How terrifying and frustrating for you! I started my AFib journey nine years ago and am a 79 year old female. It might be a different experience for a female but not sure. I’ve never owned a smartwatch but knew right away when the palpitations were starting up. For whatever reason the artery in my right side neck would start hurting like I was getting strep throat. Then the heart would starting racing and it would continue for one to two hours but with no pain in the chest or arms. I was told to wait it out if there wasn’t a tightening in the chest so I would put my feet up in a recliner and just try to be calm. I got this twice a month and it was always brought on by worrying and stress as I am a perfectionist and a worrier. I was on a beta blocker and blood thinner for nine years. A few years ago I asked to be put on an anti anxiety pill Sertraline - which kept the palpitations away but made me feel drugged. In Canada one has to be tested for AFib for quite sometime before qualifying for an ablation because our universal healthcare pays for it. My cardiologist finally booked me for a catheter ablation last March and so far so good except for some anxiety in the morning. I tend to over think everything and I will always be a perfectionist and worrier - so I did mention it to the surgeon yesterday and he said I’m fine and not to worry. Ha! I sure hope you get things sorted out - hopefully you’ll get a doctor who understands what you are going through. Maybe having a smart watch is making you more anxious and of course thinking about your family history doesn’t help. Take care. xo

Yikes. You almost certainly do not have a mental disorder, but you......may. The big thing in this new journey is to learn. Read, watch videos about AF and its treatments. Also learn about....YOU! This is another opportunity to find out what you're made of. Also, keep an open mind. If you are willing to learn, and can keep an open mind, you may have to accept that you DO have a mental disorder. It may be 'generalized anxiety disorder', a formal diagnosis in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental illness, probably edition 6 or 7 by now....you can google it).
Again, the way you get through this depends on your personality, and your propensity to put things off, to not want to know, or to be oriented completely opposite: you insist on knowing, learning, and being part of the decision-tree in your treatment. Your power in this is going to be in how you come across to any help you seek from other experts. If you are engaged, inquiring, focused, energetic, and determined to succeed, those experts tend to want to do well for you. But ya gotta listen, too, meaning keeping that open mind, even if you begin to hear things from them that you don't like!!! If you need time to digest what they say, say so! Go away, come back in a couple of weeks having learned more, pondered more, and with a decision about which option they place before you is your preferred one.
You are in what is called the 'paroxysmal' stage. It's early, and much more easily treated than if it is allowed to progress, which it will, to more advanced stages. So, get on top of your new 'friend' now, right away. It might mean medicine, it might mean a catheter ablation. But please do figure this out now while your disordered heart is going to be easiest to manage.

I don't think you have a "mental" disorder; you have every right to feel anxious and I would be depressed too, if I was treated so poorly! I am a retired psych nurse and I can tell you that doctors come in all "grades." There are A+ doctors that listen and discuss things with the patient and C- or D doctors that just preach or rattle off the "statitics" and order a drug. You can "horse them" and find a doc that fits you. My cardiologist told me when I was diagnosed in November of last year that A-fib wasn't going to kill me! Then he ran out of the room to get me an Eliquis tablet! I am beginning to think that the meds are more likely to kill some of us than the actual condition since all I get is another drug every time I see a doctor. I am going to have an ablation at my request before this thing spreads. As for anxiety, I have had plenty of that but it is not my trigger. I'm like you too; my episodes always seem to start at night--and of course, then they tell you it is sleep apnea that is the problem. I don't have that either! I encourage you to keep talking to others and try to stay as positive as possible. You are not "mental" and you will make it through this, but in the beginning this diagnosis is all consuming to people like us who can tell immediately that they are out of rhythm. It does get better, trust me! Good Luck!