PVC's / anxiety.. what is causing what?

Hello, So I have had panic attacks since I was 17 years old. I am now 34. Female. Pretty healthy. 5'5. 130lbs. Do not drink, smoke, drugs, ever.  Do not drink any form of caffiene. Except for the chocolate on occasion.  Eat pretty healthy, lots of fruit, vegtables, fish, salads ect.. When my panic attacks started, they were a racing heart. shortness of breath, hyperventilating, really scary, and new. I rushed myself to the ER many times. But once I got there. Nothing. Years passed.. and I slowly got better from 18 to 23, I didn't have them too much. I had trained myself to be able to stop it before it got out of control, and calm myself down. At age 24 I remember sitting on the sofa watching jaws of all things. And thats when it happened. My first (felt) PVC.  
In fact it was one after the other after the other! I rushed myself to the ER, driving thru red lights and all. Knowing that I was going to die. When I arrived, they had calmed down, and I was told I was fine. Panic attack. I took my first anti anxiety Oxezepam 10mg and went home. I remember although its been awhile that for weeks after that, I was living in terror. I mean.. I know my heart is going to stop any second and die terror. I was literally a prisoner of fear. Scared to go anywhere, do anything. Go to work, I was embarrassed that I was freaking out, and scared. I went to a cardiologist that did an ECHOCARDIOGRAM, and said my heart was normal, although possible BENIGN MITRAL VALVE PROLAPSE. AND BENIGN PVC'S. He wrote on the paper.. " you are fine, take anti anxiety, and cut out the cheese out of your diet."  after that, I don't remember how long it took.. but it came and went. sometimes I was totally fine. and some days or nights especially I could feel it do a skipped beat followed by a stronger one here and there, sometimes for hours in a row, and the anti anxiety  did help.

  Between 26 and 33 those years, I didn't have any major panic attacks anymore. I knew how to talk myself out of it before it blew up. And I felt the pvc's some weak, and sometimes a really strong one that litteraly took my breath away,and makes me want to cough, for some reason when it happens, but I would feel them sometimes one a day, sometimes one a week, or a month, or months of nothing at all. I was living my life, and able to even do a little traveling, go on dates, go to the movies, and be " normal" as I can be with this disorder... SUDDENLY, about A WEEK AGO, NOW 34.. I felt a really strong palpatation (pvc), ignored it as my usual. and then felt another. and another.. Hmmmm.. ugh oh. Kept feeling them, all day, maybe 10 an hour. Now I'm scared. worked up. Went right down to my cardiologist whom I have not been to or seen in 10 years! and he did EKG, totally normal. Then took blood. Normal on mag/pottassian/ thyroid, ect ect.. Then he put a event monitor on me.

I've been wearing it for 6 days now. Its caught many many of these pvc's that I have now been having for 6 days. straight. non stop. I don't feel them when I sleep, but I feel it the second I open my eyes in the morning til I go to sleep. sometimes more when I get up to walk around the house.  take a shower. brush my hair. do the dishes, simple activities. also when I'm laying down, or sitting too though. just seems like maybe not quite as many.  They are all really strong feeling. I've had 3 EKG's this week. All normal. 2 blood test testing for all that they do.. and normal. My cardiologist called me and said he is seeing my event monitor activity and that I'm having benign PVC's. and that they are not dangerous. BUT NO MATTER WHAT HE SAY'S FOR SOME REASON.. I CAN'T STOP CRYING AND BEING UPSET ALL DAY, WAITING ON EDGE FOR THE NEXT ONE, THINKING about ALL THE THINGS IN LIFE I CANNOT HANDLE OR DO WITH THESE PVC'S. I ALSO KEEP THINKING CAN I SUDDENLY BE GETTING HEART DISEASE AND THATS WHATS INCREASING THEM NOW? ALTHOUGH I HAVE HAD THEM FOR 10 YEARS. JUST NOT THIS MUCH, THIS MANY. THIS IS UNBEARABLE TO ME. I AM VERY UPSET, AND WONDERING IF THATS MAKING THEM WORSE AND WORSE. I'M SCARED TO TAKE MEDICATIONS OTHER THAN ANTI ANXIETY, BUT MY OXEZEPAM 10MG IS NO LONGER HELPING THEM ANYHOW. I AM A NERVOUS WRECK, ANGRY AND UPSET AT THE SAME TIME. I KEEP THINKING HOW CAN I HAVE GONE 10 YEARS WITH THEM BEING BEARABLE.. ONCE IN A WHILE TO ALL THE SUDDEN ALL DAY LONG? WILL THEY CALM DOWN AGAIN? OR IS THIS HOW ITS GOING TO BE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE???...

