Struggling to control the What If thoughts

Quote:

Originally Posted by damianjmcgrath

Hi everyone. I'm a long time lurker and occasional poster on here. I remember @fishmanpa from about 15 years ago!

I could do with some advice.

I'm 36 now. Since 18, I've been anxious about my heart. That's been based on almost nothing, just me assuming the worst and overreacting to any tiny pain. Nothing has ever happened, never been diagnosed with anything.

Over the past few years, I've managed this anxiety pretty well and it hasn't been a problem.

Recently, the anxiety has returned. I've been feeling strange. I don't really have any symptoms but I'm struggling with catastrophic thoughts and what if thinking.

It's obviously got worse with the Eriksen football heart issue, which seemed to be out of the blue. A lot of news articles mention other footballers, like Graeme Souness who had coronary heart disease at 38 and he was super fit and healthy!

I'm not an anti vaxxer so I try and ignore conspiracy theories but I'm reading more about vaccine induced heart problems as well. I had the Pfizer 3 weeks ago.

I've got a new baby, she's 6 months old, and I think that's contributed to my What If thinking as I really want to be around for her.

I can't shift the feeling of "what if I collapse in a few minutes", "what if I have a heart issue that I don't know about", "what if I'm on my own with my baby for a day and something happens". Stuff like that.

It's scaring me off exercise, and it affects my mood. I go withdrawn and moody and I do the worst thing which is to Google symptoms!

How does everyone else learn to accept that life is unpredictable? How do people teach themselves that it's very unlikely but then you see people your age and much fitter get problems?

Thanks in advance

Graeme Souness at 38 was not fit and healthy by today's standards. The guy lived a completely different life to say, a 38 year old footballer now. Souness was a heavy drinker, and football teams during this time were very much subjects of the "Fish and Chips on Friday" mentality. Coronary heart disease isn't indiscriminate. For a 38 year old to have coronary heart disease without a heart defect (from birth), there must be issues with diet etc.

The Christian Eriksen thing, although distressing, is an absolute anomaly. It is a 1 in a million occurrence. It doesn't happen very often, and when it does, it makes the headlines because of how rare it is. Unfortunately for Christian, it is likely that he had an undiagnosed heart defect, which he may or may not have had since birth. I am almost certain that Christian Eriksen does not have heart disease.

If you have ever had an ECG in your life you can pretty much disregard a congenital heart defect. If you feel you are at risk of getting heart disease (do you smoke? Are you overweight?), then use that anxious energy into making yourself healthier. Channel that negative energy into a positive.

Cardiac arrests in young people are very very rare. Hence why there are news articles about it. It makes the news because it is rare. How many times have you read about an old person dying from heart disease in the news? You don't, because it isn't rare. See what I'm getting at?

You have to live life knowing that nothing is certain. However, you cannot be afraid of anything. Your heart isn't just going to stop beating of its own accord, unless you have a heart defect or you have heart disease. From what I gather from your post, you have neither. In fact, by being worried about your heart blowing up during exercise, you are NOT exercising due to fear, and that will make you less healthy, and therefore more likely to have heart problems. You see the problem?

Being scared of having a cardiac arrest is like being afraid of being run over by a car. Or being struck by lightning.