Heart related health anxiety

[rosso1992]

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new to the site and fairly new to the world of health anxiety - Something I've only been experiencing for about 3 months, but has completely overruled my life.

I'll start from the beginning - One night before I went to bed I was stressing out about a half marathon I was meant to run the following weekend. I didn't think I was ready for it (lack of training) and it was really worrying me. Earlier in the day I had consumed an awful lot of caffeine (it was a Sunday so a movie day ensued) and had been playing a bit of tennis. As I fell asleep I felt a surge right in the centre of my chest build up gradually over 5 or 6 seconds and then as I sat up out of shock it disappeared. I had never felt anything like this before so I instantly assumed it was a heart attack and went into complete panic and I was just an absolute mess. Looking back the doctors think it was a burst of adrenaline.

Ever since then I began to get gradually more and more anxious until I was feeling uncomfort in my chest for the majority of the day. I started getting palpitations, and worst of all ectopic beats. Before I knew what an ectopic beat was (and that they were harmless), they used to scare the living daylight out of me.

I have made progress as time passes but still have my bad days (today hasn't been too great..).

I've been to the Docs several times and seen 4 different gp's who have all assured me I am fine. I have also seen a doctor at the hospital as I got into such a panic one day that I just walked out of work and went straight to A & E. I've had an ECG which also came back fine.

Despite the reassurance from numerous doctors I still feel anxious a lot. They put me on 40mg of Proponalol (beta blockers) which started to help for a month or so, but recently they haven't been helping as much.

Does anybody else have their brain trick them into thinking something is going wrong inside their chest even by the touch of your shirt against your sking? I even sometimes get worried my heart is racing when I'm on the bus when I know fine well it is just the bus vibrating.

I guess I joined up to find out if anyone had experienced things closely related to my experiences, and maybe we could share coping techniques..

Hello to everyone anyway, I'm Ross from Leeds, England!

[skippy66]

Yep I was a member of the 'obsessed with your heart' club for 8 years before I decided to cancel my membership as it was ruining my quality of life.

[Tanner40]

Hi Ross, and welcome to the forum. I still struggle with heart belated HA. Some days are better than others. I have found that CBT has helped me greatly. I am trying to take back my power, as I had given all of my power over to the anxiety. The " what is's" were ruling my life and fueling the fire, so to speak.

I have found that deep breathing helps. I also use a technique where you put your fear to the test. If I feel a pain in my chest, I will run around the house like a crazy woma, jogging in place or doing jumping jacks. The pain gets know worse and generally goes away. The experiment tells me it is not heart related.

I have to work very hard on acceptance. The more I work, the easier it gets to accept that it is just anxiety and that anxiety can't hurt me

Good luck and welcome.