Well, it's important to realize that panic is somewhat two-fold, part of which occurs physiologically. The initial procession with panic is a growing sense of dread and doom that something tragic is about to take place. Irrational beliefs concerning palpitations and a lack of thorough understanding of both their origin and their incapacity to actually do harm, go a long way to produce intense apprehension and anxiety.

The second factor is that when the vagus nerve stimulates terminal points such as the heart, lungs, larnyx, etc., it also extends upward into the locus ceruleus. This area of the brain plays a major role in emotional regulation and upon being stimulated, can induce rather distorted perceptions of imminent danger or fear.

The key to diminishing the capacity for vagus-induced palpitations to rule your life is to gain a very methodical and fact-based understanding of specifically what these palpitations actually represent and morever, why they are absolutely incapable of inducing any type of actual harm in any manner whatsoever. They cannot stop your heart, interfere with its normal function and are unable to induce any type of cardiac event. Persons who experience this type of disturbance entirely misinterpret these physiological responses as symptoms of disease because they occur in an inappropriate context.

Realize that whenever you are suddenly startled or frightened, you experience these precise same palpitations but because they occur in a rational context of being frightened, they are not even given a second thought other than the random exclamation that it made your heart "skip a beat" or "leap out of your chest" and similar descriptive comments. These events are the palpitations that you experience otherwise and the only difference is that they occur in the absence of a rational stimulus. People become frightened to their presence, which only serves to induce greater fear and hence, more palpitations of various character and frequency.

Because people are socially trained to directly associate physical symptoms with physical disease, they begin pursuing all avenues to uncover the cause by means of diagnostic tests, most often of the heart and vascular system. Time and again, the tests return negative but stubborn perspectives only serve to draw into question the tests themselves, their inability to "catch" the events and even the competence of the healthcare professional evaluating them.

As long as the notion persists that the palpitations constitute a symptom of a problem, then you will unfortunately never be able to move forward in diminishing their presence in your life. Only when you are able to rationally and logically deduce that the events are merely a disturbance of the vagus nerve and in the right context, an entirely normal physiological response, will you be able to get on with your life and refrain from daily life decisions based upon the character of your perceptions about benign palpitations.

You're fine and you will never come to harm as a result of these events because it is medically impossible. You have to understand exactly how they occur and how they differ from a pathological arrhythmia which so many persons unwittingly associate with benign palpitations. In other words, you must be able to admit that your perceptions are entirely wrong and that your apprehensions are based purely on irrational fears rather than facts.

Best regards and Good Health