Tachychardia caused by anxiety?

[Lindros]

Hello I am new to heart issues but not a stranger to anxiety topics.  I been dealing with anxiety/panic attacks/ and some OCD for about 7 years now.  I've had PLENTY of symptoms some of which have felt like would never leave me, but thank God they did.  So now a new ind of symptom has risen and it is a weird one.  This is how it started.

One day I was sitting in my desk, sipping on hot tea and suddenly I get a weird feeling in my throat.  I felt like my heart was thumping in my throat, and since I did not know what this was at the time, I began to panic.  I check my neck pulse and surely my heart is beating really fast and I mean fast.  This was like very rapid and I am sure it was well above 200 bpm.  This attack lasted about 20 min and then it left.  So after this incident I continued with my daily life and tried to ignore it but surely enough after a month I get another attack.  This time it only lasted like 2-3 min and I managed to control.  Again i try to ignore and again it return.  The third time and final time so far was at my desk again and it was the longest attack yet and I felt so exhausted after it ended.

What Ive noticed is that in all the three attacks Ive had they have ALWAYS happened when I was sitting down.  They also happened when I was stressed.  They also happened when I wasn't under any anxiety med.  They also happened after I took a breath.  It seems as if taking a wrong breath has triggered the tachycardia in all my attacks. Also Ive noticed that I get symptoms before a tachycardia attack wants to happen.  I get sensations in my neck and I begin to get air hungry.  What does seem to stop this sensations and stops them from giving me tachycardia is taking a bit of Valium.  This has led me to believe that my tachycardia is anxiety/stress related but I don't want to live with the pill every day.

Please anyone that can give me some good advice and encouragement.  I am really scared as I have never dealt with tachycardia before and I am scared of dying.  I am 22 Male 5'6 at 145lbs.

[tom_h]

Expect to feel anxious when you have one of these episodes.  I had them for 54 years, and I felt anxious during every single episode.  I'm not sure if it was a blast of aadrenaline or the the feeling of your heart racing along at 240 bpm, when a second before that, you were sitting on the sofa watching TV.  It's an anxiety filled event, but you have to try to be as observant as possible in order to get to the bottom of what's occuring.  When you described the episode to a physician, expain how it started and stopped, rate, etc.  I'd downplay the anxiety if you feel that you were feeling fine before the event started.

[is_something_wrong]

If you were able to stop your tachycardia by doing certain maneuvers, you may very well have SVT / AVNRT.

This is not necessarily (very rarely) dangerous but I would still see a doctor about it.

[Lindros]

Well like I said the days where my tchycardia has happened is usually very stressful days.  All three if my attacks have been when I am sitting down using my computer and suddenly I breath in and I feel like I contract my heart.  It's always when I breath in that this attack happens.  I feel as if my breath, the air, is felt around my heart and this triggers it to beat fast.  One time I felt that sensation and I managed to stop it by hunching and doing some weird maneuvers.

[MichelleP_3811]

I would say your symptoms sound more like svt than panic attack.  Accessory pathway svts are caused by an extra muscle fiber in the heart that allows the signal to get caught in a loop.  I had one leading into my avnode, the most typical kind, and it would cause my heart to race at 230bpm.  It is generally characterized by starting and stopping on a single beat.  If your beat gradually rises and falls then that might be simple anxiety but if it starts and stops in a single beat it may be classic svt.  That said, the biggest trigger for someone to fall into tachycardia is having an ectopic beat.  An extra beat in the atria (pac) or ventricles (pvc).  This disruption in the beat cycle allows the signal to make it across the extra pathway and start the looping process.  Stress and anxiety will trigger ectopic beats and ectopic beats will trigger svt.  So though the stress and anxiety may be contributing to the number of svt episodes you are having they aren't the true reason for them.  If you have this extra muscle fiber you can get it corrected but you need to get it documented so go back to your doctor and ask for an event monitor to try and catch it within a months time.  Your best bet though to keep your episodes at bay is to watch your stress and anxiety and manage any stomach ailments you might have.  Keep your ectopic beats to a minimum and you will likely keep your svt to a minimum but do go and get this properly diagnosed as it might not all be simple anxiety.  Take care and keep us posted on how you are doing.  

[is_something_wrong]

Your event may well have been a run of supraventricular tachycardia, especially if you had this thumping in the throat. I am curious though, did you notice your rapid heart rate before you started to panic or after?

It may be that you just had some skipped (premature) beats which you noticed, then you started to panic and your heart rate naturally went up. Above 200 sounds a bit fast for panic though..

70% of people suffering from "true" SVT also have an anxiety disorder. It's hard to say which is causing which - of course heart arrhythmias are causing anxiety, but anxiety itself can trigger arrhythmias.

I would recommend asking a doctor. Important signs that can tell if this was an arrhythmia or just panic, can be:

- Did your heart rate increase and slow down gradually, or was it just on and off like a switch?
- Did you panic after your heart rate climbed this high, or before?
- Did you have a constant (pulse-synchronized) throat sensation?