[marilee176]

Hi,

I just want to let you know I have been feeling exactly like you.  Most of the time lately.  I feel like I get one strong beat and a quick little one right after.
cant breath, scared.  Don't like taking meds but I do take
Xanax, just took a whole one.  What does the doctor tell you to do for this.
He has no explanation why it happens?

[achillea]

I have certainly been in much the same situation you are, and it certainly is scary.  My own experience with pvcs and panic has been going on for about thirty years, with the ectopic beats always, always clearly benign.  I've been a gym rat the whole time and am in good shape--and yet I still have trouble with pvcs every now and then, usually for no reason I can put my finger on.  But I can tell you this:  There is a definite relationship between panic and pvcs.  They come on at the same time, and although I have never been able to tell which one causes the other, I do know that surges of adrenalin, such as you get with panic, make the the pvcs worse.

Here is a solution that works for me:  Having been told time and again that my heart is healthy--and having NO lab work or indeed any experience with exercise that contradicted this statement--I finally got smart and went to see a psychiatrist about dealing with panic.  My treatment did involve medication in the form of short-acting tranquilizers as well as antidepressants of the SSRI group, and in a few weeks on this regimen, I had my life back again.  I was no longer panicky, and I gradually became less and less aware of the pvcs.  Most amazingly, the number of pvcs actually decreased as I became less aware of them, and I was able to gradually taper off the medications.

However, the tendency towards pvcs seems to be very powerful, and very few years, my pvcs and panic return; but now, when they do, I get myself back on the medications for a while, and I am again fine for a prolonged period.

Your mention that you spend a lot of time crying and utterly desperate makes me think that you have nothing to lose by seeing a specialist who deals with panic and anxiety, preferable a psychiatrist, because these docs can prescribe medication.

And as to your fear of medication, that's a two-edged sword, because sometimes people have to be treated for THAT phobia before they can be treated for the other things that are bothering them.  Compared to the havoc that untreated panic wreaks with your life, taking medication is a very, very small risk to run.

And at some point, you are simply going to have to accept that docs who repeatedly examine your heart and find nothing wrong are very likely correct.  For the most part, cardiologists have really studied difficult stuff, and they actually can tell when a heart is basically OK, especially when the patient is young (as you are) and does not have symptoms that prevent him/her from doing ordinary things like walking around, going up stairs, and so on.  You feel your pvcs when you do these things, but you can still perform your normal activities, right?  A really diseased heart actually prevents people from doing normal stuff.

That being the case, what then are your options?  Your can spend the next fifty years holding your breath in fear and wasting what should be a perfectly good life--or you can see someone about panic, which is a symptom that IS treatable.

[CFS56]

I have lived with panic disorder since I was 22 yrs old.  I'm now 57.  I have PVCs, PACs and have had several episodes of A fib. My husband had a heart attack and a few months later my heart went crazy.  I was in the ER 5 times in a 3 month period, was terrified of being alone, was afraid to go anywhere.  Once I got my anxiety somewhat under control, I got better.  I had to go back to therapy and take anti-anxiety meds for a while. I was determined that I was not going to let my anxiety take over my life.  It is very scary, I know.  I still have my moments.  But you have to take back control of your life or the anxiety will take it from you.  Please find someone who specializes in anxiety disorders and make an appt to go talk to them.  It will help believe me.  Living in constant fear is horrible.

[CFS56]

Another thing that might help.  I know 10 PVCs a hour seem like a lot when you are having them.  But in a normal heart that is nothing.  Lots of people have that many and way more.  At one point I was in bigemeny, which is a PVC every other beat and I routinely had 4 or 5 per minute.  The more you freak out about them the worse and more frequent they get. Almost everybody on the planet has them and most people don't even feel them.  We are the unfortunate ones that do.

