I know how you feel. I had a couple good ones last night, that made me very shaky. Sometimes I can just blow them off and not think twice other times they freak me out.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. I had an attack of them one day after going a very long time with out them. Maybe the odd one here and there, but I'm talking like once every few months I would have just one. Now I get alteast one a day, with a few lucky days here and there where I wont have any, and I have usually a day every month or so where I get them all day long non stop.

We just have to stay strong and wait for them to pass.

Hope you feel better soon!

Okay, Martin. Part of the process is to utilize introspection and stand up to yourself regarding your true feelings. By example:

"I'm scared something is wrong now that I had that attack out of the blue and I'm having palps everyday. ARGH!!"

That statement is a true characterization. By contrast, the following and subsequent statement by you is not:

"I KNOW they won't hurt me."

It's very natural to practice denial, but it does little if anything to induce progress from where you presently exist to where you wish to be in respect to the matter. Listen, my friend; I'm in my 88th year of life and I've spent most of those years as a physician and specialist, albeit retired at this point in my journey. I've observed the full spectrum of strategies employed by persons afflicted with the difficulty that you and others on this forum are plagued by with relentless unpredictability. Methods of distraction, avoidance, denial, compensation and a host of other practices unfortunately all fall back to earth, defeated with a resounding thud, no pun intended.

The point is that I'm expressing the direction needed to proceed in order to actually overcome the circumstances, but it is seldom heeded because it requires a change in patterns that are largely habitual in nature and regardless of the negative consequences being produced, is avoided for fear of irreversibly making matters worse.

You must unavoidably come to the realization that the sentiments being expressed in your postings are very recognizable as the very same patterns in others who suffer with palpitations and other bothersome physiological manifestations that arise pursuant to anxiety and stress. None of these events pose a risk to your heart or health in general. You are misinterpreting these physiological manifestations as symptoms of an underlying physical problem and the subsequent fear that such a belief induces, is the actual cause for the problem. It's akin to continuously spraying yourself with a water hose and developing a belief that at some point, you'll become dry.

Your failure to understand the actual problem, moreover coming to believe and trust in the actual source of the problem, is actually the very source of your difficulty. Hating the fact that the problem exists does very little, if anything to instrument change in your favor. By example, many people hate traffic jams with a vengence, yet they follow suit each and every day by entering the highway at the same point in time, using the same route and habits in order to reach their destination. They continue to complain, while seldomly examining the causal factors for the predicament and how to instrument change.

The very same patterns exist here. Surely you realize that the approach you are employing not only holds no positive influence or change, but rather constitutes the very same caliber of strategy and thought patterns which likely have induced the original problem.

I'm here to tell you that the palpitations indeed frighten you very much and there is a momentary pause by you when they occur in efforts to anticipate any imminent event, or the question of whether they are going to subside or grow worse. You believe that they hold the capacity to induce interference with the heart's performance, very possibly to the extent of a sudden cardiac event. Your frustration and even anger is intensifying because it is steadily stripping you of your normal state of self-confidence and making you feel vulnerable with no ability to avoid or resolve the circumstances. Those beliefs are structured in an irrational framework. It is the fear being produced by erroneous conjecture that is establishing their firm presence in your life.

Now you can continue to confront the matter in your own way as long as you choose to do so. My presence here is merely to light the pathway for you to realize the error you are committing and the resistance to facts that can't be ignored. It is your choice, but I might suggest that you seek out several members who once stood at the very point you now experience and have subsequently moved on with their lives without even the slightest negative consequence.

There are just as many others who have taken positive steps in this direction as well. Again, I'm merely here to point the direction and offer insight with respect to the problem. It is your responsibility to develop and employ the necessary introspection to recognize and acknowledge the errors in your presumptions in order to produce the desired change.

Best regards,

Rutheford Rane, MD (ret.)  

ck -

I wish I knew. I am working and trying so hard to get my mind away from the fear and obsession with my heart and its activities.
for me its breaking a decade's worth of fears and habits. Oh vey its a daunting task.

it truly does make me angry. so angry that I get depressed. its a.pitiful cycle. one day I will be normal again.

RLR

First of all thank you for taking so much time to write this thorough answer to me. Both informative and provocative. I probably need that

What can I say? When I say with words - and think with the intelluctal part of the brain that I understand that palpitations are not dangerous in any way, you call it "denial".
Because, I think, you interpret my search for reasons and a way out of having palps as a consequence of a real fear/anxiety that lies below this "postulated" insight on my part. And of course you might be right. I'm aware that the subconcious lies out of control. And I do experience that my body feels uneasy/fearful after some of the palps even though I think and say to myself that I know they should be ignored as non-risky.
Well and that feeling could be the problem itself.

So I understand that your advice is NOT to try to be "angry" or "researching" in relation to the palps. Just let them pass and forget about them. (And of course not using time in forums like this)

You wrote "You are misinterpreting these physiological manifestations as symptoms of an underlying physical problem and the subsequent fear that such a belief induces, is the actual cause for the problem."

Well, in my concious level I do not misinterpret the palps as symptoms of an underlying physical problem. But I can't help feeling "bad" now and then when they are there. That's a real feeling. Maybe not "valid", but real nevertheless.
I will try and find my way out of this, though it IS difficult to battle feelings you are not aware of.

Are you saying: Accept palpitations. Accept that they make you feel fear - though there is no reason for that fear. Stop trying to find reasons.
Is that it?

Again: Thanks a lot.

Ok, RLR, thank you for explaining!

I'm glad you don't "subscribe to" concious/subconcious. It's not so easy to discuss ones own subconcious with someone who claims to know what is going on "down there", which I for a moment thought you were doing.

I can tell you that I really believe to have a logical, academically understanding of what is going on in me, according to your analysis. And I will admit "having emotions" in that regard, though I more feel these to be irritation, frustration, anger and not real fear. I mean: I don't LIKE having palpitations!

And I hope I can train myself not to be too emotional when palpitations occur. And maybe to lower my internal awareness. Maybe that will make them less frequent.

Kind regards
Martin

My fear consists of these things:

Biggest fear - fear of AF and when I read about someone having it suddenly after years of plaps, as with a post on here right now, it heightens that fear.

Other fears:

I get light headed with some palps and fear fainting
Going to a show or to see a film and fear having to wade my way out if  get a bad attack
Fear of arranging some outing and feeling too bad to go (like the days where they are constant)
Fear of fear

I can think logically "they wont harm me" but when they are happening, I feel the joy being sucked out of me.

I also feel jealous of people who don't get these. For example  had a bad nights sleep which could mean a bad day of them. I have a meeting tonight and fear trying to smile, talk and be okay when perhaps I'll be feeling breathless and anxious if I have a bad time of them.

"fear of AF and when I read about someone having it suddenly after years of plaps"

It doesn't follow that the two things are necessarily related. Your fear is a bit like worrying about cycling, just because you've read about somebody who had been cycling for years, and then one day they got hit by lightning while cycling.