Health anxiety focused on heart

[Blueeyed87]

hey all,
I have so many worries about my heart health it's stopping me from being happy :(
tonight for example I got a stab of pain that went straight down the left side of my body my neck, arm and thigh that came with a faint head feeling... then not an hr later sitting back watching tv I get a warm spreading sensation in my chest, all over but mostly upper, Ive had this twice now it worries me because I was watching the Dr Oz show and one of his warning signs for heart problems blockages etc is a warm feeling almost fire like spreading through your chest... admittedly I have severe reflux that causes me alot of chest discomfort but I never get this feeling... I've had alot of ECGs and they come back ok but they wouldn't pick up a artery blockage.
for the last week Ive been very breathless, my chest hurts all over, I get ached in my left arm and side, not to mention crazy ectopic beats and irregular rhythm as well as being light headed. sometimes the beats feel like they r coming from my stomach if that makes sense. I am terrified at the moment more so than Ive ever been I have been feeling strange for a fortnight now and I feel as tho Im gonna die... I tell myself at least 20 times a day your gonna proably die today. I'm 23 and obsessed with my heart... nothing else worries me... not cancer or Ms or anything like that sometimes my brain worries me but the dr gave me a scan to check for aneyrsms so that fear was taken away so all the worry goes to my heart... it's driving me mad.
Logical my chest pain happens when I make sudden movements with my arms etc therefore it's probs muscular but I can't except that... someone told me if you have chest pain when you are moving then rest and it goes away then that's your heart ... I get chest pain when I move around and when I rest it goes away...I'm on information overload!!! disease of the 21st century, knowing to much... my brother says he never worries bout his health or heart because he doesn't know what the symptoms to various diseases and that my problem is I read to much therefore know to much I just need to relax...

what if the drs are wrong... they missed something and I have heart disease. I can't let it go... I use to be able to rationalize now Im becoming more and more disconnected HELP!!!

[ChrisK]

BREATHE, breathing is life, it's a deep philosophy. Stop everything, just lay down, breathe slowly and deeply. If it makes you " feel " better at least, take a multivitamin. Know that you're packed with everything needed for a good health, how often do you exercise ? have you been monitoring your diet ? You need to adjust your body to the rhythm, plan activities and such. Rest assured, it's NOT heart disease, you would've been dead by now but an aspect of yourself may be trying to tell you something which is manifested in the form of anxiety. How's your mood ? Do you get out often ? Do you have emotional problems such as depression ? Start working on unraveling the underlying nature of your anxiety.....with a therapist if it's that severe.

[ChrisK]

For relief, I can relate to you on this 100%, unfortunately I myself haven't found the " cure " yet.

[Blueeyed87]

thanks for the words Chrisk, I have depression GAD and OCD. my depression flares up when I get very anxious. and focused on my heart and tend to hyperventilate unconciously which just gets my panic going. I take b vitamins and was taking stress n anxiety vitamins but ran out at the start of the week. perhaps this is why it escalating. my diet has been lacking the past fortnight which logically could contribute... I hate feeling my heartbeat so I don't exercise.

[ChrisK]

Cardiophobia frightens me too, you should see a doctor and he'll probably prescribe you a beta blocker to prevent your heart from going haywire. I feel better when taking it, tames the adrenaline. I have depression, GAD and PTSD. This site is a vast resource for information regarding anxiety and panic attacks, take your time reading the tips.

[Blueeyed87]

I've have a meds phobia Ive been prescribed beta blockeres and anti depressants but won't take them. usally when I get this way I'm taken to emergency and force fed Valium lol but determined not to end up in hospital were they will tall me my heart is fine just tachycardic.

[ChrisK]

Well, healing is a painful process, it's either that or exercise, diet + therapist, take action now before the anxiety becomes more entrenched, I hope I motivated you. Good luck. :hugs:

[candicemarie88]

hey, i'm 22 and am also experiening these same symptoms. I also have very bad acid reflux and indigestion all the time. My chest feels terrible and I can't stop thinking about it. Do you ever get this hollow type feeling in your chest and stomach? This new symptom started last night and I feel so weak and very breathless. I've convinced myself that I have heart failure and I am finding it very difficult to take my mind off my heart, no matter what Im doing. I feel as if im being smothered and strnagled and experience skipped heartbeats and shock sensations. I'm so, so worried and anxious about this it's making me ill.