[DeltaDawn23]

I have Afib, pac's, and pvc's.  I wonder if a beta blocker would help.  It reduces the heart rate.  I got by for 7 years with a beta blocker and Xanax.  I now take an antiarrythmia med.  Are you getting enough rest?  I agree, talk therapy can't hurt and might help.  It helped me.  My family doctor was willing to work with me on finding a regimen I could live with.  It allowed me to work and carry on a pretty normal life for he last 8 years or so.  This CAN be managed.  Don't lose hope -- be brave and keep looking for a solution.

[YENOM11]

Thanks for the comments. I have scheduled an appt with a psychiatrist. But my apt is not til dec 5. which is a million years away. Its now five something in the morning, I was sleeping and having a dream that I was having chest pain, then that woke me up only to realize .. I am having chest pain. ugh. I don't want to go back to ER, My PVC's yesterday were really bad, up until I went to sleep. and now the chest pain feels like on a scale from 1-10 a 4. A slight pinching , or kind of a sharp pain in my chest right where my heart is... but I feel like I'd take myself down to the ER, and they would again.. tell me that as of that minute.. I'm not in danger of dying and send me home.. with a large bill.
I have been prescribed beta blockers.. atenenol. or whatever its called . 25 mg, but to take half at first. I was so scared, I took 1/4! one night, didn't notice any change, but of course I only took so little! I have also taken an anti anxiety, that used to work, but lately does nothing for the pvc's. It may ease the complete panic some.. maybe for  5 hours or so. But thats it. Oxezepam 10mg.. maybe I need to switch.
Yes I can still walk around , go up some stairs ect.. but not without creating a huge run of palp after palp.. so I'm really scared to do any physical excersize.
I also live alone,.. and feel scared about that. as my car ( if needed) is pretty far away in the underground parking.. I don't know, maybe this is just the anxiety talking again.

[tom_h]

Another vote for counciling.  My wife of 40 years was wracked by anxiety.  She finally sought the help of a psycologist who specialized in they treatment of panic disorders. Several years of painful sessions back into her childhood and then working forward found the root of her disorder.  Then it was a matter of confronting it head on.  That was painful too.  But today she is cured and knows how to quell any twinge of anxiety before it gets out of hand.  My belief is there's a reason for your anxiety and panic.  You just need help finding out what's causing it.  Adrenaline breeds anxiety and PVC's.  Halt the dump.of adrenaline,  and the rest may disapear.

[achillea]

"...the chest pain feels like on a scale from 1-10 a 4. A slight pinching , or kind of a sharp pain in my chest right where my heart is."

For evolutionary reasons, we do not feel TRUE heart pain where the heart actually is.  This is an excellent clue that the pain you think is coming from your heart actually is not.  And no, I'm not going to tell you where you should be feeling pain if your heart was really involved--because an anxious person cannot help trying to feel the pain in the appropriate area, which is another good clue that the pain is being generated by fright and worry.

[DeltaDawn23]

I take my 25 mg. Atenolol in 1/4 tablet doses, keeping an eye on my blood pressure and heart rate, which can go too low if I take a whole tablet.  If I'm having an episode, I up the dose of both the beta blocker and the Xanax --1/2 of a .25 tablet.  I have a deep breathing exercise that might help:  Breathe out thru your mouth until lungs are emptied; breathe in thru your nose to the count of 4; hold your breath to the count of 7; breathe out thru your nose to the count of 8.  Do this 4 times until you get used to it, then you can do 8 sets.  It will slow your heart rate down.  I have used this to quell a panic attack and it works for me.  It may take a few times.  Good luck.

[tsco]

I hate these things as they can wreck you if you let them. I have been having a hard time for two weeks as I think my meds have reached the end of their effective life. Constant non-stop pac's pvc's I am reading your message right now as I just came in from the EMS office and talked them into taking my EKG. Ive been to the hosp so many times I just didnt want to go again. I can tell you that Flecainide is a great drug for suppressing these beats. Yours are undoubtedly from stress, anxiety. A beta blocker like lopressor would probably make them go away. Ask your doc about it or either med. It is silly to let them mess with your mind so much.  Ive just come to the point that Im not afraid to die...it might be easier so that helps me cope. Mine really get to me thought like tonight when they are so hard I can' t even lay down to rest. It ***** but you are not alone.

