Hi Doogiej,

I think when we look back, a lot of us can probably relate to you saying about the morphing symptoms, I guess that is what they call health anxiety.

I can also releate to you mentioning about the pretty famous young football players suddenly dying from heart attacks too. You would have thought they'd had VERY thorough medicals, plus they were also super fit, so it doesnt really make sense to me that it can happen.

Hi Angiebaby,

I'm sure I read somewhere that the body / mind can only concentrate fully on one pain (problem?) fully at a time, I guess this is how TENS machines etc work, and I can certainly relate to the fact that when other problems of ours are seen as more important than the palps (or a distraction) then the palps usually stop or really reduce.

I'm hoping RLR is feeling fine and is just busy or something as he hasn't been around here much lately.

I just wanted to post on this thread so that it doesn't get lost in the older pages, I know others are as eager as I am to continue with the discovery process  

I agree with you ckk...it is about quality of life. For me, I have good days and they are a great relief...but even they are overshadowed by the not so good days.

I feel I am not like other people...having to hang on to a wall, or experience the swimming feeling when they happen. I certainly have become depressed because I no longer do fun things...in  fact nothing much is fun with these things going on most of the time.

For three days they have been bad again...not that they ever go. I have that awful feeling in my chest 24/4 like trapped air

I knew months ago that I was basically coming to this forum for more reassurance, hence my post back then stating that  "I needed to leave the forum" I knew the reassurance which eased my anxiety for hours or days was never going to be the cure.

I had gotten myself in to a negative cycle, creating anchors and associations between my anxieties and palpitations and it has been obvious to me for a long time that I need to break the associations and cycle for me to get back my normal life and get back to where I used to be.

Normal people don’t keep visiting forums like this looking for reassurance and comfort, they are living their lives instead.

So why the hell does it seem sooo difficult to do the logical thing and kick these bad habits? When we know that these things are anxiety related (unless GI probs)?

Why am I apparently so darn resistant to getting on with my life?

Getting my old self back?

Back to where I used to be –

Back (staying) in my old dead end job which I have been in since a kid.
Back to not fulfilling my potential.
Back to my old anxious self before the palps started.
Back to time feeling like it is racing away from me since I turned 40 last year.
Back to not feeling immortal since my mother passed away 2 years ago, you know how it is when you are younger you never think about death.

Perhaps deep down I don’t want to go back to where I was at all???

Are the palps therefore just a physical manifestation of the above issues, something that is building up trying to tip me off, trying to make me change, or am I thinking too deeply there perhaps???

Phew! Think I might have some issues there!

It's not that I was THAT unhappy before, I'd say I was just normal with normal concerns.

RLR – as you have mentioned before, these palps we are having are benign, so statistically they don’t merit any attention. But the problem is that even though they won’t kill us (and I do know that) they are a real pain in the as*, when I wake in the morning and feel the palps already there, it is very difficult to be happy and positive and just brush them aside, imagine waking with a mild toothache every morning, it can/would soon get you down.

The concern becomes not – will these things kill me, or turn in to something else, but WHEN will they go away, if EVER, then I think back to how long I have had them already, how much time has passed, it makes me feel constantly on guard.

I know for me there are many (similar) issues to those of Jason's for me.

Also, the regret and pain I feel about the wrong choices I've made. I am 60 so I am even more aware of time ticking away and wondering if at this age, there is any chance of ever being content. And of course my mortality has come into question each time I have suffered a loss. Recently witnessing another's pain of loss of someone my age now has added to this.

The palps have forced me to realize all of this, but I am at a loss how to turn things around at such a late stage in my life.


Some how, some way  have to change my outlook and try to fill my life with enjoyable things. But not knowing how causes me a lot of pain and frustration

I am finding this thread somewhat difficult to continue with now because the continuation of discussion and further discovery relies on us as a group, rather than Dr. Rane taking us to the next stage and I just don't know where to go. I've been trying for a day to write out a response but I just can't think of what to say. I think I'll start by trying
to examine some of your post [RLR's] in the other thread.

RLR wrote on Aug 8^th, 2010, 5:47am:

We are all awaiting some type of engagement before we can progress. I speculate the reason for this is because we all come here for guidance, reassurance or information and we have probably been viewing this thread in a step-by-step fashion where you [RLR] post a message and we post our responses then await your guidance like a how-to guide. We expect you to tell us what to do next or what we should try and achieve. I, and I suspect we, always expect some kind of analogous, informative reply wherein we recieve factual information presented in an easy to understand message which gives us the relief we already know is coming. I can't speak for the other members but I have now begun to anticipate the general tone of your replies to my threads and sometimes purposely come here when I am feeling more anxious because I know that your words are comforting in that regard.

I realise that my heart has been given the all clear and have informed you on the message boards of my doctor's visits and tests and I know your response is going to be similar each time I post a 'heart' related question. I also realise, as other members have pointed out, that this is only a short-term relief and is not a viable long term solution to gaining sustained relief from symptoms. The key, then, would be to learn how to let go of obsessive worries and anxieties over symptoms which perpetuates their presence. For a long time I have been under the impression that my symptoms came first, then my anxiety came after because I worried about them and I realise from interaction with others who are suffering that this is a common finding in anxiety sufferers. With that in mind I also want to pose the question: does it matter if we find out what the cause was, or is? What difference does it make now that the symptoms have already manifested? I am well aware that my symptoms are harmless and I know to some extent why they happen but that does not help in lessening the constant negative thoughts about them nor does it lessen them in any way.

