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[cmb991]

Hi Everyone! My name is Chris. I am 27 years old and I suffer from Health Anxiety (mainly the heart). I have a real bad fear of my heart just stopping and the fear of death. When I was 21, I had to much caffeine and my heart went into SVT. The medics that came had to give me a drug called adenosine (stops your heart and restarts it in a way). Ever since then, I have been worried something is wrong with my heart. I’ve seen 3 different cardiologist back then, had an echo done, ekg, and stress test. All results were normal. I’ve obsessed with taking my blood pressure, blood sugar, temperature, 3 lead ekg, and using alivcor. I live my life in this fear and it really sucks. I do have a hiatial hernia which causes GERD for me. I always feel like something is wrong; and my most recent blood work just shows high cholesterol, triglycerides, and elevated liver enzymes.
My doctor has me on Zoloft 100mg, Xanax XR 1mg, Xanax .5mg, Lipitor, and Nexium.

[venusbluejeans]

Hiya cmb991 and welcome to NMP :welcome:

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way :yesyes:

[fduop]

Good morning cmb991,

Reading your story got me to thinking, he's someone I can relate too. For a really long time I carried health anxiety to the point where I actually had a stress related heart attack two years ago. Since then I've had a couple of more scares with my heart, but you know what? It doesn't worry me anymore.

I like being in control, on top of everything else. But after laying in that hospital for 7 days and having heart surgery, just what? I was at peace. Now I could say it was the drugs (although I wasn't given anything after the first day.) What happened was I came to the realization the world would still turn without me. My family would be sad, but they would be alright.

I also learned to take control of all the piss poor habits I had. I quit smoking, quit caffeine, eat a better diet, and started do walking meditations. I often like to tell myself, just because your paranoid doesn't mean they won't get you. In other words be proactive. If you fear death, then exercise, pick up healthier habits. If you are doing this, ask yourself why?

Why, do I feel this way? Learn to love yourself flaws and all. Don't be afraid to ask yourself the tough questions. Don't avoid living just because of fear. Listen I know I sound like a sad motivational poster right now. But when my back was up against the wall I survived and you can too cmb991.