I've been having atrial fibrilations (irregular heartbeat) for about an 2 hours now but I don't want to...!
Question: ...drive to the emergency room right now. I'm alone in the house, but my cousin is next door. It started when I had a cold glass of water as soon as I came in from work two hours ago, I've been told that could cause it. I can't think of anything else to do but drink some alcohol, here's the catch. I'm having a moral issue with it because I'm a recovering addict and NA recommends I don't use alcohol even if my thing used to be cocaine not alcohol. I've been clean for over two years, but I have had a drink here and there, and have been able to stop without going on a bender. So I guess the question is will alcohol ease my heartbeat, or at least relax me? How much should I have? Rum, wine, what? S#it! If it's going to help put my heart back in gear I don't really have any moral issues but stay alive. Please help.
Answers: ...drive to the emergency room right now. I'm alone in the house, but my cousin is next door. It started when I had a cold glass of water as soon as I came in from work two hours ago, I've been told that could cause it. I can't think of anything else to do but drink some alcohol, here's the catch. I'm having a moral issue with it because I'm a recovering addict and NA recommends I don't use alcohol even if my thing used to be cocaine not alcohol. I've been clean for over two years, but I have had a drink here and there, and have been able to stop without going on a bender. So I guess the question is will alcohol ease my heartbeat, or at least relax me? How much should I have? Rum, wine, what? S#it! If it's going to help put my heart back in gear I don't really have any moral issues but stay alive. Please help.
Going to the emergency room would probably be best, although I know plenty of circumstances where someone was advised to do that, spent 3 hours waiting in the lobby, and by the time it was their turn felt better and just left :P
Here is my advice for you assuming you are not going to go to the emergency room.
#1 There are quite a few generally thought of as safe chemicals which actually can cause heart problems (especially fibrillations). Some of the best examples include splenda and aspartame (the artifical sweeteners). There are a couple others that also have a tendancy to do that, so you might be exposing youself to an agent which causes it. I have no idea what your situation is however, so I cannot comment. If you can think of anything which possibly is a causing agent you've exposed yourself to, try to pull away from it. If this is the problem drink lots of water and piss frequently to flush it out faster.
#2 It could also be drug withdrawls, but it seems really..odd..that you'd suddenly get it 2 years after the fact. Hence I'm skeptical that's whats at work.
#3 There are a couple of foods that really really really help for heart problems. The most well known one is capsicum (the active ingredient in chili peppers). If you have any chili peppers or something similar in the house, that would be the best thing for you to eat. I've also seen a lot of research on intravenous hydrogen peroxide injections helping for this, but that's a bit harder to do, and not very relevant for your situation. I just thought it would be good to list since those are the only 2 I know.
#4 Odds are the alcohol is a dumb idea. It could have the potentiential to make the situation worse. However, I do think relaxing your body is important.
#5 If you put your body in hot water, that can often help a lot for relaxing and soothing the muscles in the heart. I'm not sure if a bath is a good idea since you could have a heart attack, pass out and drown, so use a tiny bit of common sense here.
#6 I personally would do breathing relaxing exercises. Given that I don't know the exact details of your situation, I can't say if this is correct, but assuming it is, here's the basic idea.
Try to sit in a confortable relaxed position, and then try to breathe slowly, at a consistent rate (so each breath roughly same length, don't do various parts faster or slower than others). As time progresses, you need to extend the length of your breath (I personally do 1 min inhales, but 10 seconds is fine for a lot of people). If you do this, your body will start to relax, and you'll gradually be able to feel your heart better. Once you do, focus on it, and try to relax it as much as you can.
Odds are if you do #6 for half an hour things should fix themselves if they didn't already naturally.
Hope that helps!
*Normally on YA when someone posts an urgent problem everyone says go to ER or you will die!!! That's basically just the mentality here. Most of the time the people that get those responses don't end up going, do something basic and are fine.
call 911, i work with a physician and when we get patients with atrial fib, that's what we do. you need medical attention asap, get off the computer and get to the er immediately, your life is not worth it.
No, your heart is having enough trouble t hat you REALLY should call 911. This could very easily be a heart attack.
DON'T drink alcohol; you could make things worse.
Either drive to the emergency room, or die. You could also call 911.
Ask your cousin to take you to ER. Is your atrial fibrillation a long-term condition (are you taking Coumadin)? It would be wise to get it checked, they'll do EKG and see for sure what is going on. Alcohol is a big no-no, please don't drink. You can call ambulance as well or at least call the nearest ER and ask them what advice they have for you.
take an aspirin at least. It could help. I have the same thing, and I am taking Lopressor for it. It helps, but I still get the fibrilations from time to time.
are you sure your just not having an anxiety attack? That can cause irregular heartbeat...