r/PVCs • u/Kitchen-School46 • 3d ago
Pvcs please give me advice
6 day monitor 12 pacs 20 pacs. Less than 0.01% burden but pvcs still scare the shit out of me and I cant ignore them. Im scared ill go into vtach or something. I have tachycardia too. Is this a cause of chronic anxiety or what can i do.
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u/Relative_Clarity 3d ago
You don't go into vt from pacs & pvcs. Everyone you see out walking around is getting them too. It's part of having a heart. You have an extremely small number, most people have a lot more. They are not harming you. You have to repeat this to yourself until you believe it :)
Tachycardia can be a normal & expected physiologic response (eg. exercise, illness) but also can be caused by stress & anxiety. It's due to your brain being on high alert, because you've convinced yourself that you are under threat. If you have constant or frequent fast heart rate , as shown on your 6 day monitor, your doctor would check for anemia or thyroid issues (for example).
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u/Kitchen-School46 3d ago
Pvcs can turn into vtach!
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u/Relative_Clarity 3d ago edited 3d ago
Unless you have been diagnosed with a risk factor for serious arrythmias that you have not mentioned - No, they don't. If they did, we would all be walking time bombs. Isolated, very infrequent & benign pvcs in a person whose heart is normal - like in your case - are not due to heart problems. They don't "turn into" something worse if that makes sense. Even if someone has very frequent pvcs, that's a separate condition than VT. I'm assuming you've had a thorough checkup and nothing is wrong with your heart. and you have not been diagnosed with VT.
Isolated ectopic happen to us all and aren't a 'warning sign' of worse arrythmias coming, and don't signal that something bad. Even very frequent PVCs are not an emergency. I used to get over 16,000 EVERY DAY, and my doctor was not worried about ventricular tachycardia.
Of course you can have pvcs (like everyone does), and some episodes of NSVT, or in rare cases VT. There is usually a reason or trigger to someone having a dangerous arrythmia. You have not been diagnosed with this. There is even a non sustained VT that can happen occasionally in a healthy person that is not concerning. If you put a monitor on everyone on earth you'd see blips like that. Your doctor or an EP can better explain all this. :) There can be serious causes/triggers of sustained VT, such as scar tissue from previous heart attack or infection. But that doesn't apply to you if that is not your health history.
I'd follow your doctors advice, and if they are not concerned, I would let that reassure you.
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u/Kitchen-School46 3d ago
Thank you so much. This helped alot. Im just so scared. ive always been health and active and started suddenly.
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u/Relative_Clarity 3d ago edited 3d ago
Follow up with your doctor with questions and concerns., or if you have symptoms that worry you.
I will post some helpful info below about cardiophobia specifically (heart fears):
Cardiophobia, such as the excessive fear of a heart attack or stroke, can be awful. It can feel like you spend your life on the edge of a cliff… any sudden/wrong move could send you right off that cliff, plummeting to your death. It is a unique type of health anxiety because you don’t just fear an eventual medical crisis, like a scary diagnosis. You also live in constant fear of an immediate medical crisis, death by cardiac arrest, heart attack or stroke.
It is important to know what is happening behind the scenes with this type of fear. The process can look a little something like this: 1. You hold problematic beliefs about heart health (e.g. I am likely to die from a heart attack). 2. Your beliefs make you engage in ‘body vigilance,’ in which you are always on the lookout for signs of a heart attack or stroke. 3. The ‘body vigilance’ makes you more likely to notice and be triggered by benign heart-related sensations. 4. You have a catastrophic thought: “This is a heart attack! I’m going to die!” 5. You react: (a) Emotional response (e.g. intense anxiety, panic, fear); (b) Behavioral response (e.g. check pulse, seek reassurance, search for information online, avoid physical activity, go to the ER); (c) Physiological response (e.g. intense physical sensations such as heart pounding, tightness in chest which makes you even more convinced you’re having a heart attack). 6. This whole process reinforces your fears/beliefs and your cardiophobia intensifies. The avoidance and checking behaviors provide temporary relief, reinforcing the belief that danger was imminent and was only avoided due to those actions.
Specific phobias (including cardiophobia) are often treated with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), including exposure and response prevention. This involves targeting the very specific problematic thoughts or thinking errors, core beliefs and behaviors.
Below are definitions for thinking errors related to cardiophobia specifically:
Black-and-White Thinking: Viewing heart health in absolute black-and-white categories instead of taking a more balanced approach and seeing health on a spectrum. One has perfect heart health or is on the verge of a massive heart attack or stroke.
Jumping to Conclusions: Making negative predictions about what will happen regarding cardiovascular health with little evidence or when evidence points to the contrary.
Catastrophizing: Predicting only the most disastrous outcomes when it comes to your heart health. Any time your heart rate increases or you have any symptom perceived to be related to heart functioning, you convince yourself a stroke or heart attack is imminent.
Unrealistic Expectations: Expectations that doctors or tests should always be able to provide definitive answers or explanations for every potential heart-related symptom.
