Ok, I just got back from an overnight mini
vacation with my husband and friends.
I had palpitations the whole time on and off.
As much as I try, I can't help getting upset that they happen.  I also think it must be nice to be other people who don't seem to be troubled by them.
Can anyone relate?
Also, I found out my thyroid level is slightly elevated and hypothyroidism can cause palpitations.  How can you get over that other than medicine?
I honestly feel bad for anyone dealing with palpitations, but no one else I know ever says they have them or bother them.
I just wish they would go away forever.

I thought I had a good way of dealing with them, but I guess not.
It's not the fear of what may happen, but the awful feeling of them that upsets me.

It's a shame but it seems that this thread is dieing off. I feel that we have come a long way, but the final hurdle appears to be elusive. I have posted some of my thoughts to RLR's post below, hopefully it will generate some more discussion from everyone or guidance from RLR if he is able to give it to us at this point.

[quote author=5947590B0 link=1277865767/150#162 date=1284205616]Okay, things are progressing to some extent. I would just make the comment here that "acceptance" is really resignation to one's problems, whether past or present. The critical point is whether accepting one's circumstances equates with overcoming them or merely living with them.

So we need to distinguish whether by accepting it we are actually, fully accepting and getting past the issue, and feeling the relief that comes with that, or putting up with the issue and not improving the situation at all.

Introspection is not simply about looking within, but using that ability to re-take control over your life in areas where things seem to have gone astray. You need to learn to effectively identify and confront suppressed issues to determine how you now perceive them by contrast to any point in history, whether recent or remote.

Understand that the control or influence these irrational perceptions have is directly related to your estimation of the ability to effectively overcome and deal with them in a confident manner.  

So the more we feel out of control and unable to solve our problems the worse our symptoms will be as we feel more out of control

You can think of anxiety disorder as the constant reminder of circumstances unresolved that more importantly constitute the incorporation of irrational perceptions about both the issue itself and your relative abilities to resolve it.

So the anxiety symptoms are saying "this is not right, it's bothering me and you need to solve the issue" the symptoms are just reminding us in the only way they can, that the issues need to be resolved.

The key element is using the sort of objectivity beginning to awaken and arise in the postings on this thread topic. In other words, if you approach these issues in the mindset of the person you've become as a consequence of their influence, then you become hopelessly repelled and wish to merely continue employing avoidance behavior as means to deal with it. Understand that avoidance doesn't necessarily represent an overt context, but can equally and more often constitute a more passive denial that something is awry.

So, I think basically by concentrating on the benign symptoms we are masking or at the least not attending to the real underlying cause of the problem. So - as I think one of my main issued is being stuck in this darn job, because I feel somewhat helpless to move away from it and get another job / do my art, I instead pretty much subconciously mask that issue by focusing more on the anxiety / palps etc, as possible rather than to try and then fail which I might be perceiving as worse than the place in my life I am currently at. ie if I try and fail - then what do I do? Would I feel completly helpless with even worse symptoms?

Realize that chronic anxiety is not so much the consequence of the origin itself, but rather the mounting changes in lifestyle and personal constitution that the origin has ultimately produced. In other words, the more your life proceeds from the point of origin, the more influence you begin to permit take place and the more acceptance by relegation you encounter. Persons so affected will typically state that they've either always approached life in this manner or can sometimes identify a life-altering event which culminated into the contemporary lifestyle they now experience.

So the symptoms we now have are not really caused by the initial problem/issue, but by the way we have allowed it to grow and take over our waking lives as we concentrate on it and add fuel to it all the time

Either way, the origin is the same. You have to be able to identify your weaknesses in establishing self-change. The weakness can either constitute the use of inappropriate or inffective means or the actual absence of a strategy to alter its course and remove it as an influence in your life.

So I should work out a plan, a strategy/direction to move away from/solve the issue in my life to remove the symptoms?

It might surprise you to learn that the actual successful and appropriate measure exists within you, for it is often observed being suggested in the case of others who appear to be experiencing similar difficulty. Some folks might even comment to the extent "Well, it's sort of odd, but I know better how to recognize it in someone else and offer insight than I can in my own instance."

So the question for the day is how can someone be attuned to, and recognize in others, similar patterns and be able to offer reasonable and logical insight while at the same time be prevented from directing this same ability toward themselves?

We are removed emotionally from other people, we see where they are going wrong and how they have dug themselves in to a hole that they cant see out of, being outside we see it. But why when we see the answer in our own issues do we find it so hard to progess?

Okay, let me make several points here. Please direct your attention to the opening page for the Symptoms forum that depicts the statistics.

Notice that all of the threads in general range in the lower registers for both replies and those simply viewing the threads. Now take a look at the stats for this particular thread. More than 3000 people have viewed this thread and while a small portion is attributed to members on the forum, the majority of viewings have arisen from guests. This means that all of these people are using a similar search string for information that is leading them to this particular thread. This thread has received more viewings than any other thread in the history of this forum within a similar timeframe.

What is it about this thread that holds a key search term or addresses a question obviously so similar in more than 3000 people? Moreover, note that the replies are very small by comparison.

So what is it that so many people seek to find that they subsequently cannot provide any commentary?

Firstly, realize that to a very great extent, self-discovery produces insight that draws irrational frames of mind into more logical clarity and real-world acknowledgement. People become so accustomed to living apart from themselves that uncertainty and diminished self-concept alone cause one to be apprehensive. Their sense of purpose wanes and they often spend a greater portion of their lives performing survival techniques of daily life while they feel forced to merely window-shop for the live that they once held or originally sought. It is, in essence, self-captivity.

