Hey guys.

I'm 26. I started having palpitations in December of 2009. My bad habits are cigarettes and caffine, though I've been working on stopping both, especially the latter.

The very first palpitation happened when I was at work. There was nothing abnormal about that day other than me being over-caffinated and having had pulled an "all nighter." The first palpitation gave me a lot of anxiety. My limbs went numb with fear and I kept overanalyzing it.

Then it kept happening on a semi-regular basis. Once or twice a day. At first, I also had horrible back pain.  I should mention now that I also have Ulcerative Colitis and it got started getting really serious at around this time. I had palpitations infrequently throughout 2010, always followed by bursts of stress and anxiety.  

I went to numerous doctors about this, even to the ER a couple of times. Every single time they only did an EKG and then sent me on my merry way. I asked them for more than an EKG and they honestly can't be bothered. I'm relatively young and I look healthy, so they just assume that it's all in my head. When I was hospitalized for having a major Ulercative Colitis flare up last year, I also asked them to check my heart and they refused to, saying that my UC was a much higher priority at the time.

Aside from the heart palpitations, I've been getting aches and pains all over my body for awhile. This has ceased since my UC was brought back under control (a lot of it was related to UC) but every now and then I'll get a weird pain somewhere that I can't explain (not related to UC). Also, the heart palpitations did go away when I was living at home, relaxing for a few months (I think I had all but one or two palpitations in that time) but shortly after I returned overseas they followed suit. Which makes me think it might be lifestyle related.

So it might be the caffine or the stress but I'm not really sure. I could also have an arrythmia. Today I had a pretty bad series of palpitations that drove me to these forums... they happened when I was bending over in my computer chair. I leaned back and they stopped, bent forward again and they happened again. That makes me think it's not stress/caffine related. If they happen when I physically adjust myself like that, that might mean they're something far more serious than stress. Also, about thirty minutes after I had calmed down from what happened tonight, I had a short, sharp pain right in my heart which made me panic even more. I feel fine now other than being wrought with anxiety.

Does anyone have any ideas? It's been stunting my life in the past year and I'm always worried about it. I do have anxiety/panic attacks now but it's a chicken or egg argument in that I don't know which came first or what causes what. Everytime I go to see a doctor over it they always make me feel like I'm wasting their time and I always leave feeling embarrassed.

Also, seeing doctors is kind of big trouble for me as I live and work overseas most of the year in a country where I don't have enough of a grasp on the local language to see doctors. I should also add, where I live, there is a cultural belief that one should never see the doctor unless it really is an emergency. When you go to the hospital, they'll treat you like you just got hit by a car/had a stroke/vomitted blood, make you wear a gown, lay in a stretcher (the whole number) and when they realize that you're actually well constituted and visibly fine, they'll all get mad at you for wasting their time. And they'll refuse to actually talk to you or get to the bottom of it. It's really frustrating.

Any help would be appreciated. It would seem the internet is my best bet for answers.