[RNRita]

HI there.  Your story sounds so much like mine. I started at 19 and am now 54.  I have had more episodes than you can count of different PVCs, PACs, the whole gambit. I'm still here.  I always thought, "this is the big one," whenever I was having an unusually difficult time. I had bigeminy for over 6 weeks once.  NOTHING would stop it. I cried all the time, like you.  Then I realized I had to work, sleep, take care of my family and do it all while having PVCs. Once I gave in to them as being my new "normal" they stopped. I don't think I even realized they did.

Don't stop doing things.  Tell yourself it just doesn't matter.  Don't be afraid of the atenolol.  I started at 75 mg and am now at 12.5 mg daily after 24 years!  I also take a benzodiazapine when needed.  Neither of these drugs stop PVCs.  They just make them more tolerable.  

The best thing you can do is keep living.  Start taking calcium in the morning and magnesium in the evening.  You'd be surprised at how much that has helped me.

And you certainly are not alone!!!

[YENOM11]

Thank you Rnrita, so you have had them for a long time. And yours are doing what mine kind of did? where you have a bunch of them.. and then for awhile none, then some, then none, and at times tons? See, thats what confuses me, many people on here talk as though they have PVC's and thats that. So I wonder if there are ever times where they stop for people. For me, like I said, ten years ago I remember they were back. Then in between then and now, ... I would get them spiratically. Now its been two weeks of sometimes 1 to 3 a minuted. or every 5 min.. thing.

I am starting to get at the point where yes.. I have to go to work, and have to continue to make a living.. with or without the PVC's. Recently I bought a mulitvitam and CO Q10, and another vitamin called Busy brain release. Which is all the B vitamins, plus alot of lavender, Kava, Skullcap, but boy does that make me feel all druggy! weird! the vitamin makes me feel more drugged up than a simple Xanex!  

I really want to start accepting them, and not fighting them, and hoping that maybe like you, they will calm back down.  I don't want to miss out on my life. And I have missed out of more than you know ( or maybe you do) in my life, since I was 17. I have never been big on movie theaters. I don't go to amusement parks. I don't travel. I don't like long car trips.  I don't like going places there is no hospital nearbye... People I've dated never understand, and look at me as someone thats a downer.. So I hide it.  I've left smack in the middle of family functions, parties, and eating in restaurants.. because of anxiety.. ugh. I sound like a fun person huh?

I feel like if it wasn't for these I could be who I wanted to be. But maybe if I just accept them, no matter how strong and uncomfortable they are.. that I can be happier than I have been.

I'm tired. Of searching for the nearest hospital, and going in to doctors, and being poked with needles, and sitting in waiting rooms, and more and more doctor bills.. all for what??

I know I'm not alone. Thank you. I just pray that we all find relief and happiness.

[sleepsleep]

Hey hey- Well I can relate. Ill admit it, mine still scare the crap out of me. And ive had the same exact thoughts as you.
Are the beats causing the anxiety or is the anxiety causing the beats?

But at this point im actually shifting more towards. . . .It doesnt matter,.
If i should figure out the answer, it would not change anything. I still have both and thats what I should be thinking about.

IVe been on Satralin now for. . . .2+ months? and recently upped up to 150mg.

Not sure yet what effect they are gonna give me, but so far they seam to have helped me to not go into panic mode. (you know, getting short of breath, dizzy and all that)- But still have all the thoughts of course.

But the last 3-5 days ive had zero pvc/extrasystoles- until about 30 min ago where a huge one had me surprised.
(while still frightened of them, we kinda get used to them pop up if you know what i mean.....) and after so many pvc free days, it made me jump a bit in my chair. But thats that. Still here and writting this feeling fine.

So yeah- Dont think you should focus to much on why the beats come, but try to just do whatever you can to stay happy.
While upping my meds ive kinda had the attitude that im gonna do what i wanna do. If i want to postpone doing laundry for tomorrow. Well then im not make myself do it today. If i feel like staying in bed for an hour extra just enjoying the embrace of my bed.... Im just gonna go with it.
All in all. . . .I feel kinda better. Not stressing about everything and not irritated that im not spending my time on what i want to spend it on.
Not a major miracle, but works.
When i used to go to the supermarket, i usually got uncomfortable when there was a long line to the cash register.
(like, omg how long before i can get out- i fell trapped here. )

Now letting old people and kids skip in line and just taking it easy.

