View Full Version : How can I calm down and stop worrying about my heart?
I've been suffering from terrible health anxiety for the last week, mainly about my heart. Last Wednesday I went to the doctors and he listened to my heart which was fast because of the anxiety but fine otherwise. He gave me 10mg of Propanolol to take twice a day. However they didn't really help and the anxiety got worse, I went back today and he gave me 80mg of slow release Propanolol to take once a day. This has scared me a bit, I'm only 16 and this is the first proper medication I've ever had to take.
I feel constantly on edge like I'm about to have a heart attack or a stroke at any moment, it's worse at night when I'm terrified that I'm going to die in the night. I've been getting worked up at every twinge in my chest or back and I've been having heart palpitations which have really scared me. I'm convinced that at any moment I could have a deadly heart attack or stroke and this has been causing me to have panic attacks. My chest and abdoment feel tight and my face is feeling a bit numb and tingly which has me convinced that I'm either having a stroke or a heart attack. I'm super sensitive about my left arm as well since I learned that it could be a symptomn of a heart attack, so any ache I get scares me.
In the last 5 days I have been worrying and on edge constantly and I feel exhausted and terrified. How can I stop worrying and calm down?
Might be worth mentioning that if you were having a heart attack it happens within 15-30 minutes of the symptoms first appearing, the fact you have been on the verge ( or so you think :( ) of having a massive heart attack for 5 days says it isnt that. Plus the doc has had a listen and is happy.
Did you know that a panic attack is as good a work out for the heart as is a good run or swim or some other form of exercise.. chest pain can have many causes, trapped wind, pinched nerve, tensed muscles ( likely when we are anxious) a knock or sleeping in a funny position to name but a few x
Thanks, I guess I realise that nothing's really wrong, it's just that when I start panicking common sense tends to go out of the window and it's difficult to get out of the habit of worrying and noticing every single thing.
At the minute I'm panicking about the fact that my forehead feels a bit numb and is twitchy. I was convinced that I was having a stroke until my mum explained that you're either having a stroke or not, it doesn't take two hours to build up to one.
Hi there I understand what you are going through I have a phobia of Heart attack or stroke when my heart starts to beat fast which I think it is going fast and it is not I start to panic as well.
What I try to do is do some deep breathing and try and slow it down. If there was anything up with your heart the doctor would have found that out when he listened to it
Are you on any other medication besides the proponal.
If you are still panicking get your doctor to do a ECG and that would tell.
Also when you are anxious your heart does start to beat very fast and also when you are having a panic attack it can seem like it is your heart.
Joan
The only other medication I'm on is Myocycline the help my acne.
I wouldn't say it beats very fast, when he took my pulse it was 120 and I don't think I've ever felt it beat faster than while he was doing that. I probably imagine that it's going faster than it is.
Right now I'm worrying because my forehead was feeling a bit weird and numb and I was raising my eyebrows a lot so stop it going completely numb and now I can't seem to raising my eyebrows. I've always had a tendency to develop twitches so it's nothing unusual for me though :)
Hi there I also have this fear I used to have chest pains and fast heartrate all the time I constantly bugged my doctors and each time they would say I was fine.
I know how it feels and it is very scary but believe me the more you concetrate on your symptoms the worse they will feel. I no longer have chest pains all the time I get a twinge now and again but i dont worry and it goes.
Try breathing excercises they really help especially if your tense.
Its an ongoing battle this health anxiety I at the minute think there is something wrong with my head as it keeps tingling and giving me a neck ache but im gonna have a bath and try forgetting about it.
If you are concerned then get doc to do an ecg just for your own piece of mind but i promise you i really dont think its your heart.
Also Propafnol usually makes things work and masks the anxiety my CBT counciller took me off of them and I have learnt to control my heart rate.
Good Luck and Big Hugs :yesyes:
Hi WittyFool
I can fully relate with you on how you feel at this moment in time! I use to constantly fear i was having a heart attack and constantly panic!
