dan155
16-04-08, 21:09
Hi 20 year old male hear, pretty sure I have a general anxiety disorder. Well I know I have OCD but only to a small degree, it doesn’t really impact my life and people don’t notice, to a large degree I think have managed to control it, still have a few minor rtials but that’s about it. However recent experiences have made me believe that I am not as in control of my anxiety as I had believed.
I’ve been particularly anxious about my heart. I started getting heart palpitations when I was 16/17 and they still persist. They aren’t ridiculously frequent, sometimes one every few days and sometimes I can go weeks without one. Went to the doctors twice and both times they said they just had a quick listen to my heart, took my blood pressure and told me its just stress causing them. My palpitations usually manifest themselves as an irregular heartbeat for a period of perhaps a few seconds, always in the exact same spot on my chest (well up until recently, but more on that later). Can’t seem to detect any irregularity in my pulse when I happens but if I put my hand to my chest when its happening I can feel the irregularity of the beat, it will feel like there’s a normal beat (which my hand will be able to feel but I will not) and then a second abnormal beat that I’ll be able to feel with my hand and in my chest, this beat seems slightly lower down than the other. After a few seconds it will stop and ill calm down, the heart rate in my chest will have sped up for a little bit since the palpitation. However there is no dizziness accompanying the palpitation.
I’d stopped worrying about the palpitations for about a year and they seemed less frequent but I’ve had a stressful time over the last few months and my worry about them and my anxiety has returned…with additional symptoms which has led to start questioning whether what I am experiencing are palpitations. I’ve been easily startled recently and have found that I don’t sleep as well, e.g. if I wake up at 6 in the morning to go to the toilet I’ll have trouble getting back to sleep. I’m semi-reluctant to go to sleep in the first place worrying that I won’t wake up (I always manage to get to sleep though).
Additionally when I have been laid in bed I have been feeling ‘inner tremors’ and ‘inner shaking’, its as though the inside of me is quivering. I’ve bee experiencing occasional muscle twitching when falling asleep, e.g. my arm just jerking slightly all of a sudden waking me up. Additionally I’ve been getting a similar feeling to what I get when I get heart palpitations except in DIFFERENT parts of my body. I got “palpitations” on the right side of my chest, it felt similar to the palpitations except on the right side of my chest, I thought wtf and I put my hand to it and it felt much like an irregular pulse, put my hand on my actual heart and it felt normal. Then another week I got the palpitation sensation in the back of my right leg where the thigh meets the knee, as usual it felt like a beating heart without even touching it, decided to put my hand to it and it felt like a pulse. I started to think well maybe it isn’t my heart but perhaps its my muscles occasionally spazzing out/twitching in a rhythmic fashion, but in which case why would it only seem to be present in the left area of my chest for so long and then become present in other areas of my body? I’ve now felt the sensation of a beating pulse in several other parts of my body including the lower left rip cage right at the bottom where its closest to the hip, in my thigh, in my neck and most recently on the cheek of my face where I could visibly see the muscle twitching upon looking in the mirror.
Not a clue what to think anymore but my best guess is that its all due to a combination of anxiety after a stressful few months, what do you think is it all in my head?
I’ve been particularly anxious about my heart. I started getting heart palpitations when I was 16/17 and they still persist. They aren’t ridiculously frequent, sometimes one every few days and sometimes I can go weeks without one. Went to the doctors twice and both times they said they just had a quick listen to my heart, took my blood pressure and told me its just stress causing them. My palpitations usually manifest themselves as an irregular heartbeat for a period of perhaps a few seconds, always in the exact same spot on my chest (well up until recently, but more on that later). Can’t seem to detect any irregularity in my pulse when I happens but if I put my hand to my chest when its happening I can feel the irregularity of the beat, it will feel like there’s a normal beat (which my hand will be able to feel but I will not) and then a second abnormal beat that I’ll be able to feel with my hand and in my chest, this beat seems slightly lower down than the other. After a few seconds it will stop and ill calm down, the heart rate in my chest will have sped up for a little bit since the palpitation. However there is no dizziness accompanying the palpitation.
I’d stopped worrying about the palpitations for about a year and they seemed less frequent but I’ve had a stressful time over the last few months and my worry about them and my anxiety has returned…with additional symptoms which has led to start questioning whether what I am experiencing are palpitations. I’ve been easily startled recently and have found that I don’t sleep as well, e.g. if I wake up at 6 in the morning to go to the toilet I’ll have trouble getting back to sleep. I’m semi-reluctant to go to sleep in the first place worrying that I won’t wake up (I always manage to get to sleep though).
Additionally when I have been laid in bed I have been feeling ‘inner tremors’ and ‘inner shaking’, its as though the inside of me is quivering. I’ve bee experiencing occasional muscle twitching when falling asleep, e.g. my arm just jerking slightly all of a sudden waking me up. Additionally I’ve been getting a similar feeling to what I get when I get heart palpitations except in DIFFERENT parts of my body. I got “palpitations” on the right side of my chest, it felt similar to the palpitations except on the right side of my chest, I thought wtf and I put my hand to it and it felt much like an irregular pulse, put my hand on my actual heart and it felt normal. Then another week I got the palpitation sensation in the back of my right leg where the thigh meets the knee, as usual it felt like a beating heart without even touching it, decided to put my hand to it and it felt like a pulse. I started to think well maybe it isn’t my heart but perhaps its my muscles occasionally spazzing out/twitching in a rhythmic fashion, but in which case why would it only seem to be present in the left area of my chest for so long and then become present in other areas of my body? I’ve now felt the sensation of a beating pulse in several other parts of my body including the lower left rip cage right at the bottom where its closest to the hip, in my thigh, in my neck and most recently on the cheek of my face where I could visibly see the muscle twitching upon looking in the mirror.
Not a clue what to think anymore but my best guess is that its all due to a combination of anxiety after a stressful few months, what do you think is it all in my head?