I feel that the more that you think about ectopics the more likely that you will feel them.

I am new to this forum, although not to  anxiety and stress. About eight years ago for a period of three or four months, I was constantly getting them. I then had a seven year gap, when all of a sudden last July (2010) I woke up in the middle of the night and for about an hourhad about 5-10 a minute. (I actually had quite a big one now thinking about it in may)
After this I was of course thinking about them, and started getting them frequently, not in "runs" when I woke up in that July night, but maybe one an hour. There are periods now when I am not anxious and do not get them at all, which if it was a serious problem would not be the case. I started getting more frequent skipped beat in novermber 2010 because I was flying for the first time innearly ten years. I did get one skipped beat on the return trip, but other than that was fine.
I am flying at the weekend again and guess what am nervous and start getting ectopics again - it is not as scary now, but is like a pressure on my back and pain in throat, but is quite mild, and the position on the back is below where the heart is and in addition to this feel like it could be due to gas trapped and passing by cardiac region , and i believe in the vagus nerve thing that RLR tells us about.

I went to the doctors again today, to go over an ECG I had back in December. The results showed guess what normal rhythm (a bit fast and the Dr did say that my heart rate went from 80 to 100 in less than a second, but we both put this down to anxiety, as it can be quite stressful having an ECG if you are worried about heart disease.

My questions to all who read (just post something short to one or more questions)

1) Who here gets more ectopics when they are thinking about them?

2) What types of symptoms do you personally get with your skipped beats, and does the intensity of these vary according to how stressed you are?. For instance i get a weird sensation in throat and back

3) What frequency do you get them - is it every other beat, runs, or maybe a couple an hour or less.?

4) Does anybody seriously think that they will die or become seriously ill because of them?. For me I have had quite intense episodes, and other than panicing and getting hot and cold flushes and feeling tired, I have never felt dizzy or felt faint.

5) Don't answer this if you feel it is too personal, but what is your occupation/ what do you do. I am a research scientist, where logic and analysis is essential, but when it comes to anxiety, logic goes out the window sometimes. This might also help, to show that there are more people than you think who get these disconcerting things.

6) Do you feel better after consulting google Dr, I often feel worse but I still do it, and end up finding something that is less likely than winning the lottery, but still ends up scaring the s""t out of me!!!!!

7) How do you parters/family/parents/friends help you/think about your problems, or do you keep it into yourself.

A couple of questions, answer a few please if you read, lets get this community going a bit more, and together (with RLRs logical approach) we can beat it (no skipping allowed!!!)

1) Who here gets more ectopics when they are thinking about them?

Yes and no. I tie my "thinking" about them as obsessing about them, really. I think it increases my anxiety and thus increases my palpitations.

2) What types of symptoms do you personally get with your skipped beats, and does the intensity of these vary according to how stressed you are?. For instance i get a weird sensation in throat and back

No real physical symptoms other than the sensation. I usually have strong THUD's but sometimes the thuds aren't as strong. Sometimes I feel a warm sensation spread throughout my body.

3) What frequency do you get them - is it every other beat, runs, or maybe a couple an hour or less.?

Completely random. They'll sometimes go on runs where they come every minute for an hour or two, sometimes I'll feel them after I eat, sometimes I'll feel a stray few throughout the day. I'm feeling a lot today but I had a very stressful night so I'm chalking it up to that. I recently went 2 months without having (or feeling) any. I want to get back to that!

4) Does anybody seriously think that they will die or become seriously ill because of them?. For me I have had quite intense episodes, and other than panicing and getting hot and cold flushes and feeling tired, I have never felt dizzy or felt faint.

I used to. Now they make me really moody, depressed, and angry. Not a pleasant person to be around when they are really thudding away for a few hours.

5) Don't answer this if you feel it is too personal, but what is your occupation/ what do you do. I am a research scientist, where logic and analysis is essential, but when it comes to anxiety, logic goes out the window sometimes. This might also help, to show that there are more people than you think who get these disconcerting things.

I am a social work student, currently unemployed, and waiting for my master's degree program to start. Mostly a stay-at-home-whatever to my fiance who is the breadwinner.

6) Do you feel better after consulting google Dr, I often feel worse but I still do it, and end up finding something that is less likely than winning the lottery, but still ends up scaring the s""t out of me!!!!!

WORSE. 100% worse. I am a hypochondriac, and I used to obsessively search Google for hours at a time. I don't do that anymore because it only served to scare me and make me feel awful.

7) How do you parters/family/parents/friends help you/think about your problems, or do you keep it into yourself.

Being that I am a hypochondriac pretty much made it impossible for the people in my immediate family to show any empathy for me. I suppose I burned them out. My fiance didn't even believe they were happening at first. I don't want people to feel BAD for me, but I would like some understanding. I'm sure it's difficult for them, having had to put up with my crazyness for so many years. I'm sure it wore them out. Thank god for these forums.

I have only told one friend, who is a doctor and a surgeon, and only because I don't have to fully explain what they are. Her response? "Feeling your heart skip a beat is fun eh? I was on a medication that made me have them so I had to stop taking it." She was clearly not impressed, hehe. That made me feel a little better, I won't lie. Before that, I had been having recurring nightmares of her telling me they were dangerous.

1) Who here gets more ectopics when they are thinking about them?
i think i sometimes do but then i dont think i do... lol i can come on here and the facebook page and nomorepanic.com and not get one, but then sometimes watching something on the tv about hearts i can get loads????

2) What types of symptoms do you personally get with your skipped beats, and does the intensity of these vary according to how stressed you are?. For instance i get a weird sensation in throat and back

i never usually get any symptoms apart from the odd flush feeling throught out mu body ! my job isnt that stressful but i feel every day life in general is stressful for me i can feel when i have ectopics that my body feels tense and i feel on edge.

3) What frequency do you get them - is it every other beat, runs, or maybe a couple an hour or less.?

on a good day i can have none, or 1 - 2 on a bad day i can have runs and runs which carry on for a couple of hours. And when im really stressed the can be every other beat

4) Does anybody seriously think that they will die or become seriously ill because of them?. For me I have had quite intense episodes, and other than panicing and getting hot and cold flushes and feeling tired, I have never felt dizzy or felt faint.

sometimes i think nuts this is the end !!! but then i think well i havent passed out or felt dizzy so they cant cause me too much harm

5) Don't answer this if you feel it is too personal, but what is your occupation/ what do you do. I am a research scientist, where logic and analysis is essential, but when it comes to anxiety, logic goes out the window sometimes. This might also help, to show that there are more people than you think who get these disconcerting things.

I work in a kids playarea eaisest job in the world ! this is why i wonder why i am sooo stressed sometimes??? maby its cos i come home and then have to chase my 18month around haha

6) Do you feel better after consulting google Dr, I often feel worse but I still do it, and end up finding something that is less likely than winning the lottery, but still ends up scaring the s""t out of me!!!!!

i have health anxiety so NEVER google it did use to make me feel worse

7) How do you parters/family/parents/friends help you/think about your problems, or do you keep it into yourself.

my partner was concerned at first but i had all the tests done which came back normal so now he just thinks im a loon ! ive told a couple of ppl but they dont seem to understand and i get the   impression! ive given up telling ne one and mostly keep them to my self