It was the hospital that started me on beta blocker for my fast heart as it was at 189bpm due to my panic attack i stayed in for 2 nights and they precribed me bisoprolol beta blocker to take home, my GP changed it from that to propranolol 40mg 3 times a day, then the 80mg slow release 1 aday and now i just take 10mg twice or three times a day depending on how i am feeling, my heart is still usually over 100bpm when my GP checks it but i tend not to feel it too much now, the beta blockers certainly helped me with my physical symptons i would say give them ago only side affects i got was nightmares and diarrhea everybody reacts differently to any kind of medication and i like yourself am only young and didnt want to taken any medication as i had never done in my life before.
Hope you feel better soon.
Thank you for your replies Lisamarie and Sabre. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who suffers from this fear. It's very scary because I feel like something could go wrong at any moment.
I've been suffering from terrible health anxiety for the last week, mainly about my heart. Last Wednesday I went to the doctors and he listened to my heart which was fast because of the anxiety but fine otherwise. He gave me 10mg of Propanolol to take twice a day. However they didn't really help and the anxiety got worse, I went back today and he gave me 80mg of slow release Propanolol to take once a day. This has scared me a bit, I'm only 16 and this is the first proper medication I've ever had to take.
I feel constantly on edge like I'm about to have a heart attack or a stroke at any moment, it's worse at night when I'm terrified that I'm going to die in the night. I've been getting worked up at every twinge in my chest or back and I've been having heart palpitations which have really scared me. I'm convinced that at any moment I could have a deadly heart attack or stroke and this has been causing me to have panic attacks. My chest and abdoment feel tight and my face is feeling a bit numb and tingly which has me convinced that I'm either having a stroke or a heart attack. I'm super sensitive about my left arm as well since I learned that it could be a symptomn of a heart attack, so any ache I get scares me.
In the last 5 days I have been worrying and on edge constantly and I feel exhausted and terrified. How can I stop worrying and calm down?
I know exactly what constant worrying about your health can do - thats why I'm on this site but you have to tell yourself that at the age of 16, the chance of there being anything wrong with your heart is SO small. Unless you abuse your heart with a lot of smoking and a bad fatty diet and you have a family history of heart disease - your heart will carry on beating for years and years and years. Anxiety will cause heart palpitations and a fast heart rate.
Hope that helps.
jamesthecat
07-02-12, 14:39
I can completely relate to feelings of worrying about your heart! i have this constantly and start panicking about loosiong control infront of people and collapsing and worrying that no one will help me. I feel safer when im in my office as theres a difibralator around and we're no far from the hospital! i also have a physical feeling of soreness around my chest area. i try to go running every now and then and what i find most weird that while i run my heart rate is abviously high but it doesnt worry me then! i find distracting myself by playing some kind of game on my phone or doing the crossword helps but the feeling never really goes away! I hoping to start CBT soon, i want to re-wire the way i think about my health!
Im not alone! My name is Marice I have had mild anxiety for a while and panic attacks every so often(ussually from smoking weed). But I never used to worry about my heart health until recently(the past year). It all really satarted when a co-worker of mine was feeling chest pain, jaw pain, and shortness of breath. She then preceeded to drive her self to hospital to get her self checked out. The doctors performed an angio which they found that her artieries were 99% clogged! She had to have stents placed in her atieries and drasticlly change her diet and life style. This women was 55 years old, a heavy ciggarette smoker, she didn't Really exercise, and ate a very poor diet. Im 21 years old I exercise and eat realativly healthy, yet this event scared me down to my core. I do have a terrible fear of heart attacks and heart disease in genneral. But after that I couldnt get past my fear, every time I smoked weed I would have panic attacks because my heart was pounding and that's all I could think about. I don't smoke weed nearly as much or at all for that matter, yet I still get anxiety which leads to chest pains, left arm pains and so on. This scares me and leads to even more anxiety. Now im fixated on my heart beats on a regular basis, every little pain causes worry, which leads to more anxiety and more random chest pains etc. I had a weed panic attack that was so bad I was convinced I Was gonna have a heart attack, so I went to the ER the next day. The doctor listened to my heart and checked my blood pressure and every thing, I was perfectly healthy(ofcourse) lol. Even with that I still have a constant worry about my heart, I know what you are going through witty fool and it sucks :( I hope that one day I can get past my worries and anxiety and I also hope you can too. I will most likely start seeing a psychiatrist and working on reversing my negative mind set. I wish you the best of luck and just know that your not alone, and that its time for the healing to begin. Take care man.
