Heart Attack - Irrationally Scared

[Tanner40]

I woke up this morning with my usual morning anxiety, made worse by the fact that I took a vacation day from work, and I will be home all alone.

I woke with a cold sweat, arms aching, anxious and a pain under my left breast that went into the left side of my back. The pain under my left chest is gone now but my left mid back is still burning. It's not bad but it's there and has been there for an hour. Rationally, I know it's tight muscles probably but I am afraid it's a heart attack just waiting to happen. When I'm alone and there will be no one to help me. No one to call the ambulance. I am afraid that I will die and no one will be here.

I have written about all of my automatic thoughts and identified the distortions in those thoughts. I have re- written my automatic thoughts into more positive statements and I just can't seem to make the anxious thoughts of a heart attack go away.

You would think that I would be looking forward to my day off work and instead I have a feeling of dread. A feeling of " what am I going to do with myself all day"?

Need reassurance that this is not my heart and all is going to be okay. How do others deal with this?

[Gina9]

I will post my coping techniques for this; I remember a time I felt as worried and anxious over the same thing or similar health worry and remember nothing happened then so why now. I also would ring someone for 20 minutes or so and tell them how I feel (if you can) even stay on here and chat to distract? I find distracting myself helps, hope that doesn't sound patronising but I feel better after even 10-15 minutes of distraction, focusing my thoughts on anything else.

Do you have any digestive problems, before I knew I had IBS I had left and right chest pains that caused me to have panic attacks thinking it was heart related but it was acid reflux.

I hope any of this helps. :)

[Mr Mannering]

My doctor advised me, as I too have a fear of heart related issue/pain that I still get to this day. 99.% of the time a heart attack or worrying chest pain will occur under activity... i.e digging the garden, a strenious walk, basically anything to get the heart going a little a bit. If your heart pain occurs while sat there etc... it's generally relates to muscle/reflux etc.. Anyone who drops dead sat in a chair then thats mostly heart failure different from a heart attack. So .... if today you got chest pain and worry about a heart attack... then tomorrow you're playing squash with your friend for example and there is no pain your heart is probably perfect.

[Tanner40]

Thanks Gina! I do have some problems with acid reflux and my muscles are tight. Logically I know it was one or the other. I did do some things to distract myself. I got up and got moving. Did some laundry. Changed the cats litter box. All pain seems to have gone away.
All good advice that you just gave me. It is always amazing to me. I know all of these things but just need someone to remind me upon occasion.
Seems my brain gets muddled and forgets everything that I've learned at times.

Thanks again for the reply.

---------- Post added at 14:31 ---------- Previous post was at 14:29 ----------

Thanks Mr Mannering, I doubt that I'll be playing any squash today but I am planning on going to the bookstore and taking myself out to lunch. Reading a good book always distracts my mind from anxiety.

[Gina9]

Thanks Gina! I do have some problems with acid reflux and my muscles are tight. Logically I know it was one or the other. I did do some things to distract myself. I got up and got moving. Did some laundry. Changed the cats litter box. All pain seems to have gone away.
All good advice that you just gave me. It is always amazing to me. I know all of these things but just need someone to remind me upon occasion.
Seems my brain gets muddled and forgets everything that I've learned at times.

Thanks again for the reply.

I know I'm the same :D I can say these things to you but when it comes to me I'll get a problem somewhere and start thinking it's the absolute worst thing it could be, I do understand, it's really weird sometimes. :)

[kahi35]

same happened to me this past week but also pressure in the head and then started to keep worring about it and then went to my psychologist and they took my blood pressureit was high and now im worried about that,