Think that is a good way to go. And might be hard as hell when ones anxiety is screaming at you all the time-

And not saying one should live their lives like that forever-
But hell, im out of a job atm so why not just take it easy while im seeing if the meds do the job then try to get back into the usual pace in my daily life.

Of course this doesnt mean i never ask the doc about medical issues. . . .I go there 1-2 times a month mainly to talk about how the meds are working and if we should up the dosis or try something else, and of course i unload all my worries then. But after that i just chill around until the next appointment.
But hopefully in the next 2 weeks i can feel some greater change and then get farther back into "real" life.

But yeah.- Just sharing my thoughts- No idea if any of that can help in any way. But take what you can. And good luck.

[sleepsleep]

Also note that Ive been away from this site for a long time actually (think a month or more).- And think it helps to not be to focused on all the issues, including others while your at your worst. But yeah- Thats it for me now.
God day/night to all.

[YENOM11]

today I woke up and didn't feel palps from like 7 to about 10. I was feeling happy, but didn't want to be too happy.. and jinx it. But, alas.. they started up around 11.. ish... and went from maybe 1 to 3 an hour , and I tried to relax and ignore, and not get upset, but now from 6 to now almost 9pm.. they are every 5 min or so, really strong ones, sends a shock thru my body of fear like a electric jolt.. and a nervous feeling in my stomach. Not to mention the mounting depression and being upset that its coming full force now.. .

I wish I could remain more positive.. well I finally see a counsilor on thurs. I know thats not a cure, but maybe it will give me some form of  peace in one way or another. .. I want so badly to feel like a normal person again.

[saimon282]

I have pvcs since Seven years ago ,but the last five months has been non stop, I went to see a EP and cardiologist,but everything came back fine and it stop for almost a month and yesterday I start again having them all day and every few beats, I hate them so much and is making me feel so much anxiety.  I hope some day they will find something that will make them go away for ever.

[RNRita]

Everything you talk about, I've had....many, many, many times.  You get the idea.  It really doesn't matter if they kill me or not.  My life was never what it should have been. It never will be.  Even when they stop for a few months, I get courage and feel normal, then they will act up and, after being gone for a long time, it all feels new again and I have to learn to live with them ALL OVER AGAIN!  It's never ending.  I will go through phases where they scare me to death, then I couldn't care less....then, someone will die and I will be very sure that they died from these.  We'll never know, I guess.  AND I don't think they will ever figure out the fix.  I am glad for my silent times.  I am very glad for this venue.

I know I sound a bit more "down" today.  It is because a very close friend died at 55 two days ago, from a "cardiac event."  I will miss him and try not to personalize what happened.

[saimon282]

Sorry for your friend.  I know is not easy to live like this, but for myself it has been very bad year my husband needs a kidney transplant and he is only 32 years old and I can not do anything im not a match.looking at him make me sad and  stressed and the pvcs will start,but my life have to keep going.  I know there are a lot of people who have worst condition that us.

[YENOM11]

I know that there is worse off than I right now. I ALWAYS am aware of this, and since I'm christian, thank god for the blessings he gives me everyday.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss RNRita, and also about your husband Saimon.. My friend who was 35, and a lifelong family friend died too from a cardiac event. He just dropped dead. After he tried to break up a fight. The adrenaline.. or something combined with something wrong in his heart.. I don't know the details.. but this scares me to no end.  And another person I knew.. not very well, but heard that he died suddenly from cardiac arrest at 22! in a sauna. From what they said was a " undiagnosed, or known about heart condition! he worked out all the time, was a health freak! not sure if he ever took preformance enhancing things for his muscles though. Not sure. But wow. It is just scary.But what can we do?

I just try to " live" with them, but for me .. it takes my life away. I would love to go to the movies. or a restaurant, or to the gym.. or travel, on an airplane.. be in a relationship where he doesn't think " god whats with this crazy girl and all her ailments??".. I want to be normal. I don't want to live in fear.

I don't want to feel these anymore. .. I'm getting so fed up.

Someone posted that they are not caused by anxiety. That its something wrong with your CNS/ ANS.. or the cells that produce beats in your heart are abnormal. So if thats true.. then all of us have something wrong with our nervous systems and with the cells in our hearts??

