it stays slow or feels like it does, and only raises when I do something particularly active, which I wish I could do but I'm having a hard time getting past the early exercise palpitations.
I went and bought a blood-pressure monitor the other week. Anyone else done that? It shows for the most part that my BP and heart rate are fairly standard and behave normally and in some way that puts my mind to rest. But I still can't get it out of my mind that sometimes when my heart should be pumping more blood around and faster it just doesn't. Silly I know but I had to share :doh:
Chris
OMG noooo, not the BP monitor - throw it out the window, you'll be checking it all the time :D
About the slow heart rate, yes the other day I was out walking and my heart rate was going really slow and I had the same thought as you - that it should be going quicker because I was active, but then logic says we should be happy about that really because that means we are fit.
Maybe all this anxiety is strengthening our heart muscles and making us fit, is that possible do you think? :D
Chris, you are a young person and your heart rate is normal, and if as you say that your heart rate 'goes up' to 80 or 90 when you are anxious then count yourself lucky. There are alot of ppl here whos heartrate goes up way over 100 with anx. As for blood pressure, well im on meds for mine since last year i developed high bp, but its a combination of moving to germany, my age (54) and menoapuse.
Chris, ive been waiting to die since i was 22 yrs old. Thats how long ive had health anxiety, mainly im heart phobic and 32 years is a long time yes? The thing is that now im actually at an age when things can start to go wrong with my health, but why on earth did i let it get the better of me in my 20s? dont do it. Learn from us oldies on here.
Keep posting, keep listening.
Take care
Cathy xxx
Actually yes I thought to myself at the time that it was a stupid thing to buy.
I have an example of why this is a bad idea, I'm going to write this down here because doing so helps me to clear that thought in my mind:
My current normal blood pressure is around 140/90, top end of normal and not surprising as I smoke and am fairly unfit. I posted on another thread earlier that one of the issues I'd been having this time around was that I woke up in full blown panic attacks and last week during one I went and checked my blood pressure it was something around 190/120, do you know what that did to me? That made my panic worse!
I know my heart is fine, my head tells me this, when I'm having 140bpm panic attacks I can deal with those too, just given that 4 years ago I was so fit I was cycling 150-200 miles a week and now I'm terrified of walking to the shop because I have palpitations. It's a tough one to get over, I went through this two years ago when I was having palpitations on doing what is light exercise, I've let myself get unfit inbetween the two periods of general anxiety.
I've said all that and I just want to shake myself to logic and stay get it out of your mind but I can't it's silly.
I feel for you Cathy my problems have been shortlived compared with yours, you must have enormous strength and I admire you for it!
Chris
Your blood pressure will go up in this way with panic, as well as an increase in heart-rate...something wrong actually if it didnt do this as you wouldnt be able to 'fight or flight' without this response! what puzzles me is that you say your normal resting bp is 140/90...your doc has said this is normal? only im on meds for this, and was always under the impression that normal bp was 120 to around 138 over 80 to around 86. They arent too bothered about the top number so much coz this reading can change by the minute depending on what activity or stress you have. Apparently its the bottom number they worry about more.
Admittedly I'm not a healthcare professional but my understanding of a fairly normal BP is around 125/80. If I'm not mistaken one of the definitions of hypertension is where the diastolic BP is above 90 regardless of the systolic reading - though the latter being over 140 I think is high too.
My doctor has repeatedly said my BP is at the high end of normal rather than being high as such. But then as I said I'm a smoker and feeling rather generally anxious. Also as you pointed out I'm youngish I'm sure if it gets higher as I age they might worry but as yet isn't something, thankfully, I worry about mostly.
I am attached to my BP monitor. At one point I would take it 70 times a day! I had high BP after having my kids. I was on 4 different meds but am med free and BP is great now. However I worry about my heart rate. I believe it gets too low. In the evening I take it and it sits about 50. The occassional times it has been down in the low 40's and that freaks me out completely!!!! I had an EKG done to rule out heart block etc. My doctor tells me that a low pulse rate is the sign of a strong heart and as long as it isnt causing any effects such as dizziness and passing out that it is a really good thing! The less hard your heart has to work the better. Many athletes have heartrates in the 30's because they are so fit.
However due to the health anxiety I do have times where I still worry and panic about it, its hard not too.
Huge hugs and I hope you dont get too sucked into the BP machine!
When my children's father (my ex) died of a heart attack aged 44, I bought a Omron digital b/p monitor so I could check on theirs (heart disease is in the family).
I take mine occasionally perhaps once every few months, usually it is a case of someone wanting me to take theirs (my neighbour).
If you are going to get one get a good make and one with the cuff that goes around the upper arm not the wrist and make sure it is the right size for your arm. If you have fat upper arms you want a large cuff.