I think you should start by quitting weed, as it's obviously the thing that causes you problems-panic attacks. I'm not some old conservative-I know weed smoking, if not excessive, is relatively harmless (actually does a lot of less damage than tobacco)-but if it causes you panic attacks, why torturing yourself?
Iknowthefeeling
19-06-14, 23:01
I know the feeling lol, I'm only 17 and worry about my heart (used to be all the time) cause I've had so many panic attacks at such a young age, I went to the doctor multiple times and of course it was fast cause I was beyond anxious but it was normal beat and everything, right now I'm struggling with it again because I had a horrible panic attack yesterday that lasted what seems to be hours. Reading this post is helping me cause I know I'm not the only one!
ectopicsufferer
20-06-14, 15:56
Hi Witty i too have heart anxiety ... i dont worry about lumps and bumps or cancer just the plain old heart and ive had this 7 years now and im still here hun ... shame to hear you are only 16 but you have your whole life ahead of you and so many things will happen good and bad in your life like it does in everyones ... to combat panicking over pain in the chest left arm and palps i read up on some CBT from this site and i now have this mantra of 'its just adrenalin' and adrenalin is uncontrollable particularly with us who suffer this way it seems, like above .... heart attack symptoms rarely last longer than half an hour before going into an actual heart attack and twinges and aches that you get ( i get them too ) arent really what a heart attack is all about, for most if you have an actual heart attack it will be pain like you have never known before and sweating ( burning up ) like you have never known ... its awful to see you suffer like you do at the age that you are ... you have to stop thinking the worst all the time, just try it, thats how i do it nowadays ... and when you stop thinking about it so much the palps do lessen and the pains dont seem to be around so much ... 4 weeks ago i was freezing at the sign of a palp and going straight into a panic attack ... now cos i read that cbt thing on here when i get a palp im like whatever and if i get a few i actually tell my heart to shut up and stop annoying me lol sounds stupid i know but palps are palps no getting away from them and the aches and pains come from the tension in your body chest area as you are very tense with the anxiety xx
Dustin_Diga98
13-12-15, 08:28
Hi guys, im on holiday in Europe at the moment. Afew years ago I went for a cardiac catheter to determine if I had Pulmonary Hypertension, which I didnt thank-god! However they did discover a whole in one of my valves which was leaking "not mild, not medium but in between" the doc said. I went to a cardiologist month ago and had an ECG, echo and the doc listened to my heart, everything was determined to be unchanged from the previous year and fine. However, since arriving in Paris, I started having irregular heart beats, chest pain and started feeling ill in the stomach. Dr Google, the great doctor it is, told me I was having a heart attack. In anxiety I freaked out, completely broke down in tears and couldn't move what so ever. My dad ran in to find me on the floor in a ball. Of course I didnt have a heart attack, but I'm still getting the odd chest pain, which can spread to my left shoulder and arm and makes me feel sick in the stomach, and can feel my heart has jumped a beat. Do you think my heart could of changed that much in a month, if I had the tests and it was all clear, why am I suddenly having these issues? It is scaring the hell out of me, so much I woke up this morning in tears thinking I was gonna die. When I get home I have booked in to see the doc, hopefully get it all cleared up. Try and stay positive guys!
I hv A SIMILAR PROBLEM.I suffer from severe allergies and as a result get frequent cough and chest congestion,which I turn causes shortness of breath n wheezing.i feel so scared at times that's it's my heart and not allergies. I hv a 8yr old son and I feel even more scared looking at him.i am at times so scared that I panick even thinking about going to the doctor.Dunno what to do.
I'm 36 and I have been having panic attacks since I was 18 or so. Heart attack, stroke and alot of other worries. I would like to say yeah man give it a week it will go away. Not really the case. I am having one now as we speak. I feel pressure around my left chest. I have sat in hospital parking lot in case something happened I would already be in the hospital. I could go on and on and tell you the stupid things I have done. I pulled over on the side of the road and hoped out the car and layed on the ground while people stopped to make sure I was ok. I guess what I'm trying to say is we have all been there and we are still alive. You won't be able to quit having panic attacks till you get tired of having them. You will might have the symptoms for the next 10 15 years but it's how you handle them that makes the difference. Don't be concerned with the symptoms you are having focus on the ones your not.
