Ronan23
09-06-19, 13:53
I used to have a really bad fear of cardiac arrest caused by heart arrhythmia to the point that even though I'm just 28, I've probably had roughly 20 ECGs done in my life. Alongside those standard ECGs I had a stress (treadmill) ECG, a holter monitor, and an echocardiogram. Nothing abnormal was ever found. I think the fear stems from the lack of control over it all; if I was to have an arrhythmia and drop dead or die in my sleep, there'd be absolutely nothing I could do about it. Getting all those tests returned a semblance of control because I could at least find out if I had a disorder that could kill me suddenly.
The cardiac arrest fear comes to me in waves and it is triggered every time someone famous dies suddenly. Just this weekend, a seemingly fit and health 49 year-old football manager died after he suffered a cardiac arrest. It's so annoying because I've been having a 24 hour panic attack ever since I read the story. I am now convincing myself that because I've felt unwell lately with left shoulder pain and some dizziness, something is wrong with my heart. It's completely delusional but I'm in that impossible to escape from stage where I feel an inescapable urge to go to ER and get an ECG done.
With the information overload in the modern world, I feel it's impossible to avoid these trigger stories. It's easy to click an article when you see someone has died and then you only found out while reading it what the cause was. And your health anxiety goes into overdrive. I'm not sure what advice I'm looking for but I need to get this stuff off my chest to people who might understand. I'm getting tired of it all, it feels like health anxiety will never go away. In fact, it'll likely get worse as I age and become closer to death.
The cardiac arrest fear comes to me in waves and it is triggered every time someone famous dies suddenly. Just this weekend, a seemingly fit and health 49 year-old football manager died after he suffered a cardiac arrest. It's so annoying because I've been having a 24 hour panic attack ever since I read the story. I am now convincing myself that because I've felt unwell lately with left shoulder pain and some dizziness, something is wrong with my heart. It's completely delusional but I'm in that impossible to escape from stage where I feel an inescapable urge to go to ER and get an ECG done.
With the information overload in the modern world, I feel it's impossible to avoid these trigger stories. It's easy to click an article when you see someone has died and then you only found out while reading it what the cause was. And your health anxiety goes into overdrive. I'm not sure what advice I'm looking for but I need to get this stuff off my chest to people who might understand. I'm getting tired of it all, it feels like health anxiety will never go away. In fact, it'll likely get worse as I age and become closer to death.