[jerome992]

Great story and very typical. I'm actually a physician who had my first panic attack 2 years ago. Crazy eh(no pun intended). I was at the gym, had my FIRST PVC ever...though I was having a heart attack (at 33 in great shape). went to Emerg..Had another PVC on my EKG..basically spent three months in absolute fear with the thought i had some weird cardiac problem untill finally i seen a Cardiologist and came to the conclusion it was panic attacks. I had 3 since (one when I was sleeping). All start the same, a string of a few PVC's and then my heart just goes into overdrive. poudning, racing, shortness of breath, feeling like i'm going crazy and a bit detached. I know it know and can deal with it. But obviosuly, i still get PVC's between these episodes. They still freak me out even though I know 100% then are normal.

During this time,i did alot of research on PubMed.com (which is where physicians and scientists get heath research data). there is one VERY large study looking at the incidence of PVC's in all age groups. They put monitors are people, from age 20 up and looked at how many had PVC's. As we age, the incidence goes up. However....70% of all people younger than 50 get them with nearly 100% of people over 50 having them,But for somereason, we are more "sensitive."

They are normal parts of the heart and are meaningless.

What happens normally, is your atrium fills with blood that is returning from you body's veins, the atrium contracts propelling blood into you ventricle, your ventricle then contracts propelling blood to your body. This is all coordinated nicely. With a PVC, your ventricle fires and contracts randomly before the atrium has time to fill it. So what happens is two things...(1) There is less blood in your ventricle cause it isnt filled thus if "feels" like you didnt have a heart beat, you did, it was just not strong because there was not as much blood. (2) your atrium can't empty so MORE blood comes into it, basically 2 beats worth of blood becuase it coudlnt empty during the PVC...then, the next beat your atrium empties the extra blood into the ventricle and you have TWICE the blood now. Your ventricle is stretched and this stimulates a larger contraction to propelle more blood, like if you were exercising. The problem is, you feel this larger contaction because its out of context to all the other contractions going on. That is why it feels like a missed beat...then a hard beat. Your heart is just catching up thats all.


I hope that helps some people a little bit. I know how stressfull they are, but i hope you are comforted by some understanding that it is normal.

[michellepetkus]

I assume you had a 30 day monitor and they caught the fast beat and deemed it anxiety and not svt from an accessory pathway?  Svts can definitely be triggered by pvcs.  The tell tale sign being the fast beat starts out of no where and stops just as suddenly.  Depending on the area where the extra fibers are located the fast rate can be over 200bpm.  I had avnrt which was ablated in Sept and my beat would go upwards of 230bpm.  I guess I just question the anxiety diagnosis if you wake up with it.  That said, some intense dreams wake me up with a fast beat but I could tell the difference between simple fast sinus tachycardia caused by anxiety and an svt.  The svt feels just crazy manic where the sinus tachycardia is just fast.  Well, regardless you are right, isolated pvcs are nothing to be concerned about and svts are also nothing to be too concerned over in an otherwise healthy heart but if you notice the beat starts up without any sort of a stress response you may want to look into svt.   The most common ones are pretty easy to fix.  You would still be left with the pvcs but the racing heart would stop if you do indeed have svt and not anxiety.  I am sure you checked all into this but just thought I would pass on my thoughts.  Take care.  

[munk1958]

Thanks for the insightful reply. I'm 54 year old male. Former powerlifting champ, hockey goalie, softball for over 20 years etc. I have had PVC'S, PAC'S, and a few A-fibs thrown in for good measure, for about 30 years. I have backed out of doing most everything because of the fear of having an event somewhere. I've had all the tests, and they have never found anything wrong. They also change. They used to bug me when I worked out. Now the last few weeks, they go off, when I want to go to sleep, or rest. They are there when I wake up. When I get moving, they pretty much go away. I'm on a low dose of Clonazapam, Atenylol, and Multaq. So even though I know they are pretty much harmless, I still cannot get them out of my mind. I monitor every beat. Well I don't think there is anything else that can be said, that hasen't already been said. But thanks for letting me vent. God Bless all you sufferers out there. You are not alone. Mark

[jerome992]

No, the fast beat wasnt SVT. SVT starts out of nowhere ie..on/off. Mine just spead up as in, get faster as my "panic" sets in. The last two times it happened, i was taking propranolol and didn't get any of the fast/sweating/breathing problems so it fixed the diagnosis for me. If it was SVT, i would have had symptoms of it.  Also, SVT doesnt typically happen in association with PVC's. Also, panic attacks are so typical. Them come out of nowhere, with no trigger and peak at 10 minutes and are gone with in an hour. Thats mine 100%. The last two times I just had some PVC's and then my mind was freaking out..I had no symptoms physically except for some "chills," the propranolol stopped everything (apart from the worry and stress of it). You really do feel like you are dying and lossing your mind...its so true.  Also, PVC's and SVT are not related in pathways. PVC's come from the Ventricle where as SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) come from the SA node. There is no communication retrograde in most cases. Also, i get some PVC's during the tachycardia, which doesnt fit with SVT.

