damianjmcgrath
29-04-16, 20:45
People may recognise my username, as someone who used to post on here fairly regularly. I was suffering from anxieties to what I considered a bad level, and it was definitely affecting my day to day life. I got on top of it, and it pretty much went away. CBT helped, Mindfulness helped, and to be honest, just forgetting about it helped.
Over the past 2 weeks, I've been getting strange symptoms, and I've been assuming they are anxiety related. I assume every symptom now is anxiety related until it really starts to do me some damage, then I visit a GP.
My symptoms are:
- Slightly odd feeling heart sensations. Feeling my pulse in my neck with my finger, it feels like it goes beat..beat..beat..beat.........thump..beat..beat.. beat..beat.......thump etc. There's definitely a pause for a second, then the next beat feels more powerful, then it goes back into the normal beating. I can sometimes feel this in my chest too.
- A slight feeling of suffocation or low on air. It feels like I have to clear my throat or cough to kind of reset my breathing. I don't ever gasp, or hyperventilate, but it feels like it's a slight struggle, and I sometimes have to take a deliberately deep breath to try to make up for it, if that makes any sense.
- Random aches across my chest. It feels like an ache you get when you've been lying in a weird position, it's like a cramp ache or an indigestion ache. It feels like moving positions would help it, or a stretch would help. The aches last a second or two, then go. They can come in bursts for a few minutes, or just be a one off.
The two last bullet points there kind of go together. The best way I can describe the sensation is to hold your breath. After a while, your chest will start to ache because it's not getting enough air. That's pretty much what the feelings are like.
I feel generally well in myself, I'm eating OK, I can jog a small amount (1-2km every night), I can walk 20 mins to work, my BP is fine, pulse fine, temperature fine, etc. I don't particularly think it's a massive heart problem, but with my anxiety, my brain does go straight there. Also, it's a bit weird that these symptoms have appeared out of nowhere, and not at a particularly stressful time. They are relatively constant, i.e., not peaking or rising - it's just stays at the same level. It's definitely not like a attack type feeling, it's more subtle than that.
So, my question is - does anyone else get this? What remedies do you suggest?
Over the past 2 weeks, I've been getting strange symptoms, and I've been assuming they are anxiety related. I assume every symptom now is anxiety related until it really starts to do me some damage, then I visit a GP.
My symptoms are:
- Slightly odd feeling heart sensations. Feeling my pulse in my neck with my finger, it feels like it goes beat..beat..beat..beat.........thump..beat..beat.. beat..beat.......thump etc. There's definitely a pause for a second, then the next beat feels more powerful, then it goes back into the normal beating. I can sometimes feel this in my chest too.
- A slight feeling of suffocation or low on air. It feels like I have to clear my throat or cough to kind of reset my breathing. I don't ever gasp, or hyperventilate, but it feels like it's a slight struggle, and I sometimes have to take a deliberately deep breath to try to make up for it, if that makes any sense.
- Random aches across my chest. It feels like an ache you get when you've been lying in a weird position, it's like a cramp ache or an indigestion ache. It feels like moving positions would help it, or a stretch would help. The aches last a second or two, then go. They can come in bursts for a few minutes, or just be a one off.
The two last bullet points there kind of go together. The best way I can describe the sensation is to hold your breath. After a while, your chest will start to ache because it's not getting enough air. That's pretty much what the feelings are like.
I feel generally well in myself, I'm eating OK, I can jog a small amount (1-2km every night), I can walk 20 mins to work, my BP is fine, pulse fine, temperature fine, etc. I don't particularly think it's a massive heart problem, but with my anxiety, my brain does go straight there. Also, it's a bit weird that these symptoms have appeared out of nowhere, and not at a particularly stressful time. They are relatively constant, i.e., not peaking or rising - it's just stays at the same level. It's definitely not like a attack type feeling, it's more subtle than that.
So, my question is - does anyone else get this? What remedies do you suggest?