I took many patients b/p over the years so I am use to taking it but if you feel unsure Lloyds the Chemist will check it for you.:)
The one I bought has a full arm cuff and is fairly simple to use, as my own readings are more or less in line with my doctors I'm fairly sure I'm using it correctly, though might be abusing it. Although I said earlier that it's not something I worry about, on a couple of the medications I've tried for my depression it'd always go up so I just feel nice to have to be able to check I'm not about to burst apart without bothering my doctor. Silly I know.
As for the reason for this thread, the thing is my heart rate isn't abnormally low, certainly not as low as yours has been Alisonj, however when I've been in my extended anxious periods in the past and it's low (often before bed when it should be lower) although I don't feel faint but it's a very odd feeling for it to beating so slow and yet I'm so stressed, it manages to bother me more than if it was still racing.
When I exercise it doesn't always pick up when it should either, I'm often tired after doing the simplest things. Now this I suspect might be my mind making 2 + 2 =5. Cos having read threads and articles here the fact I'm dizzy and breathless after doing the simplest things is because I've forgotten how to breathe properly, not because my heart isn't working normally. But I guess being the semi-intelligent person I like to pretend I am I'm always thinking about stuff I shouldn't, like erm what if my body is producing so much adrenaline to keep me anxious all the time but when I do need it for exercising it's just not doing it.
All I do when I get that in my mind is tell myself that in the intervening year between the anxiety it hadn't done it, so it's much more likely that I'm using up all my energy worrying and then feeling naturally tired because of that when I'm using up more than I've put back in. I'm rambling I know but it's sane logic which often appeals to my brain I often throw out of the window when I worry about things.
Hi Chris, i may have missed it, but reading back over your posts here, you don't mention meds. The reason im asking is because some meds can make your heartrate lower, heartbeat slower and can cause breathlessness and when exercising you struggle to get your heart-rate to increase to a good cardiovascular rate. Theres nothing wrong, its just that with the meds, your whole body is saying "hey man, chill" !! im referrinf to beta-blockers here as they are famous for slowing everything down....ring any bells?
Cathy xxxx :)
I'm not on any meds of any sort at the moment, that is part of my problem unfortunately, I'd taken things a couple of years ago that helped. This time around my anxiety is making it tougher, I have problems taking any medications again that's part of my problem, I get worried this will happen and that will happen. SSRI's for example upset my stomach alot, that being one of my hotspots for anxiety is a problem. Amitriptyline which helped settle my stomach and my sleep and depression a few years ago before they switched me onto Fluoxetine (once my stomach had settled down enough) leaves me feeling too tired at the moment and this brings on a panic attack as I'm having them mostly when I wake and waking with an amitriptyline "hangover" with a panic attack is worse for my anxiety that otherwise. As for beta-blockers I've taken them in the past but they really scare me so now I steer clear.
So my BP etc is based currently on non-med feelings, and without them I'm still sure I can get well but it's just going to be a harder road.
Well done you for coping without the meds. Yes bp and heart-rate can be a worry, as you said if its too fast we worry and if its too slow we worry! I know that before my bp cahnged last year it had always been good and steady, through 2 divorces, 4 pregnancies and a million and one stresses over the years, including recurring ectopics, and never once did it waver!
So it was like being given a death sentence (ok thats a bit dramatic but you know what i mean) last year when it was so high. The doc here still reckons its psychosomatic, as id had it checked 6 weeks before i cam over to germany and it was 138 over 83, though he does concede that because both my parents had hypertension, then im kind of pre-disposed to it. So now i have to take meds and i hate it. I feel like ive lost control of my body, its not mine anymore...it belongs to the beta-blockers!
Keep going chris, you'll get there.
Cathy xxx
My Rested Heart rate can hit 55 just sitting at my desk. It used to freak me out until my Doc went over some old EKG's with me. All my EKG's are normal and you could see my Heart rate was in the Mid 50's to Low 60's during the test, Doc said it was just me..
My Doctor told me he wont worry about a slow heart rate unless it hits in the 30's...
Thank you for Cathy for your words of support :)
The fact is I'd rather do it without meds if I can, they supplied my mind and body with the break from the cycle that they needed last time. This time having had a worsening to unbearable levels of the anxiety after taking them I'd like to see if I can do this without them but as I said it's not easy. The brief time I've spent on this forum and site has helped there though so we'll see, one day at a time and all that!
Cathy although I came up with some reasons about why in my case getting a BP monitor might not have helped, do you have one? I ask because it's obviously something that worries you (and your doctor) enough to be on meds, and if you're only getting your BP checked by them at set intervals just the build up and the event of being with your doctor could be raising your BP those few extra points. That's one of the reasons I justified buying one myself, I felt if I had a good idea of how it was over the course of the day over weeks I'd have a better idea if it's high or not.
Chris
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