Grumpy mood before onset of AF episode?

[WendyWu20]

I am becoming more aware with recent AF episodes, that I seem to be really grumpy and irritable for a few hours before each episode of AF.

I can honestly say that my normal self is usually cheerful and amenable. However, all this morning I was very irritable with my family, then went into AF after lunch. This has been happening on several occasions.

So I'm just wondering....firstly - does anyone else experience this? And secondly - is something going on with my body chemistry/hormones/physiology that I'm not aware of, which triggers both the bad mood and the AF. Or perhaps I sometimes just choose to be irritated by life, and this irritation in itself causes the AF?!

[Hidden]

Hi Wendy, I can definitely relate to the irritability! I was first diagnosed 5 years ago and during that much more intense time, I was definitely quite irritable a lot of the time. I remember learning from Googling back then that irritability is common with AF, not just cause of the annoyance of it striking like it does, but because of the lack of oxygen going to the brain.

I went 3 years with no AF after my first ablation and then it returned around 1.5 years ago. What's interesting is that this time, I don't feel the irritability quite as intensely as back then. But what is different for me now is that I've been able to sort through any lingering emotions that have piled up from the past. I've come to see AF episodes at times as a sort of super-charged form of intuition, urging me to make some kind of change. I think that this has helped to lessen the intensity; I have felt how the episodes will magnify certain feelings. I definitely still get irritated, especially if I'm wrangling with some stupid billing agent about inaccurate doctor bills, but the irritation tends to be specific and focused and not overall and about everything.

Now if I tend to feel a faint jittery-ness in my heart, a little tweak, a weakness, I figure an episode will hit later. It's not so much an emotional type of warning.

[MikeyF]

Me too. Notwithstanding other triggers, looking back it’s been pretty much nailed on for me that an AF episode will almost always follow in the evening/night after a day when I’ve felt particularly angry, irritable and negative!

[doodle68]

Hi Wendy you say....

''Grumpy mood before the onset of AF episode''

...no not grumpy but I have found getting upset or angry seems to precipitate some P-AF episodes which I think may be related to a release of some hormones.

I try not to get angry about things these days but keep calm and walk away...

[wilsond in reply to doodle68]

That's me too doodle! Getting my knickers in a twist or upset almost guarantees an episode,so yes Wendy I think there is a link xx

[Fastbeat]

Upsets stress arguments, things not going to plan,thatwas me off with AF.Try to ignore these thing nowadaysas i am in persistent AF but i don't find it easy

[WendyWu20]

I think what I'm focussing on, is not about stress causing my AF. I do get stressed about things sometimes but it doesn't seem to trigger my AF, which seems to be vagal not adrenaline based.

And I'm really not usually grumpy, normally very tolerant and easy going with people. So it comes as a surprise to me to find myself being very cross and irritated. Yesterday I was grumpy - and remembering that a grumpy mood had happened before the last few AF episodes - I actually wondered if I would go into AF... and I did. Very Strange.

[Ianc2]

Try keeping a diary for a while and record what you ate, what you drank and how much exercise you have taken. Be honest with yourself, It might help, it might not, but it is worth a try.