Anxiety so bad I'm scared to sleep

[AnxiousBall]

Hello everyone, in a 19 year old female and Lately I've been having some scares with my heart. I get PVCS and palpitations but all the tests (15 ECGS, halter monitor, echocardiogram, bloods) have come back normal and doctors assure me my heart is completely fine (I'm seeming a cardiologist though to be safe next week).

But now I've developed such bad anxiety, especially when it comes to sleeping. I'm terrified I'm going to die in my sleep. Ive developed a full blown phobia of sleep and haven't slept in 3 days and it feels like I'm going insane. I'm extremely depressed, and am so tired. I'm barely scraping by.

I don't know what to do

[Rachel191272]

This sounds awful for you and I really sympathise. I have svt and so have had episodes of palpitations all my life but last year things got much much worse and it turns out that not only had I developed a new pathway (new palpitations on top of my old ones) but I was also finally diagnosed with pots on top. I too would have a lot of symptoms at night and would have an impending doom feeling when I tried to go to sleep which led to poor sleep and worsening ectopics and more episodes of palpitations. I used an Alivecor on my iphone to capture the episodes and try to understand what was happening.

Now, after a lot of messing around with medication and things that hopefully don't apply to you so I'm not going to bore you with the details, I'm more stable. I still get ectopics all the time and pvcs are so unpleasant - don't think you ever really get used to them- but I'm ok and am functioning again and sleeping again!! Do you have other symptoms? The main thing to take some comfort from even though some of us are really symptomatic with ectopics, is that the cardiologists are always very reassuring and are not worried about them at all. Part of the anxiety is because we don't know what's happening and there is this fear that something has been missed. I'm sure however that your cardiologist will be reassuring and you will hopefully find that seeing him or her will make all the difference. You are not alone feeling frightened though and there are so many people on this forum alone who have helped me by writing posts similar to the way I feel or indeed replying to the few I've written.

Take care, good luck and if you can't sleep, write more!

Rachel

[elrascal]

you can try yoga as its very good for lowering your anxiety,also get a book on how to control your breathing as the palpitations should reduce with relaxation.palps may be unpleasant but if you have been getting them for sometime and they have not done you any serious harm then dont let them worry you .it takes a lot of commitment to relax and forget something like your heart.i got palpitations quite badly and i got so angry they were controlling my life i decided i would not let it bother me and what would be would be.palpitations occur very occasionally now (twice a year roughly).i dont know if this will help everybody but it costs nothing to try if you want.i didnt realise so many people suffered.let me know how you get on.

[MinnieMinnie]

Try holy basil for calming down and make sure you take mineral supplements and specially electrolytes like potassium and magnesium. Magnesium taurate is the best for heart. Sometimes small changes like that will help. Also avoid coffee, black tea and other stimulants. Mild exercise, also avoid sugar, chocolate, if possible white flavor with gluten.

[julieswann]

I read your feed and immediately felt I needed to reply. I am on this forum as my daughter has svt and initially I found comfort in reading posts and getting replies as support for my concerns. I personally have suffered with anxiety in the past (although not related to any illness). I was 25 when I first experienced my first panic attack and thought I was going to die. Since this happened in the night I went through a period of being frightened to sleep. It is definitely a catch 22 situations the more you try to sleep the harder it is. I tried all sorts yoga, relaxation tapes, herbal remedies but in the end I visited my doctor who prescribed me an antidepressant. Don't be alarmed by this as they also treat anxiety and in turn lower your heart rate. It was the best thing I ever did, please do not suffer in silence and visit your gp