Surely it would be logical to focus on creating a new outlook on life and the symptoms themselves. You can't cure lung cancer by giving up cigarettes. You can't cure heart disease by exercise, lifestyle and dietary choices, but you can take steps to prevent lung cancer by not smoking and you can take steps to prevent heart disease by living a healthy lifestyle, exercising regularely and eating well. Surely knowing the cause is irrelevant in terms of finding relief from the symptoms? Using the above analogies, you must find another way around your illness or ailment. Simply reversing the cause does nothing once this problem has manifested because you may not be able to extinguish it. It may have been an event that only happened once, or a series of events that happened years ago that you can do nothing about in the present. How can you 'reverse' it when it no longer exists? The way forward is not in looking back.

I am going to continue writing this message as I feel I have much more to talk about but at the moment I need a break, this has taken hours to write .


George.

Hi Ckgage,

Have you seen the easycalm course for anxiety??? Multimedia file viewing and clickable links are available for registered members only!!  You need to

because what you are saying is exactly what he says, watch his chapter 1 video and you will see what I mean. Control or lack of it is always an issue with people experiencing anxieties. The site looks a bit gimmicky but the guy talks a LOT of sense and certainly knows his stuff.

-----------------------


Hi George,

Thanks for taking the time to post that message; I for one appreciate you input immensely.

I can relate to a lot of what you said, although I have only been here for a few months I too can frequently anticipate the general direction of the forum - new member comes here worried, RLR responds giving reassurance as scientific fact, the new member thanks RLR and is very relieved, probably thinks they can now relax and get on with lives, but when the symptoms don’t go away, or even worse go away for a day or so then come back in a different form then the member is back with pretty much the same question, and so the loop begins.

I know RLR knows that this reassurance is not curing most people, hence his post and question to us all.

I agree with 100% of your statement "The key, then, would be to learn how to let go of obsessive worries and anxieties over symptoms which perpetuates their presence". Palpitations might have started for some due to a gradual increase in stress / anxieties or by a sudden GI disturbance which gave a frightening run of missed beats etc. I think if the start was caused by some deeply seated emotions then tracing back could really put things in to perspective and reduce or eliminate the palps. In others it might not help.

I think personally I had gradual increased anxieties which finally resulted in IBS, then after that Palpitations. But I don’t want this to be about my story so I’ll leave that there.

In others if they fear a heart attack due to palps then simply exercising and thus PROVING the hard can work hard and survive might stop their palps.

But in my opinion the more a person ruminates and tries to think his / her way out of this thing the deeper they can be pulled under - does that make sense??? The compulsive searching makes it an obsession, which also has physical symptoms.

George in the book I sent you it states and I feel clinically proves, that the cycle of obsessive thoughts we are now in is pretty much wired in our brain, similar to Pavlovs dog / bell. Which is why I think we feel so helpless lots of the time, out of control of our own minds - it's quite frightening for sure. But it can also be undone - not that I have managed it yet - by reverse engineering, deliberately stopping the obsessive behaviour, pulse checking etc and forcing yourself to get on with other things, a little at 1st then increasing, eventually the neural pathways should return to normal. Basically it is pushing yourself back to normal life and normal activities.

I also fully agree with your statement "Surely it would be logical to focus on creating a new outlook on life and the symptoms themselves" but did you mean "and the symptoms" or should it have been "than the symptoms"? I think the answer as I mentioned in my post above IS looking forwards in life, but I think that, as best we can, we should try not to focus on the symptoms at all.

What we focus on certainly grows.

And if that is true, then coming to this forum daily searching for elusive answers is not helping at all. This particular thread is excellent and thought provoking to say the least, but by RLR not posting on it for weeks then it has made me come here much more often in anticipation of his answers, waiting for the enlightenment. Then when I see nothing has been updated I almost always have a quick look at the other new posts, which are usually just talk about symptoms – stuff you don’t really need to be looking at when your not feeling to great yourself, but it’s hard not to look.

I honestly feel that once this thread reaches it’s conclusion then there is little more to gain here other than reassurance, and we’ve talked about that enough. NORMAL people don’t search anxiety / palpitation forums etc daily, so we shouldn’t either, if we want to get back to normality.

I hope all the people that come to this forum don't just read this thread passively but also adds their opinions to it, it's the only way we are going to get ourselves up and out of this quicksand. EVERYONE has something of value to say on this topic, reading the posts about symptoms is not going to help you much at all, continuing this thread just might though.

That might well have been the longest, most boring post ever done on this forum, but hopefully some of you have managed to read through it and relate in some way.

Great post Typer - thanks for your input.

I gotta agree with a lot of what you said.

I think the main issues we have to face here are the ones giving us the perpetual turmoil of which the palpitations are but a symptom.

Now as I mentioned for some this could be not related to anything in the past, but something simple like the sudden experience of a missed / rapid beat which the person then latches on to + starts the fight / flight response and the though loops which usually start with it.

For others the inner turmoil could be very long standing, something that has dragged us down over years, and for those of us that have noticed the morphed symptoms we discussed a while back, ie mine was, IBS, then palps etc I'd say this is the root cause.

I believe you can get out of this loop by looking forwards and not concentrating on the symptoms (as much as possible) thus teaching the body / brain to act normal again and switch off the raised anx, but when you have other life issues (and I think most of us here does, whether we see them or not) then by dealing with them we can get more direction in our lives and comfort in the knowledge that we know what our life is all about and where we are going.

I think if we can be comfortable in our own skin, so to speak, then the stress / anxiety levels will reduce by default and the palps will then go. This migh tbe the way RLR is guiding us here.

Just my opinions though