Also, 70% of people with panic attacks will have them during sleep as well. Its very common. True panic attacks happen out of the blue and can happen anytime, including sleep. I guess I'm on of the lucky ones :).

And Munk1958, its VERY common to have your PVC/PAC go away with exercise, your heart is moving too fast to allow them to show up. How do you know you are having runs of Afib? Ever caught one on a holter? Honestly, when this first started with mean, i was crazy feeling my heart rate constantly, i had TONS of PVC's and that just made it worse. When I finally realized it was all anxiety, i went from getting 50 pvc's a day to maby  2 at the most and some days none. For me, its all anxiety and I'm basically 95% back to normal and they dont bother me anymore.  Its easy for me to stay just try to forget about it, but i for one understand how hard it is.  PVC ans PAC are normal, we all get them, but some of us just notice them more. Try it, ask some friends if they ever "felt their heart stop" the vast majority will say yah, but for some reason, it didnt bother them.  

[whiskeyk9]

I have pvc hell as well. I know the chest pains. Very sharp pain coming and going. They fade away. Try and remember cardiac pain most always starts in the center and works out towards the left. That's what ivd been told anyway. Anti anxiety pills don't work if you take em daily because your body builds immunity so to speak. I went to the er a couple of times and had many dr appointments. In the end nothing really helps even with beta blockers. I have a pretty good control on anxiety but once in awhile it gets the best of me. I'm a 33 year old k9 handler for a sheriffs department. I know the stress doesn't help. I thought I was going to drop dead at any second once I noticed them. That was 4 years ago. Your not alone hun. Most doctors truly don't understand this condition and we start to become the real experts lol

[horseluver4]

This is all such sad conversation. Why can't there just be a fix. :,( these things are literally debilitating. I'm 35 years old had my first felt pvc when i was 19 years old. I avoid all you do, flying, traveling where i can't get to a hospital, avoid many things in life because every time i try i get pvc's then anxiety then have to get the hellllll outta there. No fun!! some days i feel normal some days i have no control. I get allot when my heart rate is lower i get about 20 a minute. Can hardly sleep or i sleep sitting up with tv on so i don't hear them in my ears. Lately i take a lorazapam to sleep. In day i take atenolol 25mg in morning and at night and it makes a world of difference. I'm so sorry everyone. Think they need to do a tv special on these! More research for sure.

[tom_h]

For anxiety, there is a fix.  It isn't easy, it's emotionally painful, is drawn out, and for most of us costs a lot of money.  It's psychological counciling by someone who specializes in Panic Disorder.  I would take my wife weekly, sometimes more to see her psychologist whose practice specialized in panic disorder only.  There were tears, lots of them.  But together, they found the root, the cause of her panic and anxiety.  Then it was confronting the cause and learning to deal with and conquer it which she did.  She also had a bit of pharmacalogical help. Small daily doses of the miracle SSRI, Paxil (Paroxetine) and occasional doses of Xanax (Alprazolam) helped greatly.  Today, she lives a normal life all but free of anxiety. But when she gets occasional twinges, she knows how to deal with it.  In learning to cope, she has also become her own person.  She does things now that 25-30 years ago when she was in the throes of panic and anxiety wouldn't have dreamed possible.  She is an extraodinary woman, who went through this along with breast cancer seven years ago, and I'm very, very proud of her today.

[achillea]

Beautifully said, Tom!

This is the approach that worked for me as well, and it's good to learn that it has so greatly helped your wife (and you, because panic affects the whole family).

Perhaps as more and more of us speak out about this problem, it will carry less of a stigma, and more sufferers will find it easier to ask about the kind of psychiatric and/or psychological counseling that will actually benefit them.