least

Metoprolol is what I'm on. I have no problems with it at all. I'm actually on two doses of it - 50 mg and 25 mg. I check my BP and heart rate twice a day and if it's high, I take the 50 mg. It's almost always low in the afternoon and evening. I also have the higher dose in case I get an episode of A fib. At any rate, it works as it should and helps me a lot. I used to be on Atenolol but for whatever reason, it became unavailable and my doctor switched me to the metoprolol, which is very similar.

Give the new meds a bit of time to kick in. I hope it helps you like it helps me.

fini

i do not have anxiety but do have PVCs and tachycardia/arrhythmia and high blood pressure.
the beta-blocker takes care of both, with absolutely no sedative or mood-altering effect whatsoever. bisoprolol.

i hope you will have good results, Calicofish, after a few days. i know how scary those cardiac irregularities are.

EndGameNYC

I'm all in on this.

I've experienced it in my own life, and I've seen it with other people.

The act of reaching out for help can be transformational, powerful, and can provide additional motivation to take care of ourselves. It can jump-start the process of healing.

For me, it's always been a better choice than doing nothing or waiting for things to work out on their own.

Calicofish

Thanks Least. My BP is normal and my BPM usually 73. When I went to ER, my BP was high and BPM high - but I also have "white coat syndrome" and I was very stressed. I am certainly giving this a try. :-)

Calicofish

Definitely. I tend to try and work things out myself and am loathe to ask for assistance. It's a stupid, stubborn streak. I must learn that asking for help is not a sign of weakness.

Aellyce

I've had an anxiety disorder pretty much as far as I can remember, but wasn't aware it was anxiety until my early 30s. Doctors that examined me in my 20s weren't either, apparently... because they never told me. I ran to my GP and even to the ER once with what felt like a heart attack or at least some serious, mysterious "wrong" several times in my youth. The first was when I was 19 - am 46 now. Anxiety was not on the radar of doctors so much back then, especially in the country where I lived at the time. So the doc just listened to my heart and prescribed a beta blocker. It didn't help and I had another episodes a couple weeks later, ran back to the same doc... he prescribed another beta blocker. Again, no effect really, so I just stopped taking it and never went back to that doc. I didn't have such severe episodes then for years when my life was going great, but they came back in my mid-20s. I was living in another country and had a lot of work stress. More runs to different doctors with similar symptoms and once an ER visit. At that time, they did a thorough cardiac evaluation and found nothing wrong with my heart, so let me go without any treatment and suggestion, still didn't even mention anxiety. I figured it all out on my own, via my education in mental health. That all those episodes were panic attacks and that I am just someone very prone to generalized anxiety. The latter was also finally formally diagnosed years later, but by then I knew it myself without doubt.

Of course my drinking had made the anxiety and panic attacks 500% worse and it took a good while for all that to settle after quitting. My blood pressure and heart rate was also always quite high during the last ~2 years of my drinking but I just ignored it, even when doctors took my vitals when I had to go for other checkups. All that went back down and have stayed that way for years now in sobriety. My BP actually tends to be on the low side, but I definitely see my HR spiking with stress (last time just today as I'm having a quite stressful weekend). I also avoided doctors completely for many years during my drinking and really enjoy not doing that now. I straight enjoy going for checkups and learning the result and completely agree with those who experience the mere act of good self-care healing.

I tried some prescription psych meds for the anxiety but found the side effects more annoying than the benefit from the relief. I also felt that sort of medication was too much for the extend of my problem at this stage of life. Now I take CDB and it's honestly the best external help I've ever found for my anxiety and just general mood fluctuations, don't even need a high dose and can skip some days without any issue. I do need to stick with one brand though because others I'd tried didn't have the same benefit. I just experimented with a different brand recently and learned not to do that again. I take my CBD in the morning and can see its lowering my HR a bit ~an hour later. It is not something for people with actual heart conditions and whoever is aware of having heart or BP issues should not do what I am doing. But a wonderful relief from the type of anxiety I tend to have, which is generally mild to moderate now. I haven't experienced panic attacks for years, probably in part because I am so aware of my anxiety and am doing a lot of self-care things to manage it. Heart disease does run in my family though - both of my parents died from forms of it, so I need to be aware of the risk regardless and not neglect routine physicals.

Long story short, I think the best is to investigate all of these things - physical and mental health. It is very possible that one needs help in both departments with a combination of treatments.

Calicofish

Allyce - I did try CDB oil (it's legal here and there are many dispensaries). It didn't help me. Perhaps I had to try longer or different brands. In any case, I'm going to try these beta blockers and see how they work. I am hoping to break the cycle of this episode, as in the past I've been able to manage periodic episodes with distraction methods. This one is just not responding to my usual methods.
Thanks for your post.

Aellyce

Yes, it definitely sounds like the best idea for you is to try the beta blockers that were prescribed, especially given that exams did detect things about your heart. Just the most logical step.

CBD is tricky because it is largely unregulated and we still do not know much about how it works and who can benefit. I do research on it as part of my job, so I was quite confident trying, and got very lucky because the first brand I tried was the best, and their dosing regimen also happened to work for me very well. There is a lot of BS though about it out there, advertising as some miracle substance that helps everything... that is definitely not true and it is certainly not for fixing heart problems. The research I do with it is related to mental health, and our participants vary greatly in terms of who experiences anything whatsoever. So one task to figure out is who are good candidates for it, why, and exactly what benefits exist. I am one of the lucky ones so far, but definitely still don't know why... so it is very empirical.

Good luck with finding something that helps you - I know how frustrating it is having mysterious episodes of health and not knowing why exactly. This is why it's good to explore different possibilities, but doing it step-by-step and as simply as possible is the best approach. All the best!

Fusion

Calico, I'm glad you sought advice. I suffered with frequent anxiety for many years, and the occasional panic attack. Been admitted to hospital and told it's 'only a panic attack' when I thought I was having a heart-attack; they'd obviously never suffered one. Sadly, I used alcohol to ameliorate the symptoms of anxiety, which was a complete failure, of course.

Now that I don't drink, I've found a dissociation technique for anxiety. helps When it appears, instead of resisting it, I visualise the anxiety as a visitor, I see it embodied in a small comical character with a squeaky voice, that I could pick up and place on my knee. I invite it towards me and talk to it, 'Hello anxiety, I allow and accept you, you can stay on the floor next to me as long as you want, but I'll go about my normal routines whilst you stand there watching". It's a mixture of various therapies, CBT, DBT etc., and it was difficult to visualise the anxious feelings and thoughts as an embodiment outside myself, initially. But with practice, it's really helped me.

Calicofish

Thank you Tatsy for the suggestion. I will give that a try.