At the very least you should be on a DOAC (Direct Oral Anti-coagulant) because the risk of stroke during AF is about four times what it is in the normal population. The normal population's risk, from person to person, is very low, so four times that becomes something of a concern....for most of us in AF.

You may be placed on metoprolol tartrate, a fast-acting heart rate medicine. It slows the heart beats somewhat, but mostly helps to keep the rate during AF down from well above 100...ideally. Metoprolol also makes each beat a bit weaker, so this tends to help with those who are borderline hypertensive...a bonus.

If your AF becomes more persistent, lasts longer, makes you feel terrible or just anxious, you will be asked to consider taking an anti-arrhythmic drug like Sotolol, Multaq, Flecainide, or propafenone. Sometimes you'll go on diltiazem because it has a double-acting process of both rate control and anti-arrhythmia. Depends on a number of factors and what the prescribing authority feels is right for your case.

What should you do? Ask your cardiologist about those medications, or if your GP can prescribe them, if he/she'll consider placing you on at least the anti-coagulant. That's a must.

It is said that AF begets AF. So, it's always best to nip it, or at least control it, early and for as long as possible. There are undesired changes to the heart when AF goes unchecked. But pretty much nobody dies from AF. They may die from subsequent conditions, from problems that come when AF is not controlled. But AF, itself, is not the killer. You can live with it for a long time, maybe just not very pleasantly.