Hi
I am having an ECG tomorrow evening. My Health Anxiety is severe and I'm concerned that my heart rate will be off the scale as I will be in my worst environment (Hospital). Please can anyone give me any tips to try and calm my breathing to reduce my heart rate as I'm unsure whether they'll be able to determine if there are any problems if I'm so worked up?
Dont worry. The ecg will be over a time period and a higher heart rate will be put down to anxiety. The key thing there looking for is the beat, strength, frequency and any anomolies in electrical signals. Even if your heart beats fast the regularlity of the beat will determine if its ok.
But in terms of calming yourself down....do deep breaths...3 to 4 seconds in 6 to 8 seconds out.
Belly breathing.. Make sure when you breath in, your stomach is moving in and out. That way you are deep breathing the correct way.. They'll be able to see it going up and down, they aren't too worried about the rate during it if you're there mainly for anxious thoughts..
I had mine and I sang my favorite song in my head. It wasn't nerve wracking at all. Mine was pounding non-stop and they weren't concerned.
I let myself down badly. About an hour before I was due to leave my anxiety started building but I went to the hospital and went into the room. Once in there it rocketed and put me into flight mode. I couldn't go through with it. The sonographer was very understanding, he really was but I had to come home. I am so disappointed with myself and the fact that I've wasted NHS time......