The doctor refused to help ..aibu here?

[sallybally335]

I've been having a irregular heartbeat since may.
I was getting around 50 extra heartbeats a day (PVCs) a day
Doctor sent me to cardiologist and they did a monitor (this only picked up 3 that day ) and heart scan which was normal.
Since then I'm now getting thousands a day and back and rib pain with them.
I went to doctors today and she said she wouldn't refer me back to cardio as I was only there July.
Aibu to complain to practice?

@sallybally335 is that the prescribed dose?

Surely you were told that they would take a couple of weeks to kick in?

I learned about the vagus nerve in the first week of medical school. It always amazes me when people say things on mumsnet with such authority that if I weren’t medical I’d believe them.

OP walking around the supermarket crying does not sound like a cardiac problem.

Remember that sertraline can take up to 6 weeks to work and in the first few weeks you can often feel a little worse (paradoxical I know).

Persevere and good luck, you can do this .

You need to start taking the prescribed dose today, consistently, and give it a few weeks for any reliable effect - as your GP probably told you? Antidepressants aren’t an ‘as and when’ medication.

It will take time for them to help, they won't work instantly
Honestly if you get them really try to ignore them and carry on with what you're doing. I KNOW it's hard, the amount of supermarket shops I abandoned when I had panic attacks! I found weirdly Asda was worse, something about the lights but Morrisons was better
Concentrate on your breathing - crying can make it worse because you end up doing that gulping thing

They will take about two weeks to work and in that time you might feel a bit shaky. But they do work. My dh has severe anxiety and depression and didn’t work for 4 years because of it. He has been taking sertraline for years now and has been able to return to full time work and feels so much better. You HAVE to give them a proper chance.

I'm asleep and they wake me up,that can't be anxiety as I'm asleep.

I've been woken up by panic attacks, so that's not necessarily true.

If there is or was a physical problem it doesn't mean it hasnt triggered anxiety and that is magnifying your symptoms. It's worth getting help for that even if you still want to push for more checks.

They need to build up in your system. It's not instant.

I have a feeling you took a half dose so you could justify saying "I tried it, it didn't work therefore the experts are wrong and it's not anxiety".

Take as recommended, give it a month and then see. In the meantime breathing exercises and physical exercise like short walks with loud music to calm your mind. If the palpitations start you need to ignore and continue with what you were doing.

And stop counting! That's absolutely pointless and only making it worse. It's not going to change the doctors' minds.

Doctor told me to take half a tablet 25mg for 4 days then go to a full tablet 50mg after.
She said it might help with the side effects.
I don't wake up having a panic attack,I wake up with extra heartbeats.
I'm sick of my life honestly sick.
If I have to live with these beats like this every day then I really don't want this life..because this isn't living.

OP I really think that you have anxiety and you need to take the I have serve anxiety and I’m only just getting it under control with sertraline. I can also some times feel my heart beating or it feels like it stops and starts but I’ve had my heart checked and I’m on blood pressure medication so am putting it down to my anxiety or it could be palpations I have a family history of palpitations. I don’t let it frighten me though I just ignore it. For your own sake please listen to your doctor and take the sertraline it will make you feel a million times better.

It took me 2xyears to realise that I suffer from anxiety. I didn't belie e it be aise I don't feel mentally or emotionally anxious, on the opposite. I now understand anxiety doesn't have to be me tally driven, but can be very much trigger by a physical stimulus. In my case, hormonal, so I'm not conscious of it. It acts on me the same way hormones trigger hot flushes. Like most menopausal women, I have flushes in the night, so not triggered by my conscious self. Anxiety is the same.

In my case, it doesn't trigger ectopic beats but does trigger low heart rate and blood pressure so I suddenly suffer from lightheadedness, palpitations (as in heart feels it is beating louder), tinnitus, and even affe t my eye sight. I sleep terribly too because of it.

One main trigger is dehydration and I now need to drink 3 times more than I used to. Drinking alcohol and caffeine makes it much worse.

SSRI take weeks before showing any effect. Its not going to get you better in one night. Your first step is to stop being scared by them. You've had all the tests you could ha e and your fine so accept them, and then work on what you can do to reduce them be s'use of the unpleasantness.

@sallybally anti depressants take at least 2 weeks to kick in and you need to be consistent in your dosage. You are also too focussed on your heart and that won’t help. Accept it’s anxiety. Accept it takes time to resolve itself. Accept you will need to distract yourself. You’re not alone and millions of people have this. Get off the internet, stop focusing on it, go and do something you enjoy (even if it’s watching TV). Don’t have caffeine. Also, if you can afford it, go and get CBT

I bought myself a colouring book ..gonna do that and try and relax

I know about the vagus nerve and I am not in medicine.

I hope you feel better soon. Anxiety can cause physical symptoms, absolutely it can. I just wanted to wish you all the best.