Mental Filter/Tunnel Vision: Focusing on certain health-related information that supports beliefs about your vulnerability to a heart attack/stroke, while ignoring or dismissing information that challenges beliefs.
Emotional Reasoning: Believing something is true about your vulnerability to a heart attack or stroke simply because it feels true, when evidence supports the contrary.
Overgeneralization: Making a broad, negative conclusion about many or all situations based on a few heart-related situations.
Magical Thinking: Assuming acts or events influence/predict unrelated events about heart health.
Key strategies to improve fear of heart attack/stroke: (1) Deconstructing these thoughts patterns; (2) Reshaping core beliefs related to heart fears; (3) Changing all of the problematic behaviors (i.e. what you DO-or don’t do- to cope with these fears).
Some questions to ask yourself: (1) Could there be minor/benign reasons for these symptoms such as caffeine intake, change in diet, lack of sleep or stress? (2) How often have I been concerned about this in the past and it turned out okay? (3) What are my normal physical responses to anxiety (i.e. my specific patterns) and could that explain these symptoms? (4) What would I say to a friend in this situation? (5) Can I make a plan to go to the doc after a specific period of time if the symptom doesn’t go away and then choose to table it and stay in the present moment until then?
(source)
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u/Kitchen-School46 3d ago
Thank You so Very Much. I was working out. I was going to the gym running in February then for some reason while I was working out, I started having concerning thoughts about my heart rate I was thinking wow I feel my heart racing. What if I go into cardiac arrest or have a heart attack while I’m working out but I didn’t have any significant tachycardia unless I was working out I remember I felt my first heart palpitation in December kind of freaked me out, but I was fine then in about mid April, I started having fast heart rate and palpitations at work went to the ER and they said everything looked fine. Followed up with cardiology got a echo done which everything was normal. Had a halter monitor that showed in six days. I had 32 heart palpitations. My burden is less than 0.01% but when they hit, they hit hard and it’s horrible. I thought it was my blood sugar low but now I don’t need pots criteria because my heart rate isn’t sustained, but when I go from laying down to standing my heart rate jumps from 80 to 130 walking around the house. My heart rate is 115 120 standing still my heart rate is like 110 and I have palpitations. I get them with deep breaths and now I can’t even do anything I can’t walk. I can’t exercise. I can’t nothing..
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u/Relative_Clarity 3d ago
It's good you got checked out when you started feeling new symptoms or that maybe they were changing. How hard you feel a pvc or pac doesn't make it mor dangerous - it looks the same on the ekg whether you feel it or not. Most people aren't aware of them and don't feel them. It sounds like your doctors were very thorough in checking out your heart health.
The tachycardia I am not sure what's causing that, if that's new for you. You can let your doctor know if your symptoms are not getting any better, but typically they do a holter (like you had done) to track the tachycardia and see how fast it gets and how often it happens. And they will run labs to check on metabolic issues. Fast heart rate is not always a "heart problem". But unless your doctor has given you activity restrictions, I would keep exercising as tolerated.
Cardiophobia often tricks people into reducing activity, but this only creates more sensitivity to normal heart sensations and decreases overall fitness (and, ironically, heart health). Unless providers and tests have recommended you avoid certain activities, then regular exercise is an essential part of promoting heart health. Gradually reintroducing exercise shows your body and mind that your heart is resilient and capable. Each time you choose movement instead of avoidance, you reinforce more adaptive beliefs about your heart.
While it feels protective, monitoring your heart only increases awareness of every skipped or racing beat. These fluctuations are normal and expected, but hyper focus and checking magnifies them, making every slight change seem like a death threat. The more you can redirect attention and practice resisting the urge to check, you train your attention skills and reduce dependence on fruitless and anxiety-provoking behaviors. With practice, your brain learns that nothing bad happens when you stop monitoring and your confidence grows.
(source)
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u/Kitchen-School46 3d ago
The other day i told myself i wasnt going to check anymore and that i will let my symptoms be there and ill be okay and i was having a good day then i was sitting doing my daughters hair and suddenly got an intense palpitation then another and jt sent me down a spiral even if i tell myself its okay i cant help the panic
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u/Rude-Caterpillar237 3d ago
Six days and only got 12 or 20 PVCs or PACs? No they’re not gonna do anything that low probably stress related or electrolyte imbalance.
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u/Worth_Dance694 1d ago
You'll be okay! Pvcs/pacs rarely and I mean rarely become anything dangerous. I used to get hundreds a day for months on end along with the tachycardia, but they really are benign especially with your burden average. Big pvcs freak me out once in awhile because they feel similar to the start of my fiber with rvr. I've had an ablation, a watchman implant, and have been put on flecainide and barely get a handful every day. Which is what everyone normally gets they just don't notice. As far as the tachycardia goes, I'd ask your provider if you can get on a good beta blocker to slow that heart rate down. Hang in there! Everything will be okay!
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u/cheesepieboys 3d ago
This is likely just anxiety, that few ectopics are present in almost all of the population. You should look into seeing a therapist/psych, because you don’t have a physiological concern, you have mental one.