It's hard to describe my 'symptoms' to someone. As such, I imagine others also have trouble describing it (assuming someone else in the world has whatever I have), making it quite hard to find cases which are exactly similar to mine.
Here's to describing what happens as best I can.
Information:
- I get a rapid heartbeat, out of the blue, beating irregularly and out of control
- It is varying degrees of uncomfortable, depending on how hard my heart is beating (next bullet)
- My heart beats with varying degrees of 'strength', sometimes it is deep, hard beats and sometimes it is light, rapid beats (usually the deepness changes frequently and constantly throughout the episode)
- I may start to perspire, depending on the length of the episode
- Episodes can last from 3 seconds (one or two irregular beats) to 30-45 minutes (very few have gone to this length but it does happen). The most common length is probably 3-5 minutes because I have learned to control it (explained below).
- I can make the episode go away by distracting myself for long enough to forget about it (even through the pain, which is hard) and/or taking slow, deep breaths
- If I think about the pain/my heart rate, the episode will vigorously increase in strength
- When it does go away, I feel one or two deep, hard beats as my heart returns to its normal rate. A wave of warmth washes over my body and I can feel a flushing feeling of blood draining from my head
- Episodes may come once a month, once a week, or twice a day. It's not consistent and I can't say I've noticed any trends with episodes and stress or anything like that.
- I can be doing anything: playing a game, holding a conversation, driving, peeing, it's even happened and woken me up from sleep
- I'm usually not experiencing any more or less stress or anxiety than usual. I'm not much of a stressed out or anxious person. I'm also not depressed.
- I'm 20 years old and I don't remember it happening in my childhood. I'd estimate that it started happening around my teenage years
- My family does not have a history of heart disease. I've only had one family member (grandfather) with heart disease, and it was likely because he was quite obese.
- I am not obese.
The point of posting this isn't to get hate, or to be told to go to a doctor, or anything like that. All I'm looking for is perspective.
I've been to the doctor (and hospital) before, but not while an episode occurred. Only after. Heart readings were taken (I can't recall what all tests they did) and determined that I was functioning normally and blah blah. The doctors quickly dismissed it as anxiety (or panic attacks). However, I wanted to see if maybe anyone else had any more information that may agree with panic attacks or disagree.
Thanks in advance
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