People who develop significant anxiety live in a sort of psychological purgatory. They don't move left or right, but rather do their best to remain static to avoid changes that might further the lack of control they feel. This resignation is established upon the basis of fear. It is fear that potential errors in direction will compound into a spiraling effect that produces the climactic event that they constantly feel is looming and yet it cannot be defined or articulated. A simple real-world example of this phenomenon is observed in persons who are evaluated for anxiety and subsequently prescribed medicine that they are then unable to ingest because it poses a risk that is speculated to be as risk-laden as the reason it was prescribed. It is the constant and conscious effort to maintain stability in all things, a perception that the delicate balance can be disturbed to the extent that it sets in motion multiple unknown factors that cannot be controlled. The affected individual reasons to the effect "I'm unable to deal with the anxiety and these symptoms, but this medicine has warning labels all over it and if anything can go wrong, I'm a magnet for the worst outcome possible. I can't take the medicine because it only increases the risk that is causing all my anxiety!" Again, self-captivity.

All that we do in life harbors risk. Everything. It's the very potion which generates self-confidence and ability to take on the challenges of life with a positive spirit. It's knowing that if you live but for a day, it's a day well-spent. To quote an old adage, "better a lion for a day than a sheep for one-hundred years."

It is impossible to seek haven from your life as it must be lived. As stated earlier, it only brings the fear into the den with you, surrounding you in every thing you do until you take the initiative to face it squarely and realize that the true risk is avoidance itself. It is the origin of the fears and uncertainty. It is a life spent in a state of exhaustion trying to guard against and prevent all of the inevitable frailties that humans face in their lives. It is, in all certainty, the single most impossible challenge to win.

Life itself is a challenge to gather up and put forth all of your very best attributes toward achieving your goals, whatever they may represent.

If you allow the meaningless worries about your health or other circumstances to rule the day, then you are resigned to letting life merely unfold with your presence merely one of a spectator, helpless to alter the script or story line.

Safe passage in life is paradoxically the path most challenging. It is the ability to push through one's fears rather than retreat from them that opens the door to the place all of you seek in your lives.

You must gather yourselves up, make a turn in direction in spite of your fears and never look back. You must move forward, for there is no safety of the kind that exists only in your mind.

Knowing that such an ultimatum exists for all, you really have only one direction to proceed.

Best regards and Good Health  

There needs to be a book. I am not surprised this thread has had so many views.

I here you. I feel my own problems stem from stress and now depression. I need to ask about this in another thread.

It is true, one cannot escape oneself. What goes on in thought and then  feeling can be torturous - how we perceive what happens outside and what we do with what happens is what decides if it is stressful or not.

But there are givens in this world that one cannot avoid. Givens that interfere with recovery.

My palpitations are back with an awful vengeance. I have not felt anxious, but am extremely depressed. Having palps compounds that depression.

Jazzyman, if you have ever been to a workshop you will find some people ask questions or add to the ideas and some people remain silent. I think that often reflects life in that, some people do the work, many benefit from it.

I guess that is why people write books to share their knowledge with others. I was thinking RLR has enough info on this site for a small book by him. That means something would be out there long after we have all gone, just like clair weeks.

Very interesting replies.

I think it all boils down to the fact that most, if not all of us experiencing the palps and other anxiety issues have basically lost our way in life, we feel like we have lost control, that our life is like a leaf blowing in the wind - we are being taken along for the ride and not in control at all.

The palpitations etc. are just the symptom of the above, our body and minds way of saying that things are wrong with our lives, it's tipping us off of the fact that things needs to change.

I believe that the longer we stay in the anxious state the longer it takes to get back to a low base level.

Here are some things I have been implementing that has helped -

I think most of us, if we look at ourselves logically, would see that we are in an anxiety habit, when things go wrong or symptoms increase we immediately grab for our security blankets - whether they be coming to this forum, reading anxiety self-help books or videos, searching the net for yet MORE answers etc. etc. etc. You probably know what I mean and could add to that list.

Now I knew about that habit ages ago, but found in moments when I felt down, perhaps after a bad bout of palps or a sleepless night, I would automatically start the anxiety habit cycle, and it NEVER made me feel better, but instead dragged me down as I was reaffirming that I was anxious, had palps etc.

So I put in place a day diary, and in this I basically just write a quick note of what I am doing every hr or so, it sounds simplistic and probably stupid, but it makes it VERY easy to see if I have started to drift in to spending hrs searching the net, or even chatting on this forum too much etc. and I can easily put a stop to it by getting busy with something else. I also use it to fill out short term goals for the day like, updating my website, doing some exercise etc. and create some forward facing goals.

I have also found that looking forwards as much as possible also helps a lot, deliberately directing ones attention AWAY from palps / symptoms and getting on with life, living life in the here and now not in the past, basically keeping it all present, doing things in the now gives the feeling of more control and also direction in life. It gives me the feeling that things are moving along in the right direction.

Rumination, I believe is the thing that takes us in to the downwards spiral, it's what separates people that have a palpitation and just brush it aside and get on with life and people who  have that same palpitation experience and ruminate and worry about it, perpetuating even more of them. My diary and forwards looking is helping me to reduce my rumination, helping me to create more good habits which will hopefully continue to diminish my bad habits and eventually remove them.

Hopefully my thoughts will be of use to someone  

Hi Typer,

Could you go in to more detail regarding your meditation practice please, I'm very interested

Jason - I do agree with you about ruminating about symptoms.  Your focus then stays on them and it just increases your anxiety.  I also know that if I stay too long on a forum (not this one, but another one) it can also make me focus too much on the anxiety and symptoms instead of trying to move on with doing other things.  I do like this forum, because I think with it being monitored by RLR, it keeps you on tract and has you look at things objectively.  I think that is helpful.