I really enjoyed your article. I also get the occasional "missed beat"/palpitation. Mine only occur 0-3 times a day and have never been seen on a EKG. Nevertheless it was enough to trigger panic attacks in me and send me to the hospital with heart attack symptoms. Since then I've finally started taking medication for anxiety and no longer stay up all night thinking my hearts going to stop in my sleep so that's nice.
During that time though, nothing I read and nobody explained to me what keeps the heart beating despite all manner of possible failures. 10/10 was definitely worth the read.
The symptoms of a heart attack and a panic attack are annoyingly similar. Whereas people qualified to diagnose and treat one are generally nowhere near the people qualified for the other.
I get these missed beats occasionally, like a few times a year. Of course, they’re stress related for me. When I first got them, I also thought it was a heart attack and ended up in the hospital where they also ran a bunch of tests on me.
The wonderfully comical thing about mine is they’re stress related. So the first one happened, made me a little stressed because I thought something was wrong, which caused more of them, which made me even more worried, etc.
Can I ask what medicine are you taking right now? I have exactly the same problem as you, the thought that my healthy heart is going to stop any moment is crazy
During that time though, nothing I read and nobody explained to me what keeps the heart beating despite all manner of possible failures. 10/10 was definitely worth the read.
The symptoms of a heart attack and a panic attack are annoyingly similar. Whereas people qualified to diagnose and treat one are generally nowhere near the people qualified for the other.