Is this condition honestly considered anxiety/attention seeking/dramatic by healthcare workers?

[GladMoose]

Bit of a random one and quite niche, but hoping it reaches some healthcare posters who can help!

I have AVNRT, I understand it affects people differently but unfortunately I get it quite badly and usually have to get shocked for it. I've had ablations/EPS etc in the past which were only partially successful but cannot get another without almost definitely needing a pacemaker and that is NOT something I want so I don't want to ever get another ablation again unless there's no other option. Thankfully with the right combination of medication it seems to be under control now. At one point I was at a&e multiple times a week for cardioversions so it’s a relief to have it better controlled now.

But at a previous admission recently I overheard a nurse telling a new student nurse that avnrt is just a glorified panic attack and that nobody can be bothered with the drama of it because it's not serious and basically discussing how it was just attention seeking young girls who get it

It got me wondering and it's played on my mind ever since- is that how it's viewed by healthcare professionals? That it's just anxiety and it's not serious? Everytime I've had to go to hospital, is that what they've been thinking about me?

I've had friends with conditions which are notoriously seen as being anxiety related and they have awful stories about being disbelieved and fobbed off (like IBS etc) but I didn't think this would be seen as that because they can quite literally see it on the ECG?

I mean sure, anxiety doesn't help it, but it's not caused by that. I've had episodes where my heart was 220+ for over 10 hours and it was utterly horrendous. Obviously it's not as serious as some heart conditions but it's still very unpleasant and absolutely not just a glorified panic attack or attention seeking. but ever since hearing that it's just been in the back of my mind that I'm sort of wary to seek help with it again if it happens in the future in case that's how it's seen?

It doesn't really make a difference because either way if you need to go to hospital then you need to go, but it's just been in the back of my mind, is it just that individual who was ignorant or is that generally the consensus about it and that's how the condition is seen?

I had nurses get annoyed with me when I had been given too much fentanyl after surgery and I couldn’t move/talk for hours. I could hear them though. They kept coming round huffing and puffing as they wanted to discharge me and I was a zombie. When I finally came round from this episode they told me I had been there 12 hours too long and being a bit dramatic. I had no idea I’d had too much Fentanyl until I asked them to explain why I had been unable to move or talk for 12 hours? I also had go to back 3 days later after being in urinary retention and they didn’t believe me until I demanded they scan my bladder and it had 300ml stuck in it

I was told that my migraines were anxiety and "all in my head" because no medication works. I can't take most medication because of other health conditions.

They did argue it's because my MRI scan is normal - I've got 2 brain conditions one of which they neglected to inform me about. Almost everyone with either condition complains about migraines

I’d been admitted to hospital after nearly dying a few hours before and when I was being put in to the cubicle the nurse commented on my weight. I had oedema and the bed was one that weighed me and she couldn’t understand why the reading was high and I felt very judged

The best nurses were in icu and had come to the uk to work.

My 76 year old dad is a very stoic and pretty healthy man. A couple of years ago he started to get episodes of chest pain and seriously accelerated heart rate. He was so concerened he went to A&E a couple of times and was told it was a panic attack and was srent home

He was then so ill he was blue lighted to hosputal with severe chest psin and had an emergency op to put in a stent to deal with the undiagnosed angina he had suffered for a couple of years.

Some conditions are, I’ve never know AVNRT to be considered like that though.
You can literally see it on an ECG.
I suspect the nurse didn’t understand what it was.

An awful pain I had for 2 and a half years was repeatedly dismissed as anxiety simply because I am a woman in my 40s. I had to absolutely insist for tests and luckily my GP and gynaecologist are absolutely brilliant, in the end my gynaecologist didn’t like something by comparing two scans and sent me for a more detailed exam. which discovered a cancer (nowhere near anything gynaecological). Which has taught me to hold my ground and keep speaking up when something is not right.

This.
And no they don't

I regularly had 10hr plus episodes at 180-200
Bpm A&E teams were always really kind and good with me. I also got told off for trying to ignore it when i couldnt release it with valsalval and not coming in sooner a few times.

However....
I have had multiple coworkers telling me about fucking meditation apps their anxious mums found helpful blah blah etc. when I was being hospitalised up to 3 x pw while on medication awaiting ANOTHER surgery and I had to suppress a scream before saying "oh really thats nice"
What they really meant was cant you just stop this and get some work done.

No one but no one is going into hospital at 4am on a Wednesday and taking up to 24mg of adenosine (awful awful stuff) for fun.

A GP practice nurse wrote off my elderly dad, who had a number of health conditions, recently had cancer, was CEV as having long covid and to go home, keep warm and drink lots of water. He couldn’t even get a GP appointment. He died a week later of pneumonia. We considered making a complaint but decided against it in the end- because of the effects of us.

Some healthcare professionals are just arseholes (and I say that as a nurse of 25 yrs!).
I often see people in the job who seem to be completely lacking in any empathy and almost appear pissed off that patients are 'bothering' them. I had no idea what this condition was but I had a quick Google (which I often resort to at work!!LOL) but even if I didnt know you cant exactly fake a fast heart rate.

TBH even if you had anxiety and panic attacks its not like people choose to experience those. I mean there def is attention seeking seeking behaviour from some people but there is also alot of people who are ignored or judged wrongly.

I agree. Experienced ex nurse here. That's shocking (no pun intended 😂).

This is so awful. I’m sorry this happened.

when the surgery offers me a nurse appointment my heart sinks.

Link for those as ignorant of this condition as I was.

There will always be some HCPs with this sort of view. Women with conditions like FND, CFS, POTS - anything which can't be seen on a scan - have faced awful discrimination, not to mention those diagnosed with a personality disorder which is frequently undiagnosed autism.

I have just been prescribed an antipsychotic to help with the symptoms of PTSD.
so now I have none epilepsy seizures, fibromyalgia, PTSD and I am on an antipsychotic.

if I need to go to A and E again that will make it so much fun. The last time I was in a had a seizure and the triage nurse shouted out don’t ring the alarm it’s not real epilepsy!!!!!!