RLR,
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe this is a process of self-discovery that takes time and individual effort.
I believe that we need to do some self-examination of what behaviors and thoughts are associated with the palpitations.
Evidently, there is something we as individuals are either not aware of or overlook.
Although the feelings we experience from the palpitations are similar, what drives them is very different to each of us.
I am very excited to proceed!

Jazzmynn

RLR wrote on Aug 19^th, 2010, 5:51pm:

I’m quite enjoying the direction of the thread and am finding it quite a challenge to even come up with responses now. It is becoming increasingly difficult to proceed as others have mentioned but I would rather see it as a challenge and adventure than a barrier. You have talked in the past about avoidance rather than confronting problems so I will not avoid this one and will try to help move us along a little more.

You have asked us to discuss why fear is present in all cases regardless of the causes (health, financial concerns, etc.) of the fear itself. From an objective viewpoint, fear is a defence mechanism of some kind that has developed through evolution to help an organism escape danger. We perceive danger in many ways (my health concerns, for example) but regardless of what causes the danger, whether it be financial concern, health, or a hungry lion, the body responds the same way by producing fear in varying intensities (based on our perception) as a defence mechanism, which in-turn activates the ‘fight-or-flight’ response which is responsible for the physical symptoms we experience. The old saying “All roads lead to Rome” sounds appropriate, would this be accurate?  

The problem being that we do not seem to have the ability to truly realise that we are in fact, not in danger. In another thread we were discussing why even though we know our symptoms are caused by anxiety, we still have them. I made the analogy that you can’t switch off an emotion or feeling simply by recognising it with the example of a gun pointed at your head. Knowing you are scared of the gun doesn’t make the fear stop. You countered with words to the effect of: would you still be scared if you knew the gun was unloaded? Of course the problem is that even though through rational and logical means we are able to determine our symptoms are not harmful, our ‘gut feelings’ tell us otherwise and we are unable to realise it. In other words, even though we can all come here and say “I know they’re harmless” and make ourselves think we believe it, most of us don’t actually truly believe it.

Surely then, the reason that our anxiety is chronically elevated above baseline levels is because of our continual misperception of danger to the point where we are literally in a constant state of low-grade fear. In the early stages of this development we were probably not even aware of what was taking place on a biological level until symptoms began to present themselves. The symptoms themselves also act as a catalyst to the cycle, inducing yet more fear which perpetuates the cycle and when left long enough, the original cause is forgotten and focus is solely on the symptoms themselves. Is this a correct assessment or just a convenient one? I think this may be what has happened to me.  

I can only assume the misperception is based on a lack of knowledge and understanding of the events that are taking place. The instinctive, unconscious responses which govern our thoughts and emotional responses are controlled by our brains automatically (such as fear), but we have a certain degree of control over how we perceive them. For example, we may become desensitised to certain events that once made us fearful because the rational side of our thoughts has been able to make the determination that the danger is only perceived and holds no bearing over our actual safety.

Take the following example: a single tribesman out on the planes of Africa would be terrified if confronted by a 450lb lion. He knows his natural defences are no match for the lions, he knows he can’t outrun it and he knows he has no weapons: he’s going to die. However, that tribesman’s fear would likely diminish if another 10 tribesman came to his aid all wielding spears and flames. Some might even chuckle at the turn of events; the burly ‘king of the jungle’ now fleeing in terror because he had a ‘panic attack’, only his was in response to real danger.

A lot of people use the chicken and the egg analogy when describing their anxiety and symptoms, as if the symptoms came first, which was what caused their anxiety. We don’t seem to be aware of fear that was growing in response to something else, well before the onset of any symptoms, because the symptoms have now taken precedence in our minds. Is this true?

Continued below.

I really relate to what George said about a low-grade fear that is constant, in the background, wreaking havoc in a true physical sense.  I often become aware of these thought patterns throughout my own day, as well.  

I'm thinking as I write here, so it's not super thought out, but don't you think that the idea of "fear" implies something to be fearful of? What is the worst that can happen........long illness, death, even?  Those things definitely sound bad to me, but what if I need to redefine those worse-case-scenarios and see them differently?  If I reframe them in a real way as something to not be feared but accepted, not in a positive-thinking type of a way that a previous post mentioned, but true acceptance, then there would be nothing to fear, right?  

