Panic Attacks Support Group

HI,I was hoping there might be someone who had had a similar experience to me. My heart has been missing beats for some weeks now and I have been worried about it but last night my heart started to race and was hitting 144 beats per minute. I was so scared I rang for an ambulance and really thought I was a gonner. The ambulance crew said my hear rate had slowed to 110 and that was normal! I couldn't believe it as my resting heart rate is usually 68. It eventually slowed to 80 beats per minute and they said I was fine but that it had been a panic attack. Today I have been crying all day for fear that it happens again. I wondered if anyone else had any suggestions for calming myself down. I have suffered from anxiety in the past and was on Citalopram which I thought were good but the side effects were terrible for the first ten days. Just the thought of going through that again makes me not want to take anything.

Hi Dory, welcome to the group!

If you have properly been diagnosed with panic, yes racing heart is on of the sensations. It's ok for our hearts to race, its scarey and feels weird, but the heart can handle it. try breathing slowly when that happens, that should help calm you and relieve the symptoms. There is a lot of useful information here and great people to talk too, who know what its like and understand.

Hye Dori and Phil is right if you have been checked and they say it is panic then you can be assured that is what it is. I have had some really bad panic attacks in the past where my heart has went so fast and oh my did it scare the heck out of me. Mine has went up to 160-170 before and many different times. I have had different doctors look at me and had all the tests done and it is all anxiety and panic.

When this would happen to me what I would do is take slow breaths in through my nose and then slowly out through my mouth. A cold wash cloth to the face or drink ice cold water. And try not to fight the panic attack, just let it come on and try and talk calmly to yourself and assure yourself that you will be ok and this will not kill you.

We are all here for you and know that everything will be ok.