Is Anxiety Causing Heart Palpitations?

[LovelyMunster]

Hi there,

I'm a 24 year old female that is relatively good health besides this crazy anxiety I have. My grandmother died 3 years ago and I was unable to attend her funeral because I was out of town. I couldn't get home until 2 months after and developed severe anxiety while I was away. I couldn't eat without feeling sick to my stomach, I had rapid heart beating, and dizzy spells.

After I was home my symptoms got better for the most part but I've since still had massive worry about my health. I also developed social anxiety and still am suffering with it. I check my pulse obsessively and research online health problems constantly. It's very annoying.

A few months after I had gotten back I found a lump in my left breast and was freaking out. After seeing my family doctor, a specialist, and 2 ultrasounds later I was clear of cancer. The specialist said it was something called fibroadenoma and was very common in young women my age. He wanted to check me again in 6 months and this made me nervous, but my mother who is a Registered Nurse told me that this is routine even being cleared of cancer.

Now, while I was waiting for the results I developed skipped heart beats or heart palpitations. I told my mother and she said that it's anxiety or hormonal. She checked my blood pressure and oxygen regularly and everything was normal. They lasted maybe a second and happen randomly throughout the day. After I knew I was okay they stopped completely... UNTIL...  2 weeks ago.

I'm due to be checked again and they've come back with a vengeance. I'm worried about being checked again, not the mention my grandpa is having problems with his heart. He's having palpitations all the time but doesn't feel his. They were going to do some kind of procedure but found out the medications he was taking was actually working in his favor.

I had a huge panic attack after coming home from the store last night and was having severe palpitations.

I don't understand, am I okay? I work out regularly, on an elliptical for 20 minutes a day. I never get it during my workouts and their hard workouts. I don't experience any other symptoms besides the palpitations. They last about a second and will be gone for hours on in and then just randomly come back. Sometimes I'll go an entire day and the next day they will return.

I actually got so frustrated, I tried to see if I could make myself have them by working out harder and didn't get one until I was trying to get to sleep that night.

Sometimes I will be trying to sleep and wake up seeing a spider on me when there's nothing there. It's very weird... I hope I'm not going crazy.

I would like your thoughts,

Thanks,
Haley

[LovelyMunster]

Wow, that makes me feel a lot better hearing that! I was prescribed Xanax when going through the whole ordeal with the lump being checked. I still have several left and so I decided to take one last night because I was a nervous wreck. Turns out the Xanax really helped me out. I still had a few palps during the night but they were hardly noticeable.

My mom assures me that this is all in my head and that if it was more serious I would show several other symptoms then just the palpitations. I guess she's right but that doesn't make it any less scary!

It's like I know there's nothing wrong with me because I've already had the doctor listen to my heart already with the palps and fast heart rate happening. She didn't mention any life threatening and all she said was to try and calm down. So, I'm assuming if she thought it was anything but anxiety she would of told me.

I know there's nothing wrong, but I still have that fear of being deathly ill with some kind of disease. My grandmother died of a rare form of leukemia that isn't genetic and then my cousin just last year died in his sleep. I just worry that something like that will happen to me.

Anyways, thank you so much for your story it really made me feel better about all of this!

[melipops]

I think you should see your dr and get him to check you out properly and have a blood test maybe. Once you have found out there is no physical explanation for this problem you may be able to relax. if you can't relax i would return to the doctors and ask for a refferal to a good therapist. Stress affects everyone differently perhaps you need to find better ways to deal with it. Good luck hope it all works out for you.