For everyone worried about PVC's...

[sinead]

hi everyone,
I found this article about arrythmia's tonight... it REALLY put me at ease. I thought I would share it with the others out here experiencing these flips & flops... I hope this helps someone :)

"By themselves, PVC’s do not present any problem. In fact, more cases of sudden death occur in people who do NOT have frequent PVC’s. There are many people who have literally millions of PVC’s throughout their lives, and never have a lick of trouble from their hearts."

http://www.heartpoint.com/ventricular_arrhythmiasmore.html


ps. I am going in to get results for my holter this week.... wish me luck ;)

[sinead]

Also, here are some passages from world famous therapist Dr. Claire Weekes who worked extensively with people who experienced heart palpitations & ensuing anxiety....

Facing
Face your thoughts and fears instead of trying to be rid of them by pushing or forcing them out.

Acceptance
Accept your condition … just say "I am accepting this."
Utter acceptance of your symptoms is part of the solution and helps break this cycle that involves fear- more symptoms- more fear etc.

Floating
Float towards the symptoms you get … don't fight them. If you try to fight, you pump more adrenaline. Float past tension, fear, and unpleasant or unwelcome thoughts. Let them come … don't fight them. Loosen your attitude towards tension.

Letting Time Pass
Letting time pass seems hard, as people naturally want to be well right now. You must happily let more time pass as the healing process begins. It takes time to repair a broken bone and so it takes time to repair your sensitized nervous system.

Every short respite from fear helps to calm your nerves so that they become less & less responsive to stimulation and your sensations less and less intense, until they are only a memory. Once you learn the trick of relaxing and seeing the wave of  fear through to its finish without adding further panic and tension to the fear, or without trying to arrest it by controlling it, you will begin to lose your fear of fear.

I have never asked you to ignore your heartbeats, ignoring is not the same as accepting. Even a healthy heart may palpitate when fatigued or under stress.  It is only natural to be alarmed by sudden, unexpected, uncomfortable happenings in our bodies, particularly in the region of our hearts!

Accepting means not getting upset, knowing your heart is racing or skipping and understanding that a heart can beat this way without damaging itself.  The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the secretion of adrenaline & makes the heart beat fast while the parasympathetic makes the heart calm down.  An attack of alarmingly quickly beating heart may come, just as you are going off to sleep, or may even wake you from sleep.  Do not sit up in panic.  the more you panic, the more adrenalin is released.   So, relax to the best of your ability, take deep breaths, and let your heart do this until it chooses to calm down, it is a good heart, merely  temporarily over-stimulated.  

Sensitized people have these sensations as a more or less constant background to their day. Do not shrink from it.  as acceptance calms your nerves the attacks will become less frequent, until they longer come. Do not get trapped in a cycle of fear-adrenalin-fear that constant apprehension brings.  

Your heart has evolved over millions of years - YOU are not going to stop it or harm it with your thoughts or fears.  You are not as important as all that! Palpitations although attention-demanding, are really unimportant when caused by nerves.  You have really got to learn to let it beat without being afraid of it, and I promise you that then it will gradually calm down.

It may be that instead of your heart beating too quickly, your heart occasionally beats too slowly for comfort, you feel faint and you are sure it is about to stop altogether.  In such an attack you may feel paralysed, unable to move.  This is called a vasovagal attack and is brought on by overstimulation of the parasympathetic nerve, the vagus.  The parasympathetic nerves hold the adrenalin-releasing nerves in check.  In this case they check too severely, and the heart slows to an uncomfortable rate.  

Your heart is not diseased, the attack does not harm your heart.  As you worry less, sustained tension lessens and these attacks gradually leave you.  Even after apparent recovery, you will occasionally have one. So not be concerned with this.  With understanding and acceptance they seem less formidable.  

A nervously tired heart will sometimes "miss beats". The beats are not really missed just unevenly spaced.  The patient feels as if his heart turns over.  These missed beats are in no way dangerous & your heart will not stop because of them.  They are annoying but that is all. So do not let "missed beats" frighten you.  Many people have them, they are not important.

Panic spasms are recurring spasms of fear (those twinges) that start in the middle just below the breastbone, and seem to spread like a white hot flame all over the body passing through the chest and outward.  You may dread them as your nervous system has become so sensitized to them that it discharges them instantly & swiftly with the slightest provocation.  In this sensitized state you remain tense with apprehension which helps only to increase frequency and intensity of the spasms.  Can you see the vicious cycle?

[Ambervale]

Wow that is a great post. It is certainly reasurring. I want to get my life back so bad, but feel that it has slipped away because of Panic and my heart doing flip flops.

[Celeste07]

Excellent posts! I especially liked the reminder of what Dr. Claire Weekes wrote. I've forgotten about her book I have. This would be a great time to read it again!

Many thanks!
Celeste

[Barbarella]

Thanks for posting about Dr. Claire Weeks.  She helped me overcome 99% of my severe panic attacks and agorophobia since age 15, NO therapist, Psychologist or Psychiatrist or meds could help me, I wasted a lot of time and money until I read an ad about Dr. Weeks 30 yrs ago.

Unfortunately when I posted the names of her books on this site my post was removed.

For me she was the BEST.  She died in the meantime but her books are still available.

[amn1998]

Thank you so much for this post.  This is one to refer back to when things seem to get out of control.  Celeste07, what is the name of the book that you mentioned?  I would love to read more!

[maggiemag]

Great job!  I urge everyone who is anxious about their heart and benign arrhythmias, to cut and paste and print the main post!  It saddens me to see so many people in their 20's, men and women, who let it control their lives.  These should be the best years of your lives!

[Celeste07]

The book I have is "Hope and Help for your Nerves". I believe the above quotes are from this book.
I did read "Pass through Panic:  Freeing yourself from anxiety and fear" several years ago that was equally excellent. She has several others.
Like Barbarella, I found more help and healing through her book(s) then by any other means. I started re-reading Hope and Help this morning and already I feel much calmer, Her books really do speak for themselves!

[Barbarella]

Celeste is right she has more books out.  All the major book chains have her books in stock.  You can also go to the bookstores at the malls and they either have them on their shelve or they will special order them for you.  When I found out about her she had 4 books out, and I read, re-read, read and re-read every one of them.  She helped me TREMENDOUSLY.  

[jpcox]

Wow, that really has made me feel better.  Everything now makes sense. Thanks!

[sinead]

I am so HAPPY that this post helped you guys...it sure helps me :)

[amn1998]

Thanks again to everyone!  I'm going today to try and find some of the books.  It seems as though heart issues and anxiety can run "hand in hand"  I think controling the anxiety is a major factor.  You all are great!
Amy