I can see why RLR has us think about this as a collective but as individuals with differing lives and reasons.

We each have come to this point from our different paths.

I have been in a position where I have had to constantly review my psyche, although there is not one person imo ever achieves knowing themselves completely, the point is to make smaller the more unconscious thoughts/actions and enlarge the more conscious awareness. There is something called the Johari Window if anyone wants to think about that more

Despite my hard work on me, life has taken its toll these past few years. To say I have been stressed is an understatement. The only other time I suffered from anxiety and panic was in 1993. I had a medical problem and operation. I lost a  lot of blood afterward and was rushed from one hospital to another. I was in fact post traumatised by the event and for a year suffered severe panic attacks, constantly visualising it happening again and even worse scenarios. (id get cancer like the lady in the bed next to me!) I got better slowly by using visualisation and affirmations and therapy as well as acupuncture by a Buddhist monk for nerves. After a few months I recovered completely. That time I did not have palpitations.

I have to get myself back on that journey I was on back in 1993… need to get motivated. The one thing that I have observed by using this thread is the tension in my body. I am not sure if it will apply any of you but, every hour I check my body tension and feel its tight and tense. I have to take three deep breaths to loosen up.

The original cause of my stress was and is 4 years of house renovations. (Not the original plan). Its ongoing and not a day goes by where I say, vacuum and it stays clean. Every single day, dust and bits of wallpaper, or wall or something everywhere. We are now having to sell up as soon as it is finished due to a financial crisis. So I wont even get to enjoy the fruits of my stress. This has cause depression and utter frustration and anger. So my fear is actually based in those things, in particular anger at persons as well as myself for allowing this to happen to me.  

I would guess that it will be different for all of us. If I go much deeper I'll disappear ha ha!

I know someone who had palps after her fathers death. She was given beta blockers to help with the symptoms. After a while she stopped and is fine now. The bereavement for her was the trigger/cause...whatever. But not everyone gets them after a bereavement. She did have another few days of them when she had a virus which made her sick etc. But they went and she recognised that what caused them to return was the fact that she was staying in a friends house when the virus started up. The stress brought them on.

I am sure not everyone has some deep rooted problem that must be uncovered. I do think though that inside us we kind of know that we have these because of where we are psychologically, albeit for very obvious reasons, to the not so obvious.

Yes, I agree with you George, as mentioned in my last post, looking for cause and effect (symptoms) does not seem to be where RLR is directing us here, so we should see that as pretty much irrelevant. That is what the other posts are for.

Fear, I think, is the big deal here and finding out why we had this ingrained fear before the symptoms even started.

Yes I do feel that I have analyzed myself quite thoroughly so far, before I came to this forum too, but as RLR has said, at this stage I am apparently not capable of going deep enough, it's not possible for me to see the true issues yet, I'm not far enough along the journey to see the finish line.

But, my problem is, now I have gone this far, I feel stuck, if I am not capable of seeing the issues at the stage I am at, then how do I progress to the stage where I can? Yes I am in a hurry to get to the answers, I feel I have been stuck with my anxieties for long enough and I want them gone - naturally.

I am however fully prepared to take as long as it takes and I realize that these things can't be rushed - but the frustration is I dont know HOW to proceed any further now, so I feel my progress has stalled.

Yes I have read some Clare Weekes, from the basics I have read about mindfulness it seems that it is all about observing the inner thoughts and realizing that they are not really who we are, they don't define us.

It all seesm to point to the way we perceive everything which leads to a state change within.

Very interesting Typer, I'll take a look at that soon.

I think we as a group are on to something with the Fear thing.

We are creating the fear within ourselves, each of us in a different way, from a different set of life experiences, and from where I am standing I believe I am using it as a kind of defence mechanism, it's keeping me safe in this place I currently am.

Even though the palpitation symptoms are not nice, perhaps the fear of the unknown or fear of failure is potentially a worse place for me specifically to venture at this time? Unresolved conflict???

Perhaps I need to ask myself - why do I prefer it here?
Why do I feel it's safer here?