panic attacks

[andy1997]

my husband's defib. fired 3 times 3 weeks ago,  I have had to call out emergency services 4 times since it happened.  He has been checked over and everything is OK blood pressure, heart and defib all clear.

He has no pain but is feeling dizzy, sweating and seems to being going into panic attacks.  Is this normal after a defib has gone off

[Jerry_NJ]

You may get some realted experience from the Anxiety Community, if you try you may improve results focusing on dealing with anxiety, while relating to the ICD.  Most there may have no idea what an ICD is.

As for Ablation, I'd say go for it if you can get a EP Cardiologist to tell you what the risk/benefit estimate is.  In my case of long term AFib and other facts I'll not load this reply with  my Cardiologist and a consulting EP both said my reward is too low to take the risk.. that is my symptoms are manageable with "rate control" and "clot reduction".  Part of the estimate down side for me is a low probability of success, and this evaluation was done 4 years go, so I am further down the in "AFib too long" camp.

I hope I didn't lose the drift of what you are looking for, but I share in the hope it will help you decide a strategy.  Anxiety management is another issue and an important one.  Of course there are some medication to help with that but watch out on the cost, some are unbelievably expensive...enough so to cause anxiety if it wasn't there before.

[KylieKav]

Absolutely normal. I have an ICD and its only fired 6 times in the past 18 months and I'm in a panic all the time. The stress associated with these devices are highly under appreciated and cause a PTSD like syndrome. I'm doing yoga, counseling to try get my head under control. Be sure his medication is doing its job - it may be time to re-evaluate or consider ablation?

[Jerry_NJ]

It all depends.

I am in permanent AFib and so for my symptomatic reaction AFib is mostly a non-event.  Others have very fast heart rate, I take meds to hold my HR below 100 at rest.

Does you husband take any beta blocker or calcium channel blocker meds?  There are also a number of stronger medications that can convert and hold a person in normal sinus rhythm.

As for panic, I can understand that if the symptoms are very threatening, which seems to be the case for your husband.