Look up gerd. Causes spasms of the esophagus a lot of people confuse it with heart palpitations. Especially if you get them laying down on your side or back.
Acids flow up and cause spasms. Being in a state of panic causes upset stomach and acids can flow up and causes spasms. Feels like your heart is building up pressure than releasing really hard. Than you start to panic and your heart starts beating fast because you are panicking. You start feeling your pulse forgetting to breathe normally start getting light headed and you think this is it I'm dying. BUT YOU DON'T. Rinse and repeat.
Trust me if you have had a symptom I have had it. I am a professional (at panic attacks not medical professional) trust me. You will be ok.
Heart attacks are serious pain. If you are having one you would be on the floor curled up in pain.
Hope this helps someone
I'm 36 and I have been having panic attacks since I was 18 or so. Heart attack, stroke and alot of other worries. I would like to say yeah man give it a week it will go away. Not really the case. I am having one now as we speak. I feel pressure around my left chest. I have sat in hospital parking lot in case something happened I would already be in the hospital. I could go on and on and tell you the stupid things I have done. I pulled over on the side of the road and hoped out the car and layed on the ground while people stopped to make sure I was ok. I guess what I'm trying to say is we have all been there and we are still alive. You won't be able to quit having panic attacks till you get tired of having them. You will might have the symptoms for the next 10 15 years but it's how you handle them that makes the difference. Don't be concerned with the symptoms you are having focus on the ones your not.
Look up gerd. Causes spasms of the esophagus a lot of people confuse it with heart palpitations. Especially if you get them laying down on your side or back.
Acids flow up and cause spasms. Being in a state of panic causes upset stomach and acids can flow up and causes spasms. Feels like your heart is building up pressure than releasing really hard. Than you start to panic and your heart starts beating fast because you are panicking. You start feeling your pulse forgetting to breathe normally start getting light headed and you think this is it I'm dying. BUT YOU DON'T. Rinse and repeat.
Trust me if you have had a symptom I have had it. I am a professional (at panic attacks not medical professional) trust me. You will be ok.
Heart attacks are serious pain. If you are having one you would be on the floor curled up in pain.
Hope this helps someone
The original post is about five years old. How in the world did you come to find it and reply? xD
WillowPillow
31-05-18, 19:03
I have had this fear of having a heart attack for a few weeks now. I don't know where its come from but I think it started when my I started getting palpitations. I find myself constantly thinking about my heart and literally wait for something to happen any minute! I'm on propanalol for anxiety-they slow my heart down but I can still feel palpitations sometimes. If no palpitations then I have a tight feeling in my chest and sometimes back. I ended up in A&E a couple of days ago. I had one thud in my chest that came from nowhere and I sat it out but then I got dizzy and was sweating badly-especially my feet. I sat it out for over an hour but it didn't go. I thought I would just get it checked out. I had an ecg at A&E and when the nurse was done I asked her what she thought (regretfully) She said she can't really read them but she pointed out something on the reading. I then had to go back to the waiting area and wait for the doctor to call me. Obviously by now I felt a lot worse. When I was called to see the doctor he told me it was fine and I pointed out what the nurse said and he said something in medical terms but said there was nothing to worry about. He then did a blood test to check my thyroid and salt levels etc. I had to then go and wait for the results for about nearly two hours. When he called me he said all my results came back clear including more heart tests. I then started questioning him about what the nurse said but he said she was wrong and everything is normal?! I was relieved but confused also. He said my resting heart rate is fine but I've asked the doctor for a 7 day one. I sometimes wake in the night and jump out of bed with a strange sensation that there is something wrong with my heart. its hard to describe. I don't smoke and haven't drank for over four months. I eat pretty healthy, exercise not as much as I should but do exercise.My blood pressure is fine, my cholesterol 3.6 -so I'm puzzled. I keep checking my pulse rate all the time aswell just to see if it has changed.
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