Vague chest pain/discomfort

[ann88]

Hi everyone,

Here's my latest worry. For the past few days I've been getting these weird pains in my chest. Sometimes they last a couple of seconds and sometimes 10 minutes. It's not agony, just uncomfortable. It's quite a vague feeling, I can't really put my finger on the location, it's just generally in the middle of my chest. It comes and goes at totally random times, when I'm sat down watching telly, led in bed, doing housework, anything really.

Obviously I'm worried sick that I'm on the verge of a heart attack and I could drop dead at any moment. I don't know if I should go the doctors. I have been in the past with anxiety/panic attacks and worries about my heart before as i used to get a lot of ectopics etc, so in a way I'm worried that they will just dismiss these chest pains as anxiety when it could be something more sinister. But at the same time I think oh my god, what if they actually said 'hmm yes that does sound worrying, lets do some tests...' well that would just scare the life out of me.

Don't know what to do, these pains just keep coming and going and every time I get one I think it must be heart related. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[melvin]

i know what ur going through i get this a lot chest and back id go to docs though to be sure . sounds like anxiety though

[mrsworry]

hi i get these been a&e lots of times but its not my heart try not to worry it will be the worrying making it worse go to doctors if you feel it will reasure you

[Electric_Worry]

Hi Ann,

I can't offer you a definitive explanation for your chest pains/discomfort, however I can tell you that you're among countless other anxiety sufferers who have identical or very similar symptoms. I'm one of them. I have developed quite an unhealthy anxiety-obsession with regards to my heart, thinking I have something wrong and that I am also on the verge of a heart attack. Every day I experience some kind of chest pain, which rationally I believe is born out of anxiety, but I get overwhelmed by feeling as though 'this is it'. Even today I have some kind of chest discomfort that I keep believing is a very mild form of angina. Oddly enough, it only really happened when I started thinking about chest pain I've experienced in the past, e.g. overdoing exercising, which then leads me to worry even more about my heart. I've been overweight for a number of years and start dwelling on whether or not I've done irreversible damage, even though I'm only in my 20s.

You get caught up in your intense worrying that you start to believe something has to be wrong and that your worst fears are inevitable. I've been pondering going back to the doctors for a while now, but part of me thinks I might be wasting their time. That's not to say I don't believe you should speak to your doctor, just merely illustrating the confusion that I find myself in.

What I can say without hesitation is that there are numerous benign reasons that can be responsible for chest pain or discomfort, so experiencing such does not mean it's related to your heart. A headache, for example, doesn't mean you have a brain tumour. I'd hazard a guess that what most people experience is perfectly normal and something you wouldn't give a second thought to if it wasn't for the anxiety.

Sorry for this seemingly self-indulgent ramble, however I wanted to reassure you that you're not alone (a cliché, I know) and that countless people will be able to relate. If you want my advice, if you are concerned about your heart and continue to experience pain and discomfort, you should should see a doctor. Obvious sounding, but a lot of people feel they're a burden or are wasting their time, which you are not.

[ann88]

Hi, thanks so much for all your replies. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one going through this, and oddly (or not) the chest pain has pretty much gone since I posted this. I think this pretty much proves that it was nothing to do with my heart, but it's so difficult to think logically at the time. I'm sure I will be back with some other 'heart-related' symptom very soon!