Hello Nagy,
I saw your post and decided to tell you about my experience because it looks really similar to what I went through with anxiety and heart "problems"!
I'm 27 years old and I have had that fast heart beat you talk about since the age of 17 or 18. For example, I would get out of bed in the morning to go to the bathroom and my pulse would literally jump to 120-140 beats per minute (BPM) for no reason. Or when I would get stressed out in some situation which would give me a lot of adrenaline. Other times, I would start feeling throbbing in my neck (in the vein or artery) or on the tips of my finger.
I have a blood pressure machine and would always check my BP whenever this would happen - it would always be 140/90 and with some relaxation, around 130/85.
I had gained some weight during my university years so I thought it was due to that. I also developped anxiety around the age of 18 but I never believed that something in my head could actually lead to physical symptomps (despite the fact that medecine and science has proven that it is entirely possible).
I started losing weight by doing a lot of running and cycling and after I had lost 40 pounds, my heart "trouble" started. Mind you, I was under a lot of anxiety during that time because of school and financial situation.
I began having a fluttering sensation in my chest. When I would drink caffeined coffee and smoke (a daily ritual for me), my fluttering would intensify. It would also exponentially intensify after a work out.
It did not however get worse when I was under a lot of anxiety - there was no particular "pattern" that could link this to anxiety.
My blood pressure had somewhat dropped after my weight loss but it was still not ideal.
I kept having the fluttering feeling (like a butterfly) in my chest for around an year, and the times that I took my BP while it was fluttering the machine would show me "Arrythmia".
One night it got so bad that I couldn't sleep - I thought I was going to die. I went to the emergency at night and they had me do an ECG. Of course, the flutters disappeared before the ECG was taken so they didn't find anything (and the blood sample was OK).
I was referred to a cardiologist and he gave me a treadmill stress test (results all good), but he said he heard a murmur (noise) in my heart while listening with the stethoscope. He put me for other ECG, Holter monitor for 24 hours and Echocardiogram because he thought the murmu was due to a mitral prolapse.
I started stressing out thinking I would end up having valve replacement surgery, not being able to work out for life, not being able to lead a normal life, etc ...
All ECGs came out Ok, Echocardiogram didn't find anything and I was actually complimented by the cardiologist on duty at the hospital for my good heart health.
Finally, my cardiologst called me for the Holter monitor results (which managed to catch the fluttering, because when the flutters came, they would stay on for 20-30 minutes and I could provoke them by smoking a lot, being hungry, and exercising). Turns out I had premature ventricular contractions. The cardiologist was 100% sure that they were due to anxiety, even if they would not appear during stressful times but rather randomly.
He strongly advised me to take an SSRI like Celexa to lower my anxiety and told me that physically everything is OK but I have to work on relaxation and reducing stress.
My cardiologst also told me not to worry about the long QT syndrome (because citalopram increases the QT wave by a little bit, some people might have problems with it) because the software used for the holter monitor, ECG, ECHO detects the long QT syndrome automatically (so they would know it right away if you had it).
I started taking citalopram (First 4 weeks: 10mg, after that: 20mg).
After the sixth week, I started feeling very relaxed compared to before. It really gives me a different perspective on life.
My palpitations and fluttering almost completely dissapeared, my rapid heartbeat when going to the bathroom for example went away. Throbbing in the neck and fingers is gone in 95% of the situations.
My pulse was 60 BPM (before weight loss and cardio - it was 70, after cardio but before citalopram:60), it went down to 50-54. My blood pressure went from 140/90 to 120/80 most of the time. Even sometimes 110/75.
Anyways, I hope my story will give you some hope because it's similar to what you're going through.
My advice is to keep taking citalopram and wait eventually for the 6-7-8th week. You will definitely get better, both in the head and in the chest
.
If you have palpitations/fluttering/rapid heartbeat, try also to eat foods rich in potassium (chemical element K, a lot of it in bananas, oranges and especially orange juice).
Don't lose hope, it takes time but these problems end up going away with this medication. I didn't believe they would but now I think differently.
By the way,
Deidra (deidra40034) was very helpful to me as well with my questions, listen to her and her advice 