Psychosomatic Causes of Arrhythmia

Arrhythmia, or heart rhythm disturbances (acceleration and deceleration), can arise from various causes, including stress. Recall how our heart beats when we are nervous or how it freezes from fear in stressful situations. What if the stress is chronic? Then the disturbances are constant. But let’s take it step by step.

Psychosomatic Causes of Arrhythmia

In psychosomatics, it is believed that arrhythmia often occurs in people with an unstable rhythm of life. Their lives fluctuate between ups and downs, joy and sorrow. Instability is observed in all areas: work, personal life, family.

Mood swings can affect the person themselves or their partner. If you are in a relationship with a moody person, you know that one day they may love you madly, and the next day they can offend and humiliate you. Such a lifestyle inevitably affects the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Sometimes depression, borderline and bipolar personality disorders, and neurosis can be precursors to arrhythmia development. Personality accentuations (a state between normal and pathology) can also cause mood swings.

Psychosomatics of Heart Arrhythmia

If the general causes of arrhythmia are clear (alternation of positive and negative energy, lack of a sense of security, overstrain), let’s talk about more specific cases of heart rhythm disturbances.

Psychosomatics of Tachycardia

Tachycardia is an accelerated heartbeat. Normally, acceleration occurs during physical exertion. If tachycardia is observed in a calm state, it indicates diseases of the cardiovascular system or experienced stress.

Psychosomatics of Tachycardia:

1. The heart rhythm accelerates against the backdrop of strong emotional shock, often fear. We feel it ourselves (“I thought my heart would jump out of my chest”).
2. It’s a normal reaction to stress, a consequence of the production of adrenaline, norepinephrine, and cortisol. Stress forces the body to accumulate energy needed for defense (fight or flight).
3. But if even the slightest shock causes a heart rhythm disturbance, if no stressful situation goes by without it, then it’s a psychosomatic manifestation of tension.

Tachycardia develops in people who fear not having enough time. They want to increase their activity to cope with all tasks and responsibilities.

Psychosomatics of Bradycardia

Bradycardia occurs in people who want to slow down their life pace and aging. Accordingly, their main fear is losing stamina and attractiveness. Their primary psychological problem is an overly active and hectic life rhythm. Bradycardia also arises against the backdrop of losing a loved one.

Psychosomatics of Ventricular Flutter

Occurs against the backdrop of unrequited love. Or in situations where meeting a loved one is impossible (distance, social status difference, death, etc.). “My heart is broken” is the verbal formulation of ventricular flutter.

Psychosomatics of Ventricular Fibrillation (Fluttering)

Fibrillation is a disturbance of heart rhythm contractions in the organ’s compartments. It occurs in people who ignore or deny obstacles in their path. They want to reach their goal at all costs and are not ready to change tactics. But fibrillation also arises in people who have to obey others’ orders in life.

Emotional Instability as a Cause of Heart Arrhythmia

Emotional instability can be a personality trait, for example, choleric individuals are naturally unbalanced (their inhibition and excitation processes occur equally quickly), or it can be a symptom of psychological and even mental disorders. For the development of arrhythmia, negative emotions do not necessarily have to prevail. It can be joyful events. The alternation of negative and positive is doubly dangerous.

Treatment Methods from a Psychosomatic Perspective

For treatment, you should first undergo diagnostics with a cardiologist. If cardiovascular diseases are identified, he will prescribe medications. After which, you should visit a psychologist.

In psychotherapy sessions, you will learn to manage emotions, change your attitude towards yourself and the world. The psychologist will help identify the precise causes of psychosomatics and develop a treatment plan.

For stabilization, you need to know and accept yourself, allow yourself to be yourself. What else:

• Learn self-regulation, avoid mood swings;
• Broaden your horizons, stop seeing the world in black and white (view victories as a key to new prospects, and failures as valuable experience and an opportunity for self-development);
• Give up what hinders your development, part with the past;
• Be open to new things, look for new means of achieving goals;
• Reconsider your worldview, try to keep up with the times and society you live in;
• Increase stress resilience;
• Regain a sense of confidence and security.

Instability in life only reflects inner contradiction. Know yourself, get acquainted with your temperament, character, abilities, needs, interests, etc. Define your system of values and beliefs. When everything is harmonious and united in a person, then their state is stable regardless of situations.

