Heart Obsession & Worries

[Natalie x]

Over the past couple of months I seem to be obsessed over my heart and seem to be really focussed on my heartbeat. I constantly check my pulse and fixate over whether it's going too fast or too slow and immediately think something is wrong. A couple of times last week I got a fluttery feeling in my throat and when I checked my pulse it seemed as though my heart skipped a bit and returned to normal. I googled and of course various heart conditions appeared. I'm putting it down to a palpitation. Would this be right? I am obsessed over any twinge I get in my chest and am now obsessing over my breathing. I don't feel as though I'm breathing from my abdomen and instead I'm sort of holding in my breath if that makes sense? Sometimes I feel as though I can't breathe properly. Has anyone ever experience any of this? Thanks

[ella32]

Hi Natalie I get this a lot aswell and my doctor tells me it's anxiety related. I get chest pains every day either sharp stabbing pain or central pain. It's scary having a fear of heart issues. I still get scared over pain and palpitations even though I had tests done in 2013 on heart and everything came back normal.I also sometimes feel as if my heart stops when I get palpitations which isn't nice and like you I feel like I'm not breathing properly.xx

[Sam123]

Hi Natalie,

I'd say the majority of people with HA at some stage will go through this, i know i did. The heart is an obvious target for our anxiety due to its vital role.
Your post clearly shows how anxious you are about it, i.e checking your pulse. Once we become anxious about it we will become hyper aware of it, over alert to every beat and strange fluttery feeling, all of which will be benign. Have you ever had an ECG done?

Copied from the symptoms page


Heart palpitations, chest pain, irregular beats, flutters, skipped beats

What you feel:

One of the most worrying symptoms is chest pains or a tight feeling in your chest. The immediate thought is "heart attack" or "stroke" and this only worries you more. You may also notice that your heartbeat is incredibly fast or irregular at times having palpitations and again this leads to the worry that you will have a heart attack.

Often the chest muscles may feel very tight, and sometimes they can become painful if they are tight enough to spasm. Because the individual may become concerned that they may be having a heart attack, their fear will add to the stress biology which can not only worsen the pain, but can produce other symptoms similar to a heart attack such as profuse sweating, light-headedness and numbness in the arms, feet or face.

These increased symptoms can also cause more fear which then can turn into a panic attack

Your heart feels like it skips a beat or flops in your chest. It sometimes may feel like a tickle in your chest that makes you cough. If you take your pulse, you'll notice that sometimes the beats are unevenly spaced.

You may experience a tightness or pressure in the chest. Sometimes you may feel shooting pains, or muscle twitches, or just an uneasiness or fullness in the chest area which causes you concern

There is no evidence that panic and anxiety has any adverse effect on the heart and the pains are easily explained.

[worrywart29]

Yeah I went through a period where I checked my heart rate literally all day everyday. It was so stressful because if I wasn't checking I would be in panic until I was able to check. It took me getting a ekg, and throwing away my heart rate monitor to finally break it. I also felt as if I wasn't breathing properly, and till this day still feel that way. Although I don't check my heart rate anymore I still spend all day thinking at any minute my heart will just stop.