Heart Fears Again, please help me cope

[Skye Winter]

Heya everyone,
I've not been on this forum for a while!
Hope you all had a good New Year!

I'm not having such a good time at the moment...

For some reason I keep thinking "What if I have a heart attack?"

Whatever situation I'm in, I imagine what would happen if I were to have a heart attack.. o.O

For example.
I was driving to work this morning and I had a tiny twinge pain in my chest, nothing major and it went after a split second... but of course this set off my anxiety. I walked into work when I got there and I was the only one in the office, which set off my anxiety even more. For some reason I started panicking in case I had a heart attack and there was nobody around to help me...

I'm just constantly worried that I'm about to drop dead!!
Which gives me more symptoms like chest tightness and stuff... which in turn scares me more :/

I know this is relatively normal with anxiety but I just don't know how to cope with it and it's driving me up the wall...

I've had multiple ECGs/EKGs on multiple occasions in the last 2-3 years, and everything is always just fine. I'm not overweight, I don't eat super healthy but I don't eat particularly awfully either. I'm only 20 years old so I don't know why I feel this way. None of my family members have heart issues.


There is literally NO reason for me to think I'm going to have a heart attack...
But I just CAN'T budge these thoughts out of my head!!!
I'm pulling my hair out here, driving myself insane.


Please help me convince myself that I'm going to be okay :'(
Does anyone else have this uncontrollable fear?
How do you deal with feelings of inevitable doom?

Thank you for any help in advance.

Skye xo

[HoneyLove]

Hi Skye, I'm sorry you're not feeling good at the moment. You've had lots of tests, and from what youce written it looks like you're in good shape and don't need to worry about your heart.

So what you need to focus on is those irrational worries that keep coming back to you. CBT can be really effective for this, have you ever tried it?

[fedup36]

Hey Skye,

I have the same fears, I went through a point last year where I wouldn't leave the house for fear of something happening and had a panic attack as soon as I was alone in the house, it was a horrible place!

I have some methods from the CBT which really helped, you need to write down the worse case scenario and realistically its likely to happen...

So Worse case: 'I will have a heart attack in the office and no one is there' Likelihood, I've had numerous tests etc and my age and lifestyle show that my chances are highly unlikely' just writing it down and reading through them started to make me feel better :)
Also try genuine distraction.. works a treat and you will notice you will go an hour without having any symptoms which just shows there is nothing wrong... Hope this helps...

[katielou80]

hiya! pm me if you like, ive head tons of heart worrys over the last 3 years, just read my posts! i also have bad health anxiety. anyway my dad has recently had a heart attack and a cardiac arrest, of which i had to watch him be shocked 4 times!! he was in icu in a coma for 4 weeks, and we were told he was brain dead. he has now made a 100% recovery and is now back to normal, a complete miracle. only 17% cardiac arrest outside hospital survive and only 7% come out with no damage to the brain. what im trying to say is that over the last few months i have spoken to millions of dr and nurses about hearts, top specialists etc, and your symptoms are not of that of a heart prob!! BELIEVE ME!! my dad was absolutely fine before his, apart from a bit of indegestion, of which he went to a&e with, they kept him in and said he didnt have anything wrong and it was gastric, he questioned angina, and they said he defo didnt have that. even his dr said that too. now 10 days laster he had a cardiac arrest due to undiagnosed angina!! madness!! so you would just never know, he never had chest pain etc, no breathless, and he certinately isnt a worrier, like me!! seeing him in icu with me having health anxiety i think helped, my dad is 65, he was apart rom 1 person the olderst in their, 3 cardiac arrests aged from 14, to 40!! and i thought things like this only happened to old people!! i was very wrong! please stop worrying your fine, your just waisting your like, like i am! lol xx