For emotional and physical tension relief, regular sports, finding a hobby, and preferring active rest are recommended. Also beneficial are meditations, breathing exercises, aromatherapy, acupuncture, music therapy, herbal teas.

Interesting! To get to know yourself, you don’t necessarily have to visit a psychologist or engage in self-analysis. You can take several popular diagnostics, for example, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (determining temperament), Lüscher color test (values and psychophysiological state at the moment), etc.

Psychosomatics of Arrhythmia According to Louise Hay and Treatment

According to Louise Hay, heartlessness and emotional problems are the main cause of heart rhythm disturbances. The author recommends using the affirmation: “Joy. Joy. Joy. I happily let the flow of joy through my consciousness, body, life.”

Liz Burbo

According to Liz Burbo, arrhythmia is the result of taking everything to heart. It also signals that a person has forgotten about their needs, trying to please others, earn their love. For healing, it is necessary to love yourself, eliminate dependence on other people. Liz Burbo advises saying at least 10 compliments to yourself every day. This will help cultivate self-love and respect.

V. Sinelnikov

Blood symbolizes the soul (joy and strength). The heart is the center of life, reflecting a person’s harmony with themselves and the world. Any heart disorders indicate an unsatisfied need for love. The reason is old grudges, jealousy, fear of loneliness, pity and regret, worries about oneself and others, focusing on one’s and others’ problems.

Solution: be open to the world, cultivate mercy, not pity, love yourself and other people. Understand your purpose and role in the world. Rhythm disturbances indicate that you are living someone else’s script, lost your life rhythm. Return to your path.

Psychosomatic Symptoms

In a normal and resting state, the pulse should be within 60–80 beats per minute. You can measure your pulse yourself, by placing two fingers on the wrist or carotid artery. Or by measuring blood pressure. For accurate heart rhythm measurement, you can consult a cardiologist. He will prescribe an electrocardiogram (ECG), which will record and visualize the heartbeats.

The following changes indicate disturbances:

• More than 80 beats during emotional shock (tachycardia);
• Less than 60 beats (bradycardia);
• The number of beats is normal, but sometimes irregular beats occur (extrasystole).

How Arrhythmia Manifests, Psychosomatics:

• The rhythm is disturbed by the slightest shock, e.g., anxious thoughts;
• Disturbances often occur in the morning immediately after waking up and before sleep;
• Sudden fear can increase the heartbeat to 140–160 beats per minute;
• ECG revealed no disturbances, but the person feels rhythm disturbances (up to the point where the pulse is slowed, but the person feels acceleration);
• There is a fear of death, caused by accelerated or slowed heartbeat (which further accelerates the rhythm);
• Arrhythmia is combined with other symptoms (numbness or freezing of limbs, chills, heat, trembling, sweating, frequent urination, chest pain);
• The patient emotionally describes the symptoms (many details and active gesticulation).

Interesting! Every healthy person experiences several irregular heart contractions per day. But they are hardly noticeable. If you constantly observe signs of arrhythmia, be sure to visit a specialist.

How to Program Yourself for Recovery

It is necessary to realize that arrhythmia is the result of personal fears, stress, and anxiety. And that the fright caused by arrhythmia only exacerbates the condition. That is, if the examination by the cardiologist did not reveal diseases, there is no real health threat. Therefore, healing depends only on you, on inner harmony, and getting rid of fears. There are hundreds of thousands of types of fear, as well as reasons for its development. But generally, such problems can be named:

• Insecurity;
• Fixation on the comfort zone;
• Low self-esteem;
• Ignorance of one’s potential;
• Psychotraumas.

For quality elimination of fears and arrhythmia, we recommend undergoing a course of psychotherapy. The specialist will help deal with past traumas, set priorities, and find goals in life. Sometimes arrhythmia is related to childhood traumas, for example, classmates’ mockery or parents’ humiliations. Then it’s necessary to get rid of the setting “to be on guard,” learn to trust people, find and feel support in life.

Important! Sometimes treatment requires medication, such as antidepressants or anti-anxiety drugs. But only a psychotherapist can prescribe them. Self-medication is dangerous!”