Like you I only really worry about my heart and I really do think that I'm going to die every day and keep visualising having a massive heart attack :( I keep telling myself 'you're only 22 and there are no heart problems in the family, you are not going to die' and i also have to write this down in a diary!! I feel like such a freak and am supposed to be seeing some old frinds tonight and having a couple of drinks, but im worried that the alcohol will damage my heart, so not sure what to say about not wanting to drink :(

Take care, I hope you feel better soon :)

[Blueeyed87]

hey Candice,
I know where your. coming from,
hope you had a good time with your friends. alcohol gives me heart palps and racing heart so and as I'm going out with friends new years it's making ne anxious. my friend assures me he gets racing heart and palps with alcohol too he just doesn't notice it :) so that's comforting.
at the moment I'm still getting chest pains breatless suffocating feeling and heart palps and ectopics.
I get all sorts of weird feelings due to acid reflux it's really awful.
I am told 23 is extremely rare to have heart problems but I just can't accept this drives me mad
hope your feeling better

[punkprincess19]

Blueeyed87 and candicemarie88 i can totally relate to both of you. I'd been having chest pains in my left side for months and trpuble breathing and was convinced it was my heart even though the docs listened to my heart everytime i went to see them. I've gotten so bad and I've pretty much had to beg to get an ECG done as the docs don't seem bothered about getting me checked over properly! I'm due to have the ECG done on Wednesday! The pain though has now moved to the centre and a little bit to the right of my chest and is pretty much constant. I'm so worried it's my heart and that I'm about to drop dead at any minute! I'm 23 and the past year of my life has been ruined thanks to anxiety! I can't leave the house on my own and I need someone with me all the time. I'm convinced that there is something wrong with me and that the docs can't be bothered to test me and so just keep telling me it's anxiety! I've got a phobia of taking meds after having 2 bad experiences with anti depressants and an even worse experience of taking Tramadol a few months ago which made me extremely poorly so any meds the docs prescribe end up at the back of my cupboard! I'm desperate for help but dont know where to turn!
Hope you both feel better soon! x

[Blueeyed87]

Hey punkprincess19.
It can be frustrating when Dr say nothing is wrong with you and you just " know" there is.. and maybe it is anxiety making us jumped to sinister conclusions. I had really bad left side chest pain but pretty sure it was muscular as it was towards the surface and had a sore burning pain. I also get sharp stabbing pains althrough my chest...I've had all the tests ecgs, holter monitor, bloods dr after dr who all say I'm fine. but I feel as though Im not been taking seriously because Im " way too young" for anything like that. I dunno maybe it's just me. I had a bad experience with lexapro yuck and I already had a med phobia but my psych. and Dr managed to convince me it would make ne feel more "normal" as I've been this way so long I don't understand how good a new level of normal is... so that scared mr alot another dr prescribed beta blockers which I won't take. she said if I remove the symptom aka racing heart, palpations, ectopics. it should help remove the anxiety but I'm just too scared of allergic reaction and side effects ^sigh*
I hope your ECG helps you feel better :) unlike me who worry they are wrong and my heart is weird and floppy floppy 90% of the day.
It's frustrating feeling different that your "normal" friends, when I talk about my worries tho they are like your fine the dr told you so it's ok it's just your health anxiety I have awesome understanding friends two of which have a smidgen of health anxiety which they hardly ever notice but has become my life.
hope you feel better soon

[Captain Caveman]

Hi. I used to have all the same sort of fears. I had the ECG tests, walked around with a heart monitor on, constantly checked my heart, worried about exercising etc.. No such problems now though:) I know full well that's it's easier said than done, but to recover, try experiencing as much discomfort as you can, and allow the anxiety/panic to do whatever it likes. You won't master it overnight of course. This article explains it better: http://www.panicend.com/

[Captain Caveman]

BTW, I am not the person who wrote the article.

[Blueeyed87]

Thank you for the link:) it was a very interesting read... like you said it's putting the theory into use that's the hardest part.

[pd]

Interesting article.

It is frustrating when you feel so certain that there is something wrong, but your doctor doesn't agree, especially when you've had all the tests and still have the nagging worry that they've missed something. I'm trying to tell myself that the doctors know what they're talking about - they're the ones who have been to medical school! The assumption that I'm 'too young' for anything to be wrong with my heart bothers me though, only becuase someone I went to school with died suddenly of an undiagnosed heart problem, at the age of fifteen. I figure, if it happened to him, it could happen to me at 23.

But it won't, and I need to convince myself of that.

[Blueeyed87]

hey pd,
I always end up worrying the drs wrong even tho the tests would of showed something up... I hate hearing about young ppl dying of heart attacks in the media but I guess it makes the news because it's so rare and the drs assure me the young ppl that have heart attacks all had underlying conditions most were born with and never found... and sure my symptoms are scary and point to what ppl are told to look for in relation to heart disease she was very honest with me and said look if you were a 60 yr old man that ate steak twice a day everyday I would say yeah this person has problems with there hear and would be concerned but you are a young woman my instincts tell me it's anxiety over heart. thus I'm to young to be taken seriously comes into the equation but they did give me all the tests that didn't find anything. the funny thing is I went into hospital with bad shoulder upper back pain that squeezed in a pain all the way around to my chest/ upper abdomen nurses and dr said it was prob a gall stone gp said same thing referred me to ultrasound and they picked it up with one test that infact my problem was a gallstone so I guess Dr are very good at there do and I should take comfort in that as they would of picked it up like they did my gallstone