hey everyone, I've been lurking on this website for about a week now and just decided to sign up and ask my question, so bear with me. since highschool i suffered from hyperhydrosis (i am now 22) which just made me sweat under my arm pits for no reason A LOT. then around two years ago, one day out of nowhere in a college class I began to realize that i had been yawning all day and not because I was tired, but to catch that deep, satisfying breath that comes with it. from then on for the next few months all day i was always trying to catch a deep breath and i became more and more aware of my breathing, because i felt like i was constantly holding my breath in- even when i was breathing. (weird- i know, hard to explain.) no docs were able to figure out anything physically wrong with me. one doc ordered a halter monitor test for 24 that would record my heart rate and rhythm and found that my heart rate went from 40 to 140 at night while i slept. i didnt notice this at all. so i saw a cardiologist and he prescribed me metoprolol 50 mg twice a day. i was on it for the past 2 years and while i was on it, i began to notice during the day a fast heart rate. then i noticed during these two years that i got more and more nervous with social occasions, going to class, having to speak in front of even a small group, interviews etc.. i got more and more aware of my heart rate, it would beat so loudly and fast on these nervous occasions and i would tell my cardiologist and he would just say im fine im fine. now these past couple of months havent been good. i was just sitting on my couch watching a baby show with my nephew when out of nowhere my heart skips a huge beat, beats, skips another one, beats, skips another one and then races to over 150 bpm. i got really nervous, stood up, got tunnel vision, felt really nauseous and shaky and didnt want to move. went to the hospital, everything came back fine. since then iv been having these completely random, out of nowhere episodes where my WHOLE body will get a surge of nervouness, dizziness, weakness, shakyness, and nauseousness and then a second later, my heart will race to 150 bpm again. I've been nauseous, fatigued, very weak, tired and agitated and irritated. i feel as if my heart and chest and brain is nervous but i am mentally not. now i just had a new halter test done and the doc said i have some PAC's and some irregularity and when i got the feeling of nervousness and pushed the button on the halter, the doc said the machine would go fuzzy a little bit, he suggested maybe i was shaking or wet but i assured him i wasnt. the doc wants to chalk this up to anxiety and gave me lexapro which i have yet to take because im just too afraid of taking an SSRI.
i guess my question to you guys is this- is it possible it is anxiety? i mean im not a nervous person, i was my highschools class clown, i was sort of the "rebel" in my grade and school, i dont generally care what people think about me, im funny, im cocky and sometimes even a jerk. the fact is- i have had a normal childhood (no abuse- mentally, physically or sexually) and these episodes and my overall feeling of dizziness, nervousness and fluttering in my chest 24 7 have no trigger to my knowledge. can it just be anxiety from nothing? anyone have a physical illness that cause these similar problems?