Chest pain - worrying myself sick

[poppyxx]

So I'm a 17 year old girl who has never smoked and occasionally drinks once a month at a friends party but I don't get drunk, I'm sensible about it. I've experienced chest pain on and off since I was about 14 and I've actually went to the doctors over it at that age and he said anxiety.

So about a week ago I started experiencing chest pains of a night as I used to think about them and of a morning as I woke up because I'd wake up checking to see if I still had chest pain then I'd go to work and get on with my day and have no chest pain until the night. A few days ago I ended up going to A&E as they got constant and because I was off work I stayed in bed all day thinking about the chest pains and drove myself insane because I started to get all the typical heart attack symptoms, e.g arm pain, back pain. I was so worried but I got an ECG which came back fine, and then I got blood tests were the nurse screened for different heart problems and that came back fine. They diagnosed me with anxiety and told me to see my doctor for some medication that would possibly help and counselling.

I'm really scared because I still have the pain. A relaxing bath/shower gets rid of it but then I start thinking about it again and I'm just worrying myself sick honestly it's all I think about and it's ruining my life.

[poppadr3w]

Hello there,

Chest pain is extremely common among people with anxiety - for myself included. I have gotten it all around the left side of my chest (where it resonates for many people, as it is located over the heart primarily), and a bit on the upper right.

The best thing to do to deal with this anxiety is to first get cleared by a medical professional, which you've seemingly done already (great!). This eliminates any "true" scares, especially since you're so young. It also gives you a baseline of the condition in which your body is in.

Thereafter, it seems stress management and dealing with the physical effects simultaneously is the best mode of combat against this chest tension. The warm bath or shower seems to help, possibly due to the heat opening up the muscles plus the relaxation factor (who doesn't like a warm bath/shower?). I think these are the areas you need to work on.

I run a blog called The Anxiety Press (www.anxietypress.com). I can't link to the exact post, but I did write a post note too long ago about ways to deal with anxiety-induced chest tension. Check it out. The methods within have helped me deal with the chest tension. Is it 100% effective? Not always, but the methods definitely help.