Intense fear of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

[worrywart22]

Hi, im new to this forum and it seemed like a good place to air my fears with like minded people. I found out about sudden cardiac arrest in the young (Im 30) in a facebook news post. A healthy 35 year old collapsed and died with no warning. Ever since, Ive been crippled with fear that it may happen to me. I cant be alone because I am scared that it will happen and there will be no one to help me. I spend my days researching it and trying to find out how statistically rare it would be for it to happen to me (Im no mathmetician but from what I can work out from hundreds of research articles is that the chance of it happening to a 30 year old female with no known heart problems, non smoker, healthy weight- is about 1.6 persons per 100,000 people per year). So thats pretty rare im guessing. but i cant seem to shake the fear. Ive tried CBT, anxiety meds, meditation, but nothing works. Ive had 3 ECGs and all have been normal. I know people say that if they were gonna go then this is how they want it (no pain, no time to fear) but Im not one of those people, so it doesnt comfort me. Does anybody else have this fear or similar who can give me some advice?? Thanks in advance

[worrywart22]

anyone that can help please?

[S.B]

Welcome to the board woorywart22!

Your fear is shared my many people on this board, including myself. I don't claim to have the answers you seek, and even if I could, they probably wouldn't reassure for long, as is the nature of Health Anxiety.

All I can say is that you have to trust the medical tests. 3 normal ECGs is a good sign that the odds of this hapening to you are slim, very slim. Your age and sex are also in your favour so again, the odds get slimmer.

Sudden cardiac death is an extremely rare phenomenon and if you keep googling stuff, your fears will continue to be fixated upon it. Try and resit googling anything to do with it and trust the doctors. They can't treat you if there's nothing to diagnose.

Keep your chin up!

S.B

[swajj]

Do you stay locked up in your house, never going anywhere because you fear a bus will run you over and you will die? It sounds ridiculous because it is. Based on everything you have written your fear of cardiac arrest is equally ridiculous.

[rachelkenn]

hi, last two days i have had and am going thru atm the same...sunday evening i had a few drinks, just lager, yesterday i felt heart palpy n achey which i usually do..i had anxiety in form of breathlessness n haert palps 2 years now...i had 2 ecgs..one 3 yrs ago oine a month ago..firs tone sayd tachycardia..fast hesart rate...last one said i had a lot of missed beats but mothing to worry about..im scared as hell cos my mate years ago had an undiagniosed heart condition and she had drinks on one day went to work the next day still feeling ruff...went home n died !! ..so with me feeliung like this im really scared...i cant help cos im such a mess atm too...im breathless n ache n i dunno if this is a massive bout of anxiety or somet else x

[Jackrabbit]

Anxiety is essentially the plague of unwanted and usually "ridiculous" thoughts. I'm sure if you could control them, you wouldn't be here. I have had so many different health fears its hard to keep up really but I know that this has been one of them. From my own research, heart failure and/or cardiac arrest don't "just" happen. They can happen in people who otherwise seem healthy but something has to go wrong before your heart just stops. A lot of the times its a blood clot that travels, poor diet, lack of exercise etc. All you can really do about it in this moment is make sure that you are living your healthiest life. Eat healthy, don't eat too many salty and processed foods, drink water, etc. Also make sure to stay active and follow up with your doctor. If this is a fear that is making you lose sleep from anxiety, ask that they perform a stress test on you so they can determine if there is anything that would indicate potential heart failure.

[worrywart22]

Do you stay locked up in your house, never going anywhere because you fear a bus will run you over and you will die? It sounds ridiculous because it is. Based on everything you have written your fear of cardiac arrest is equally ridiculous.

If I could control these "ridiculous" thought i wouldnt be here. hence the asking for help

[swajj]

ok
lol

[worrywart22]

ok
lol

Im unsure whats funny?

[Osama Ali]

Dear Worrywart 22,

I hope you overcame this anxiety and you don't need to visit this forum anymore. Since you did that ECG several times with normal results then that makes you much better than other people who get bad results. We should never leave any calamity or difficulty in life without learning from it. In case of our anxiety, maybe it is to make us thrive for a better life style. We should do good more and be kind more. Eventually, Life is controlled by its creator. As long as we show our families and friends our love and we become one of the good makers in this universe, then hopefully we will reach the state of peace after which we will hopefully fear nothing.

Have faith dear and always hope for the best. Pray to God that he prevents you from having what you fear whatever it is and Almighty God who has control over our life and death shall not reject you sincere prayers.

All the love and best wishes to you all

[Neels3225]

People who die from SADS usually have a undetected abnormality or genetic problem with the heart such as long qt, etc. these conditions can be detected through an ekg & holters!

Since your results are normal & assuming no one in your family has died suddenly at young age (genetics)..you dont have anything to worry about.