Pots Or Anxiety Reaction?

Posted , 4 users are following.

Hi guys, on and off for the past 4 months I've been experiencing POTS like symptoms that I've never had before being diagnosed with anxiety last year. I know i have been dealing with anxiety after I lost my ex to cancer. I became so stressed and anxious about my health which eventually lead to my first panic attack. Fast forward to may of this year the panic attacks became more frequent, I was dealing with tension in my chest and convinced myself I had angina and would have a heart attack if I worked out. One day I worked out and had the most intense panic attack ever, I was certain I was going to die. Since then I've been obsessed with checking my pulse and blood pressure having panic attacks regularly. I had my heart checked by a cardiologist had test ran and all was ok minus bp spikes from anxiety.

Here is where things start to not look like anxiety. Off and on after I'd had a panic attack or a full day of anxiety, my resting heart rate sometimes remain high for days or return to normal, however, when I stand, my hear jumps to 140 - 160 and slows to 120. I start getting really bad tension headache and blurred vision. I am not anxious when it happens or am not thinking about anything upsetting. This reaction last for weeks after I'd a panic attack. As if my sympathetic nervous system is stuck on. This only started recently after I was diagnosed with panic disorder. I know they aren't panic attacks because my attacks are brought on by an obsession like thinking my bp us high and I check it and its high then I panic. Or feel a twitch in my stomach then I panic.

I checked my bp when standing and my bp doesn't really change much. It might go up if I panic but otherwise it remains pretty steady. But my hear increases way beyond what is normal.

Is this some form of pots? Can panic and anxiety cause dysautonomia? Or is it that due to overstimulation from all the stress, panic and anxiety, my sympathetic nervous system is responding innapropriately? I can't do anything without my heart racing and its really uncomfortable and hard to live like this.

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2 Replies

  • Posted

    I’m interested to know if you found any answers to your questions. I am going through something very similar. Panic attacks, anxiety, high heart rate, especially when standing up. Constantly checking pulse. Don’t want to exercise because it triggers panic attacks because it raises my heart rate so much. I just got loads of blood work done because it feels like my body needs something or has too much of something the way my heart races. How are you doing now? Did you figure any of it out? 
  • Posted

    sounds like autonomic dysfunction, could be pots or vvs or silmilar, this is not anxiety causing the illness its probably the dysfunction causing anxiety, get on a low dose ssri( if you tolerate it) and ask the doctor for a referral for a tilt table test , do all this after you have had ecg and echo at least to rule out heart problems, you could recommend to doc a very low dose beta beta blocker , say 10mg propanalol or similar and see if calms the rate down, but watch for adverse effects and inform your doctor strait away as it may not be suitable for you. defo get heart problems ruled out then push for a TTT 😃

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