Hello all,

Well the palps are still there everyday, ranging fro about 5-30 a day, hard thumps, sometimes painful. I went to the doctor about it yesterday evening as I am getting increasingly upset about having them - and now I am even more scared. She is referring me for a 24 hour monitor. When I asked if she sees a lot of people with them she said "sometimes.. not having them as often as you though" - great!! And said they would be looking for arrthmias, which can be fatal  :'( - Also my blood pressure was high again (131/84) and this seems to be happening over the past few months - I am only 26 and never had high blood pressure before. I am on the pill so of course I am worried about that too.

I woke up feeling sick this morning - I thought I would be reassured at the doctors but it has made me feel worse - the 24 holter isn't until 22 december and I don't know how I am going to get through the next month. I am supposed to be going skiing with my family and I usually love skiing but I don't want to go, I am so worried I will suffer a fatal arrythmia on the slopes.

I just want to know what is wrong with me. She didn't even mention anxiety and it was clear (I thought) that I was anxious - so now I can't even believe it is that. Is having them everyday that often? I guess it is for normal people... I feel I can't live my life anymore..

Thank you for replying beadbabe.

Are you palps noticeable (i.e. the thump etc - which I get) or just in your pulse? That must be awful for you... Mine come out the blue and just immediately make me nervous. I am so tired of them - as I am sure we all are. I have tried and tried to relax and believe they aren't serious - but nothing works - so of course I have decided I have something seriously wrong with my heart

Well my goodness! I think you've let your fears run away with you and it's not an uncommon situation for folks with anxiety.

Your problem is not your heart, but rather your fear that something terrible is going to happen to you as a consequence of benign palpitations. The other primary concern is that you remain convinced that in order for the palpitations to be present and becoming more frequent, there must be an underlying physical cause. You have no medical data to support your contention, but it's certainly convincing enough for you to return to your doctor in search of a cause.

It's critical for you to realize what sort of patterns become established for people with health anxiety. You feel compelled to seek reassurance from your doctor and begin pressing for tests and answers. Some physicians then feel obliged to continue looking, despite the fact that they know the problem to be harmless in nature. They may respond by saying "well, maybe it's some sort of variant of an arrhythmia so let's get you hooked up to the monitor because some arrhythmias are deadly. A statement like that is all a person with anxiety needs in order to accentuate their fears and hoplessness.

Your posting says a great deal about how you rationalize the problem and it's important for you to understand how the mind works relative to the circumstances. You've simply reasoned that the change in character of the palpitations represents something wrong and this presumption is based purely upon your understanding of the problem.

You do not have heart disease of any type and the tests will turn out negative. It is important, however, for you to continue with them in order to gain the reassurance you now need as a consequence of establishing a false belief. You are now forced to undergo testing to quell the fears that are now pending. You're saying to yourself "there's no way this can be happening without a problem with my heart of some type and they're going to find it too late.

You're not going to suffer any type of arrhythmia, most especially not a fatal one, as a consequence of vagus nerve induced palpitations of the type being experienced. The signal which stimulates the heart in this manner cannot interfere with, or otherwise disrupt, the normal sinus pacemaker of the heart. It is medically impossible for such a thing to happen. And simply because your physician has not observed a case wherein palpitations of this type are more frequent, does not suggest that you are the standard by which the circumstances are judged.

I have observed patients with as many as 1400 palpitations per hour or greater and none of these patients suffered any physical compromise as a result. Again, these palpitations do not interfere with the ability for the heart to do its job properly and the sensation is far worse than the actual impact at the level of the heart.  

Now, I have to reiterate once again what I've said countless times on the forum; I've been a practicing physician and specialist for more than 40 years now and not once in all of those years have I even heard of one person sustaining any type of cardiac event or damage to their heart as a consequence of palpitations of the type you are now experiencing. Not even once. There is no literature to support such an instance as well. Surely you can't believe that somehow your case is different, that you have a unique problem that must be due to something physically wrong with your heart. You'd stand a better chance of winning the lottery before you would actually experience a physical problem as a consequence of benign palpitations.

My suggestion is to continue with your tests and then seek out a professional who is well established in dealing with anxiety disorders and begin working toward the discovery of thinking patterns which are causing your outlook to become severely diminished and also altering your lifestyle in a detrimental fashion. It is your fears that is driving the palpitations to greater frequency and intensity, not an actual underlying physical condition. You are misinterpreting what is actually taking place and perceiving it as a sign of imminent danger which is absolutely not the case.

Incidentally, blood pressure readings of 134/84 do not constitute hypertension in any manner whatsoever, regardless of what your normal readings otherwise indicate. Again, this is a misconception on your part.

I think you need to take a really deep breath and calm down. Your heart is fine. Look, we don't just send folks home and say we'll see you next month if we had any inclination that some type of problem actually existed that could pose a health risk. Surely you don't believe we're that incompetent as a profession.

You'll be just fine. Take it easy and feel free to go skiing with your family. Absolutely nothing bad is going to happen to you.

Best regards and Good Health

This kind of palpitation feels horrible, and it's hard to believe it's not serious just because of the way it makes you feel and the fact that it's your heart. The only way I got mine under control was to work on my anxiety -- if you can get to the point where you truly believe they will not harm you, you will start to feel them less and they may even go away. It worked for me -- I still have the odd one, but nothing compared to when I was highly anxious about my condition. Easy to say, hard to do, but it really is the only way. I wish you the best of luck! I'm confident your holter will show absolutely nothing wrong at all, like almost everyone here.

And they are back  :'( - I seem to get them in social situations a lot too - I guess in back of mind I am worried and annoyed about getting them when I am out and trying to enjoy myself - then I get them and get really upset and feel like an evening is ruined

Has such a good weekend and now they are back, just feel so down...

Thanks beadbabe - you are right - I should concentrate on the positives. I guess I feel a bit like a ticking bomb waiting for my 24hr holter thingy on 22nd - just want to know if I am ok...

Thank you! That was a great post  

You are right - no point worrying about what will probably be a negative test, I am determined this must be the end of it - I can't keep going to docs and not believing im ok, or keeping going till I get a 24 hr test and then worrying the doc is sending me cos there is something horribly wrong with my heart!!! It is a ridiculous cycle. I have to accept even though I don't think I am stressed, I have this underlying constant anxiety which must affect your body surely? I think this has contributed to my higher blood pressure recently too..

Thank you! I know I have to be positive and it all lies within me to do so.... I just am finding it tough at the moment. I went out to dinner with my dad last night and had them constantly... (guess was rushing to get there. but I tried to calm down ) - also have been having them a lot this morning, as soon as I got up. I HATE them. I am going back to the old "feeling the pulse" and taking my blood pressure constantly too, which is bad...

I wish I could get to the place you are Steff, but I just can't get my head around that these feelings are benign, it is just too scary when it happens

I am just having a bad week I guess... I keep hearing my docs words from a few weeks ago when I asked her is having them this often normal and she said no