Scared to Sleep... ;_;

[Lacrymosa]

Recently I've convinced myself that I have long qt syndrome. Its a heart condition where normal healthy people just die out of the blue. And me, being the idiot that I am read a story about a 17 year old boy who died from this in his sleep. This sent my mind reeling. Not only am i also 17, but i have chest pain and yesterday i had 10 ecoptic heartbeats. This is more then I've ever had in a day before. I'm so worried. I think everytime I go to sleep I won't wake up. I really don't want to die. I'm so close to crying right now... I don't know want to do. I think in about a week I'm going to get an ekg, but I know every night until then I'm to freak out. And I know i'm so stupid for evening worrying about this, because its so rare and no one in my family has ever shown symptoms. I mean I try to convince myself its nothing, but another part of me continues to scream at me, that i'm dying. Does anyone else suffer from this fear?

[cattttt]

All of us here have had similar fears at some time. Not necessarily your particular fear, but at some time, we have all been convinced that we are about die. Ectopics are just a symptom of anxiety, they are very scary, especially if you get lots, but are not life threatening, the same with chest pain, that's much more likely to be caused by the stress of your fear.
I went through a phase of having a panic attack every night just as I was going off to sleep, it would sometimes happen several times in one night. It made me scared to go to sleep. I thought I would die as each time, my heart did some really wierd things and I would start to black out, but it stopped happening after a while and I'm still here!
Health anxiety is a horrible thing to live with, we all know just what it feels like to be so scared.
Long qt syndrome is very rare as you say, and it's unlikely you would have got to 17 without it being picked up before. Keep telling yourself this, and try to relax, easier said than done I know; when you've been checked out, you will know for sure that you are ok.
In the meantime, is there someone you can talk to who will understand how scared you are? Just talking about it might help.

[beadbabe]

Oh your poor thing.
What made you think you have long QT syndrome?

I have been through a stage of thinking that. I have thousands of ectopics a day all in runs of them and have done so for nearly a year now. Not dead yet! although I often think this is it.

I have lots of ecg's and long QT would be picked up on ecg so you will soon know - it almost certainly isn't. I don't think you can self-diagnose such a condition. You are probably like me - have read about it and focused on some symptoms you have in common.

I bet you'll be okay!
Take care

[boy]

I read about it last year, and there are adverts in the Daily mail reminding us of the condition. I was stirred up for a couple of days as I am only in my late teens myself. It's as if we never have any escape from our fears, even when we sleep.

I've always had chest pains around where the heart is and weird ectopic heartbeats are often noticed. I've no idea if I have the condition but I think to put your mind at rest you should get yourself examined. Once you know you're fine you can put this behind you

[Lacrymosa]

I just wanted to say that your posts have really helped me. A little reassurance can go a long way. I guess I just kind of convinced myself, through reading articles that I have long qt, and it didn't help, that a poor girl at my school had just died from unexplained causes. I just got myself so freaked out. I'm feeling a little better now though. Thank you all so much for the reasurance and kind words.

[dizzy]

i have loads of ectopic heartbeats everyday...CONSTANT!!! lol, they freak me out loads, and i get chest pains too but i'm sure you dont have long q t. hope u get well soon

[mkeeley]

Sorry to hear you're feeling bad, I've had nights the same where I don't want to go to sleep incase.... However the less sleep you get, for me at least, the worse I feel.

So really if I'm going to drop dead then not going to sleep isn't going to change things and thinking about it, if I did, I'd prefer it to happen when I am asleep rather than when I'm awake. But that's the rational thinking, it's different when you're feeling aweful.