OP, a close relative has atrial fibrillation - diagnosed, and they have spent time in hospital. I have spent many hours with them watching their heart monitor doing roller coasters - it is amazing how irregular a heart can beat and the owner can still function.
My relative has had treatment (electrical stimulation of the heart muscle via a wire which was inserted in their groin). It was only partially successful (and deeply unpleasant). Their symptoms are massively exacerbated by anxiety, also by caffeine and alcohol. They have learned to control their heartbeat to a certain extent, and not to be bothered by it - it is a slippery slope, because the symptoms can get worse and worse the more panicked they get. My rel is not bothered by the symptoms - they have learned to live with them. They haven't been hospitalised for some years now.
I would say you need to control your anxiety and find a way to live with the weird things your body does. Trust the medics - you aren't going to drop dead.

Sally when I have anxiety and am tired that’s actually worse. I am so tired and that can almost trick your mind into things. It’s common to have that twitch that jolts you from light sleep and you wake up thinking WTF. What I notice is that if I lay on my left side my palpitations seem to be worse, so I don’t sleep on that side. Funny enough I wake up that side and have no palpitations!

Have you cut out caffeine?

Being anxious can cause them or can make them worse but I was diagnosed with anxiety based on my heart rate despite not being in the least bit anxious. It scares me how many people get labelled as having anxiety when they don’t.

You can get an iPhone attachment which actually runs an eeg using your fingers, you can email the results or can pay for them to be seen by a cardiologist attached to the app. I think they are fairly accurate, I got mine free as I was on a study with them

You can get an iPhone attachment which actually runs an eeg using your fingers, you can email the results or can pay for them to be seen by a cardiologist attached to the app. I think they are fairly accurate, I got mine free as I was on a study with them

Please don’t do this or any of the other monitoring/checking ideas some have given on this thread. It really won’t help your anxiety! Please focus on taking the medication prescribed and on seeking psychological support via CBT for Health Anxiety. Please feel free to pm me OP if you want on guidance on where to seek CBT outside the NHS (I’m an IAPT HI therapist/CBT therapist), if that’s your preferred option. Wishing you the best

Well done OP for starting the Sertraline, and as everybody has said, they will take a good few weeks to take effect.
You said you don't want to live life with those extra beats. At the moment, it's because you're convinced those extra beats are a possibly fatal heart condition. As you treat your anxiety, you'll continue me to realise and believe that that is not what they are. They may stop, they may not, but once you are able to accept them as a benign symptom, you will feel much better about their existence. I know that seems way way off right now, but you will get there. Good luck

And good God do not get the iPhone app!!!!

You’re not sick of your life. You’re sick of the symptoms of the anxiety you have. Give the setraline a chance to work and then go back to the GP if you need to. For help with the anxiety. That’s the problem.

You do wake up having an anxiety attack as feeling your heartbeat is how yours manifests itself. I completely relate to how you feel. Totally and utterly done with it.
You need to commit and work hard to accepting it for what is it, knowing your triggers and avoiding them (ironically, seeking reassurance online can be one, I also avoid anxiety/panic attack forums/support when I'm at my worst because I find reading about it and talking about it counterproductive), fixating on distracting yourself can also keep you in a state of hypersensitivity also. Try the meds but don't do it halfheartedly, if they are to work then they do need time to properly work their way into your system, and try to firstly ignore, then distract yourself from the heart flutterings using grounding techniques.

Thank you everyone for all your nice words,honestly reading all of that helps me.
This afternoon ain't been too bad a few here and there but I haven't been crying.
Trying to think positive ..
Had these 2012 ...they eventually went away to the odd one.
They went away in August for 7 weeks and I even went to Manchester by myself (3 hours away )
I had a good week in December and I went out a few times Christmas shopping etc
So thinking logically a serious heart problem wouldn't just come and go like so.
My mood changes and anxiety increases and this snowballs
I have to accept when under stress/anxiety
My thing is PVCs ..like someone else might vomit or go dizzy
My thing is my bloody heart
It will be fine
Il continue with sertraline
Cbt il start
We will see what happens

That sounds really really positive OP. It’s a massive step. Wishing you the very best for 2019

You're not crying OP because you are taking the medicine which you need. I had a strange heartbeat when my step dad died recently. It was due to the upset (googled it!) and all went back to normal quite quickly. About 9 years ago I had a mental breakdown after an illness and was prescribed an anti depressant. I remember wondering what people had to help them before modern medicine. I took them for 5 months then came off them gradually (on doctors advice) then about 6 months later was my usual self. I suffer with anxiety in general but not about my health. Best of luck OP.

You need to accept what someone else said upthread - you are not being fobbed off, a diagnosis of anxiety has been made following nothing wrong being found by the cardiologist. This is being treated with sertraline to see if it resolves the problem. If it doesn't, then they will look at other possibilities. I've had a lot of things wrong with me in the past 10 years, this is how they diagnose what's going on. It's very methodical and scientific, but you have to co-operate.

I've had palpitations and 'thudding' heartbeats in the past, I know how distressing it is. But I also suffer from anxiety, and I know that it's not always easy to pick up when you're suffering from it, and it certainly can't be cured by 'mind over matter'. Do have a look at No More Panic, it's an excellent site, very helpful for any form of health anxiety.