Very anxious and Can’t sleep - Ectopics won’t stop

[Cyrus]

I’m feeling extremely anxious right now. Over the last week or so I’ve had a lot of ectopic beats, like a heart “flutter” for a second or two and then back to normal. I know this usually isn’t a cause for concern but I’ve just been having them so frequently (anywhere from 1 to 25 in an hour) that I’m very anxious. It’s 5 AM here and I can’t sleep because I keep having an ectopic beat every few minutes, and I feel like it’s this vicious cycle where I have one, start feeling anxious because of it, then have another one because I’m now even more anxious, and so on and so on.

I am planning to see a doctor this week to get checked out for this, but in the past when I’ve gone they’ve assured me that I’m OK and just anxious. I had an EKG last year and that was normal.

Any advice on how to handle this better? Is getting this many ectopics normal? Thanks so much.

[Josht]

When I first started getting ectopics I read everywhere about how they were harmless when rare. My definition of rare and a cardiologists definition differ greatly. Apparently anything under 20,000 per day is not medically relevant as long as there is no underlying heart disease. That’s like 800 per hour.

Just roll with it. I heard something really good yesterday...think of your anxiety like a rainstorm. When you are in it, it is overwhelming, but if you are safely in your house, you just note it, “ahh, a rainstorm”. Try to look at it this way. Be the observer only and don’t get swept away.


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[Cyrus]

Thanks very much for the reply, Josh. I know this is silly because what are the chances - I'm 19 years old, have no history of heart trouble (besides palpitations when I'd get anxious), and I suddenly developed something wrong with my heart AS SOON AS I start anxiously focusing on it? I don't have any good reason to suspect I have some defect with my heart but I still struggle to catch myself sometimes when falling into that panic loop...feel the ectopic beat, start worrying over it, give myself an adrenaline boost from the anxiety, have more heart flutters, think oh now something's really wrong, get another adrenaline boost...ugh.

It does seem to lessen in severity when I manage to stop focusing on it, so that's a good sign.

[Josht]

Do something that makes you laugh. They go away pretty quickly.

Some hours I get hundreds, most I get hardly any at least that I am aware of. If you start a good journal, you will likely find triggers. It’s not all anxiety, the ectopics exist for virtually everyone on the planet. Sometimes they are caused by food, heat, and obvs stress.

Read Hope and Help for your Nerves. Great book.


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[nomorepanic]

Try coughing

[Cyrus]

Do something that makes you laugh. They go away pretty quickly.

Some hours I get hundreds, most I get hardly any at least that I am aware of. If you start a good journal, you will likely find triggers. It’s not all anxiety, the ectopics exist for virtually everyone on the planet. Sometimes they are caused by food, heat, and obvs stress.

Read Hope and Help for your Nerves. Great book.


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It's very reassuring to hear you can sometimes get a hundred in an hour - I thought 20-30 was an insane amount in an hour! Guess I was freaking myself out over nothing (again, lol).

The other main trigger I can think of is lack of sleep - I've slept terribly the last few nights, maybe this has exasperated them. But I think right now it mostly is just my extreme focus on them.

And yes, Dr. Weekes was a genius. Wonderful woman who understood anxiety extremely well.

[WiredIncorrectly]

Hi there.

If you've read through some of my posts from July - September time last year (or maybe it was the year before) you will see I was going through your exact plight. I had them for 4 days non stop, went to ER, got released and told anxiiety. It's hard trying to make people believe that what you're going through is very uncomfortable and scary.

The anxiety is causing 95% of them. The other 5% every normal person gets, they just don't feel them.

But with anxiety you hyper focus on a problem. You focus on your heart. You force your brain to focus on your heart and your brain will react and respond by releasing chemicals that aggravate your heart's electrical pathways even more, hence why you get a cycle of them and they're vicious.

It's really hard to ignore them when you're in that state of mind. I've been there so many times over the years. But I want to tell you that if you remove the focus from your heart they will lessen and go away. People told me this so many times on here and I refused to believe them for a long time. I argued with people over it because I refused to believe I was ok. But they were absolutely right.

I wish you well. I've had many nights with them too. Try to distract your mind. Loud music helps. Or exercise. Sounds daft, but when I have them bad I will jump rope and sweat and force myself to do exercise. Afterwards they do lessen.

Also note your eating habbits, and the food you eat, and what you drink, all plays a huge part in ectopics. Some days foods might not do anything to you. Some days sugar may set of a very long battle with them. But drop the anxiety and you will drop the fear over them and you won't let them affect your life

Type this into youtube: York Cardiologist ectopic heartbeat

This guys videos really helped me. He's a cardiologist from the UK that discusses them in great detail. Superb guy!

[Cyrus]

Great post, thanks so much! I saw a doctor today and from the way I described my heart palpitations, they said it sounded totally harmless. I'll be getting an echocardiogram just in case, fingers crossed everything goes well.