TomLewis
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Posts: 8
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I am a 28 year old male that has been diagnosed with panic disorder. I have not been diagnosed with it, as I have never seen a psychiatrist for it, but I also believe I suffer from OCD. There are numerous ridiculous daily rituals that I feel I must perform otherwise pending doom will occur. What that pending doom is I do not know, but I will not let objects touch cracks, I will do anything to avoid using certain numbers in any facet of my life, and there are things like kissing my son's picture everytime I open my phone, even if I open my phone 4 times in a single minute. There are also the tics, like constantly stretching my joints to their limits, fingers, elbows, etc. Right foot dark color, Left foot, light color.
Anways, I believe my suspected OCD to be the main cause of my panic attacks, because I am all too aware of my body. I watched my grandmother's heart monitor rate back and forth as she passed away in the hospital, and shortly after that, my heart has been my demise.
The main problem???? Palpitations, hence me joining these forums.
These palpitations caused me to venture to the emergency room 100's of times within the course of 4 years, and have put me in deep debt, caused me to lose jobs, and have ruined relationships.
They had gone away for about 2 years, and then suddenly came back 4 months ago. I thought I had this all kicked, but they were even more frequent than usual. The thing is, they usually only occur when I lay down this time, which is the opposite of the way they used to occur. I went to the ER a few times, my doctor put me back on atenolol, and they went away for a good month.
Now they are back again, and I am terrified. Here is a background of my treatments.
Echocardiogram: Nothing wrong EKG's: Probably over 100 of them, nothing wrong About 200 hours on an ER heart monitor: a few pvc's, nothing wrong 24 hour holter-monitor: nothing wrong Blood Tests, Urine Tests, Stress Tests: Perfect, Perfect, Perfect
I went to the ER about a week ago, and for about the 100th time, asked the doctor if I was alright. The doctor told me, that from all of the tests that have been run on me, and the results of the holter monitor he had before him, my palpitations are 100 percent harmless, and the direct link to my death from my palpitations is 0 percent. That worked for a week, but now I have myself re-diagnosed as someone in line for a heart transplant, lol.
I have them when I lay down, and they can occur anywhere from every 3 minutes to every 30 minutes, usually until I fall asleep. They are accompanied by shortness of breath and such, but I'm thinking that is as much about my anxiety issues as anything. I find myself trying to take deep yawning breaths all of the time, to re-assure myself that I am indeed not short of breath, which leads to hyperventilation, etc, etc, etc....
It's kind of like the chicken and the egg, does the palpitations cause the panic, or does the panic cause the palpitations? I am on 50 MG of atenolol a day, and my doctor and the ER doctor said I could up it to 100 MG, but if my heart beat slows to under 50 bpm, go back to 50 MG. Well someone with anxiety disorder, if my heartrate went to 50 BPM, I would be riding in an ambulance to the nearest hospital so I am not wanting to even try out a higher dosage.
Is there anything you know of that can help atleast minimize these palpitations. The ER Doctor said I'm just unlucky in that I can feel them while alot of people can't. He said it could be something as simple as the way I am built. I'm tired of this torture, please help me....
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