Advice and support

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone is ok.

So basically I'm new and just wanted to get anyones thoughts or advice on similar experiences. And share I guess as anxious as heck today.

For the last 10 years or so every couple of years maybe or sometimes once a year i will get long bouts of ectopics. They can last weeks to months.

They are horrible as at their worse they can literally be as many as 4 or one after the other or even every other heartbeat.

I always attributed it to being overweight and it's true that when i was a bit too overweight i would have more air in my stomach and it seemed to trigger/tickle the vagus nerve in my stomach and cause an ectopic.

My pattern was to record them on my phone kardia ecg device see a heart doctor get checked have an echo get told my heart is structurally normal and so they are benign Dont worry!. But they reported to my GP that i was getting an “awful lot of them”.

Beta blockers for me personally hadn't really helped and caused a few very weird all over the place palpitations. So i stopped them. I appreciate they help a lot of people.

I would do gentle cardio, gradually build up to a better fitness and lose some weight and sooner or sometimes months later they would finally disappear.

It's my understanding that having too many can cause afib or make it more likely to develop, I mean i was having loads of ectopic s and am now. The last bout before a few days ago when they started again was a year ago, but what's different then and now is that i also get a whooshy adrenalin feeling in my body and head burnt sinus etc this accompanies them.

It was and is usual and very disturbing, i have been in recovery in alcoholics Anonimous for over 20 years 🙏 and a fellowship friend from aa said that as i came from a trauma childhood that possibly it was trauma stuck in the body that needed to be processed.

I kept an open mind and attended ACA meetings - like AA but for Adult Children of Alcoholic and dysfunctional families. As i grew up in a very threatening and violent alcoholic home where i had to be hypervigilant and in a state if fight or flight many nights each week because of the very real threat of physical violence or protect my Mum.

So it seemed that this hyper vigilance and possibly the palpitations were also or who knows completely due to my hyper vigilance hard wired in childhood and as i learned to disassociate also to survive the madness of the home possibly there was trauma that needed to come out.

After attending on line ACA meetings for a
month or so I had a night where i thought i was either about to have a heart attack or it was the trauma comming out, it was intense i experience fear anger rage and sadness and cried and wailed for a good half hour as it poured out of me, unusual for someone who daily ever cries. I realised it was the ptsd coming out to a large degree as i had flashbacks at the same time.

The ectopic last year and rushy adrenalin and whoshy head feelings literally all left me that night!

I have been fine ever since and healed a lot in ACA but stopped going as felt i needed to move on it take break for a bit.

But they are back again.

I am over weight again, and stressed about a few things and they have come back again it's awful getting so many it's overwhelming and worrying.

I Dont know what to do other than try and go to gym again lose weight and i guess look at the trauma again but i thought it had gone.

Has anyone else had non stop ectopics? And been ok?
Either weight related or, air in stomach vegus nerve related or experienced ptsd surfacing like this? Or like me possibly a combination??

Also finally i have in the last 3 years had what i think were a couple of very brief (few seconds) of afib. Where my heart didn't go mega fast but definitely boom boom boom boom quite fast but not mega fast, but very brief literally couoke or few seconds, i had it again.last night half asleep and i took a deep breath and my normal slowed beat returned immediately.

I'm worried that as I'm 50 now i can't keep going through this and scared, i have a child and need to be here for them!

Also i guess i do suffer from anxiety and can over worry and catastrophise.

Again probably due to childhood.

I'm just so scarred again right now.

I take a sleeping tablet which helps with anxiety a bit, but hope to wean off, and have been prescribed medical cannabis for anxiety and sleep but Dont want to use it when having palpitations as obviously don't want to make them worse! It's low thc high cbd or balanced and micro dose and vaped not smoked.

My heart specialist was fine with me trying as feels a lot of this is stress related and as long as it's legal and tried in small amounts as prescribed it's fine. I always checked with him as also have add and have used stimulants to help but only when not having episides like now and was fine on then but they didn't help much.

That's about it im very greatful to be able to share here, i just want to kind of run away from them myself, as they scare me so much and im atastrophising i might die.

Due for a yearly check up at hear Hospital Ina few months, they always reasure me my hearts normal but keep an eye on me from time to time.

PS i stopped smoking many years ago but as stressed really craving but obviously that's not a good idea :( i vale sometimes very weak juice and sometimes use 1 Mg nicotine spray or lozengers but they Dont seem to cause. But I'm not using hardly right now as worried will make them worse.

But I'm so worried it's kinda like i could say f it and smoke as so fearful. I know this sounds crazy.

Any advice deeply welcomed.

Blessing and many thanks