I've just found this site today after having palpitations at work, I've read through a number of threads which have been really reassuring and just wanted to post my experience.
I am 29, been pretty healthy my entire life - I've had asthma and mitral stenosis my whole life but luckily neither conditions has been serious to affect my life in any significant way.
About two years ago however I started getting palpitations - missed beats followed by huge thuds, heart racing, noticing my pulse in my neck/throat, irregular beats along with anxiety, a sense of dread etc. They'd come on at random intervals: sat at work, at the gym, lying in bed at night. When they happened at night I'd panic to the point where I couldn't sleep - I became exhausted, depressed, stopped exercising. I went to the doctor who suggested that it could be panic attacks or anxiety related and that beta blockers might help but because I have asthma she wouldn't prescribe them. I also saw my cardiologist who ran an ecg and even had a 24hr ecg recorder to try and capture the events but they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and was told it wasn't serious.
When the ectopics didn't subside I was offered a computerized CBT course by my GP, I was largely dismissive because I was convinced my problems were "real" i.e. a serious heart problem and not just a result of anxiety or stress. Have to say the CBT was somewhat helpful. I was under a lot of stress at the time: new job, repaying debt, saving for a house and some of the methods for coping with anxiety were useful when these attacks occurred.
The worse part really is that it feels like a cloud over my life. I can go a couple of days feeling fine, and then wham I have an attack and I'm back to worrying about it. I'm not panicking about them anywhere near as much though, I've cut right back on caffeine and alcohol which were definitely triggers - it's now only the big palpitations where it feels like my heart can't get back into rhythm for several seconds that terrify me into thinking I'm about to drop dead. When it happens I have to distract myself - just sitting still and deep breathing seems make things worse because I end up working myself up about it. I find distracting myself either just writing something down on paper if i'm alone, or talking to my partner or whoever is around helps reassure me that i'm safe and going to be ok.
I hate having them, I wish there was something I could do to make them stop completely. I wish I could completely convince myself that they are harmless and I'm not suddenly going to drop dead one day. One thing has helped is finding message threads where people post about it - helps me realize I'm not the only one going through this and finding this site today after a big attack has really helped - some of the advice offered sounds really helpful.
One thing that's been hard to accept is that the problem is anxiety/stress related. I feel like a failure that my body can't deal with everyday stresses but at the same time knowing that I'm having a panic attacks and not about to die is weirdly comforting. I just have to ride the attacks out and know while I feel awful right now things will get better. What I'm concentrating on now is getting over my fears so that I can get back to exercising - something that I've become very reluctant to do since this started, but hopefully I can get over my anxiety enough to get back to enjoying life and living it to the full.
Thanks for reading!
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