Heart attack ?

[Daniel28]

Can anxiety in the long run weaken the heart and cause an heart attack?
HA has taken full control of my life at the minute and I'm concerned if I'm like this for the next 5 years or so I will have an heart attack. I have short course of sertaline which I'm in two minds about taking because I'm worried about side effects mainly the "sudden breathing difficulties" as it says on the leaflet and the other side of me wants to taken them as they could potentially make a big difference to my quality of life? but the side effects putting me off.

[ricardo]

I have had GAD, now extreme for over 30 years.High BP, chlostral and smoking and being overweight and often if it runs in the family are the main causes of a heart attack.

Daniel, don't worry the heart is a very strong muscle.

[ray.olsen]

Hey daniel

The relationship between anxiety and heart disease is actually understudied and there is not concrete proof to say that they are correlated. However some clinicians believe that anxiety may be a contributing factor in aggravating heart problems.

You see heart palpitations during an anxiety episode is much different from the rapid heartbeat during a heart attack, although the symptoms looks the same. The thing to do is do not concerned yourself with the probability of having heart disease because that will ultimately just increase your anxiety. What you should do is focus on treating your anxiety.

[Daniel28]

Thanks for the replies, I had an ecg on Sunday which confirmed sinus bradycardia and shown my HR was 59 I know it's not to low but it drops into the 40s sometimes. The doctor didn't seemed concerned, my bloods were normal and cardiac enzyme test was normal. I'm going for a 24H ECG next month and hopefully I will find some peace after that.I had one done in 2011 which recorded 968 bradycardic beats the lowest was 37 and that was during sleep but the doctor said it's still to low and 6 SVES.

[ricardo]

Hey daniel

The relationship between anxiety and heart disease is actually understudied and there is not concrete proof to say that they are correlated. However some clinicians believe that anxiety may be a contributing factor in aggravating heart problems.

You see heart palpitations during an anxiety episode is much different from the rapid heartbeat during a heart attack, although the symptoms looks the same. The thing to do is do not concerned yourself with the probability of having heart disease because that will ultimately just increase your anxiety. What you should do is focus on treating your anxiety.


I am afraid that is not correct and it is misleading and may cause other anxiety suffereres more anxiety. There are many symptoms of having a heart attack of which many are not known or even advertised.
There are plenty of programmes of how to help someone who has had a HA until paramedics arrive but not all the different causes or symptoms.