Your heart does something strange. It flutters. It pounds. Either it skips or races so rapidly that you halt what you’re doing and press a palm against your heart.
And this is where the second wave of panic happens: Is something wrong with my heart? But for most people, the answer is definitely a no.
However, anxiety is changing the way your body acts, and knowing what that means makes it much more understandable.
Let’s break it down honestly.
How Anxiety Affects Your Body
Your fight-or-flight response gets flipped on when your brain detects a threat, whether the danger is real or imagined.
This is why your adrenal glands emit adrenaline into your system. Your breathing speeds up. Your muscles tighten. And your heart? This is your cue to pump harder and faster – fast-tracking blood flow to your extremities.
This is where the correlation of heart rate and anxiety becomes directly linked.
The adrenaline that has you feeling jittery also sends your heart racing. It isn’t imaginary, and it certainly isn’t a coincidence. It’s the way your nervous system was designed to operate.
In modern life, however, the danger is not of a physical nature. But you have a tough conversation to have, a deadline that is fast approaching, and an audience waiting.
Your heart doesn’t realize the difference. No matter what, it replies the same.
Can Anxiety Cause Irregular Heartbeats?
Yes, it can. “Can anxiety cause irregular heartbeats?” is one of the most Google-searched questions pertaining to anxiety, for which there is rather a simple answer.
Anxiety triggers your sympathetic nervous system and stops the regular electrical signal that causes your heart to beat. This occurs to create what are known as premature beats, where the heart actually constricts just a tiny bit out of timing.
It is the sound many people use to describe a flip, a thud, or a temporary stop and then an assertive beat. These are usually either premature atrial or ventricular contractions in medical terms.
They are actually more common than we realize, and in otherwise healthy individuals, usually not harmful.
The context (of them) is what makes them alarming. If you are anxious, then noticing something different in your chest is all the more cause to fear.
Does Anxiety Raise Heart Rate? By How Much?
Does anxiety raise heart rate? Yes. Every single time the sympathetic nervous system is activated by anxiety, it raises it.
Resting heart rates in most adults range from 60 to 100 beats per minute. That number can easily rise to over 100 during an anxiety episode.
However, at the time of a complete panic attack, the heart rate surged between 110 and 180 beats per minute. It strikes out of nowhere, it feels horrible and often compounds the panic by feeling like what people think a heart attack would feel like.
Can anxiety increase heart rate continuously for so long, not just for a moment in time?
Chronic anxiety is the condition of people who walk around with a heart rate well above what it would be if their fight-or-flight mechanism were not kicking in all day long.
Anxiety and Heart Palpitations
When it comes to anxiety and heart palpitations, we don’t all use the same words. Others get a quick fluttering in the chest. Others feel it thumping so hard that their throat vibrates. For some, the heart rate catches and lingers, then jerks back to life. While some sense it flutter, hesitate, then slam.
And also, can anxiety cause palpitations when not currently having a panic attack? Absolutely.
Chronic, low-grade anxiety creates palpitations during normal activities. Sitting down behind a desk, watching television, or lying on the bed waiting to sleep. This can happen without you being in full panic mode.
There’s also what some would call a nervous heart rate, that baseline heightened state that accompanies generalized anxiety. Your heart isn’t racing. However, it is going too fast and working too hard during rest. That sustained elevation takes a toll on the cardiovascular system over time.
How to Know If It Is Anxiety or Not
Here is where you do not want to fast forward, and (rightly) so. Not every irregular heartbeat is anxiety-related. Cardiac diseases, thyroid dysfunction, electrolyte abnormalities, and other organic reasons can cause paraplegic equivalent clinical manifestations.
What tends to point toward anxiety instead of a heart problem is the following:
- The palpitations occur during or after a stressful situation, not in a random place (like driving).
- They vanish relatively rapidly – ordinarily inside the range of minutes, and particularly once you settle down.
- You have had a cardiac workup recently, which was normal.
- At the same time, you also feel other anxiety symptoms: a pounding heart, hyperventilation, sweating, nausea, and a sense of impending doom.
