fear of heart attack

[Cleo_La]

i heard once in the news about a girl in my age having a heart attack and since then i have these strongly obsession that i will have a heart attack.i'm thinking of it all the time that suddenly i will have a heart attack and i will die.i went to a therapist and also took some medication but they don't seem to help me.i feal that my whole life has no meaning any more,i can not enjoy life i can not make any future plans of my life because of the fear i wont be alive.Sometimes i'm thinking of my self in the past how posotive thinking person i was how i used to enjoy life and that i will never feel the same again.I would never imagine that a thought could ruined your whole life...

[verity]

Hi Cleo, You dont say how old you are but Im guessing your young..and Im guessing too that no matter how many people tell you your not going to have a heart attack or its unlikely you are still thinking.......but what if!!!!!!

What type of therapy did you get? I would suggest cbt if you want to concentrate on techniques to control the thoughts.

The very scary thing especially to us who are prone to anxiety is that most things in life are just uncertain..yes we just dont know what life could throw at us. Mostly people work on probablity ...its very unlikely that thing will happen to me so I will not worry about it..easier said than done. Trouble is the more we focus on an all consuming worry even if it never happens it starts to rob you of your life anyway.

You do need to break the cycle of this thinking..the thing I find helps is distraction..I do anything to take my mind of the thought. Whether is music, films, going in the chat room, spending time with others etc...believe me Im very often DOING something if Im not sleeping and then I have to have the radio on!!!

Also some visualisation techniques could be useful I sometimes imagine a huge red stop sign to block the thought or as I do believe in God I imagine a big helium balloon that I put the thought in and let it float up to heaven for him to worry about! lol Even if you don't beleive in God you can still use the balloon visualisation and imagine it floating away from you unable to come back.

Carry on making plans for the future no matter what! Ok I do believe in taking one day at a time so dont go planning your whole life but you can still plan for the imediate future. Even if the thought of 'I wont be alive' comes in your head still make the plans. Beat the thought that is trying to stop you with still continuing to move forward. Our behaviour (taking positive steps anyway)...even if we are feeling negative and terrified can help to eventually change the thoughts.

As for meaning in life I highly recommend a book by Viktor E Frankl - Mans Search for Meaning.. he is a psychaitrist who spend years in a Nazi concentration camp..ok not an easy read but it is inspiring. He never knew if he would live to get out of the camp..he still had to take steps forward and saw that those who psychologically survived the camps had some sort of meaning to carry on for...this could be their family, friends, God, or passions.

You can find meaning just start making those plans and 'take every thought captive'..dont let the thoughts consume you

Godbless and take care

Verity

[Sookie]

I suffer from anxiety and a lot of panic attacks. I am convinced I am or will have a heart attack. I bought a very expensive cuff and take my BP and pulse about 20 times a day so I know how you feel.

[Dafyddjohndavies]

Yup, this is probably the most common symptom I get from my anxiety, in fact I was trying to get to sleep last night and shot up out of bed with my heart thumping in my chest and I thought I was having a heart attack.. happened 3 times. Just ignore it, the way I think about is if it was a heart attack happening then I would either be dead or unconcious, therefore the fact that i'm awake and had this exact same sensation about 4,000 times then it can not be a heart attack. The mind is playing tricks on you.

[Panickypants]

I get this too it's awful...I'm totally convinced there is something seriously going wrong in there x

[Meg37]

You have described my worst fear! It is always in the back of my head that I am going to have a heart attack! I think it stems from my Dad having 3 or 4 the first of which he suffered in his late thirties when I was only about eight. I don't really remember anything about him having them but I have grown up harbouring this thought that it might one day happen to me. He has to go to the hospital every ten years to have a cameras put inside him to see if anything has got worse and it never has. He still works twelve hours a day and never, ever missed doing anything with us when we were small but I find it hard also to shift these thoughts.

It was made worse about three years ago when I started cycling as I began to suffer from palpitations, my heart would go beat, beat, pause then a big beat. I went to my dr who was very kind and did blood tests and an ECG. Everything came back normal and three years later I am still cycling and occasionally suffer with palpitations. I know it's easier said then done believe me but please, please don't think you don't have a future or think it's a waste of time making plans, I have wasted so many years not doing things or taking part in life because I'm too afraid, don't let this happen to you. I try and adopt a do or die attitude now, which sounds extreme but it's just the way i think about it in my head! If I'm going to have a heart attack then there is nothing I can do about it anyway so why worry. It is horrible when you hear stories on the news about young people having heart attacks etc but this is quite rare, and my Dr told this to me and said if it wasn't rare, it wouldn't be news.

I hope you feel better soon because life is worth living and you do have a future to look forward to.

[Emz]

I get this too, really bad. :weep:

[safc_17]

I am young too but I feel the exact same thing...I just can't think rationally about it.

[nicky26]

i spend all day thinking im about to have a heart attack i even think wen i sneeze that the pressure on my heart will kill me i have been like this for 3 years sometimes its easier to deal with then others i now know im not going to have a heart attack and die but unfortunatly it dosent stop the feelings and anxiety ..... u ar not alone xx