- The palpitations are not accompanied by chest pain, fainting, or violent vertigo.
Here is why you should step foot in a doctor’s office, sooner rather than later:
- Exercise-induced palpitations (palpitations that occur when exercising or are physically active).
- The serious kind – a heartbeat that is blatantly irregular over the course of several minutes, not merely an occasional couple of bizarre beats.
- Blackouts or pre-blackout episodes are associated with palpitations.
- Cardiac illness in the family.
- Palpitations that do not respond at all to anxiety attack-related strategies.
If you are in doubt, check it out. It’s not overkill to rule it out as a cardiac cause. It’s smart. If you have heart palpitations or an arrhythmia and it is deemed non-life-threatening, then this can be useful for managing anxiety, as the next time you experience palpitations, you have something real instead of fearing the void.
Learn How to Prevent Anxiety-Related Palpitations
Here’s how to stop palpitations from anxiety in the moment, now that you’ve confirmed they truly are related to anxiety.
Slow your breathing down
The strongest lever you have is this. Anxiety increases the excessive response where breathing becomes rapid and shallow, thus perpetuating this hyper arousal in the nervous system.
Breathing slowly but consciously such that exhalation extends longer than inhalation, stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and signals your body that the threat is gone. Breathe in for four counts and out for six or seven. Repeat this for around two to three minutes.
Try the Valsalva maneuver
This sounds technical but this is easy. Hold your nose, close your mouth, and push like you are just about to pick up something heavy. Hold it for 10 to 15 seconds. It stimulates the vagus nerve that, in turn, slows the heart.
We are exposing it to the kind of heart rhythm emergency physicians will use for some types of rapid heart rhythm. Its not a cure all for every type of palpitation, but anxiety-triggered racing works quickly often.
Get cold water on your face
When you splash cold water on your face – or plunge your face into a bowl of icy water if you can get hold of one – it triggers something called the diving reflex. As a result, your heart rate decreases.
Move your body
This one surprises people. So, for example, if you are feeling anxious and sitting still in a state of activation, that is harder on your system than engaging in some gentle movement!
Even a quick five-minute walk allows your adrenaline to go somewhere and burns off the physiological state that is triggering the palpitations.
Name what’s happening
You would think this is too simple to be any concern, but it is. Telling yourself, “this is anxiety, this is my nervous system, and I am not in danger,” breaks the cycle.
Long Term: The Great Patience of Healing the Anxiety, Not Just the Symptoms
It is handy to manage the palpitations in real-time. Guidance: But if anxiety is always on, affecting your heart rate, then the real work starts with addressing the anxiety itself.
What works:
Therapy (specifically cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT) for anxiety disorders is also well-evidenced. It guides people in recognizing and reprogramming thought patterns that maintain the nervous system in a persistently aroused state.
Medication will sometimes lower that baseline anxiety greatly (if they are appropriate for you), which will also lead to the physical symptoms going down, including the heart ones.
This relationship between anxiety and heart rate issues is no short-term issue. This sustained stress on the hypertension also increased your risk factors for chronic anxiety daily from untreated sources. It raises baseline cortisol levels. It maintains blood pressure at just above. It contributes to inflammation. None of these is a disastrous individual outcome, but they add up. Treatment of anxiety is a decision made for your cardiovascular health as well as your mental health.
When To Consult a Mental Health Provider
If those palpitations and racing heart are part of your regular anxiety experience, that’s a direct mental health issue to raise, not just this with a cardiologist.
The clarification of what anxiety you are currently dealing with: panic disorder, generalized anxiety, or other disorders, and what treatment is appropriate.
All this can be obtained through an evaluation.
VEVE HEALTH SERVICES
We do psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and individualized care for anxiety at Veve Health. Local to Gainesville, VA, or via telehealth anywhere you are!
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7150 Heritage Village Plaza, #201 | Gainesville, VA 20155This article is purely for informative purposes and should not be considered medical advice. Call a doctor for chest pain, faintness, or any heart problems that puzzle you.
Disclaimer: Always consult your doctor or other qualified health provider before making any changes to your mental health care.
