I am male 46 years old with severe health anxiety since 12 years. Since childhood I have been a worrier, very sensitive & fearful. I struggle with unemployment after marriage for 2 years. Since last 12 years I have obsessing about heart related fear, heart attack, heart disease, arrhythmia, angina etc. Time to time I was being occupied & living with fear that, something happened to my heart. I did 3 Echocardiography, 3 stress treadmill test, 4 24 hr holter monitor test, several ekgs. I have Mitral valve Prolapse with Trivial MR, which was diagnosed 5 years back (which is causing palpitation, anxiety etc). I have been googling that, anxiety chest pain/chest tightness or palpitation are harmless to be relaxed from anxiety & mvp & came across many unwanted heart related symptoms, (pvc pac, arrhythmia, atrial fibrilation, ventricular tachycardia, cardiomapathy etc) which made me very obsessed & fearful. I was trying to get assurance on one symptoms, another symptoms I will pickup from the internet, like this cycle continuing, While browsing the anxiety I came across a word Variant Angina(which is without blockage, your arteries will go to temporary spasm/stop blood) I somehow manage to overcome this fear after lot of efforts but, one setback came, that, While researching about variant angina, 99.99% have told the way to diagnose is to do Ekg or 24-48 hours holter monitor test or angiogram, but i one article it was mentioned was to hyperventilate the patient & do EKg. Since then i got more feared. Now i am fearing if i hyperventilate i will get coronary artery spasm & will die. I know that it is wrong, but i started obsessing about the word hyperventilation. If it is like that, all anxious people who hyperventilate will get coronary artery spasm & die. I am trap in to fear. plz help me to come out of the vicious cycle of fear. I will be grateful to you all my life. I have two kids & wife. I don't have any help from anyone. I was coping with the anxiety symptoms (chest pain/palpitation/chest tightness/dizziness/lightheadedness/jelly leg etc), by reading Dr. Claire weekes book, that, anxiety will not kill you, just accept the sensation & it is harmless Now I came to where I was in the beginning. I started to worry about all anxiety symptoms & fearing that it will cause coronary artery spasm. I know panic & anxiety causes rapid breathing, i am misinterpreting all this symptoms. I was coping with the fear of coronary artery spasm that, it is similar to heart attack & chest pain should be severe for more than 10 minutes & mostly are young females, but whenever I think of word hyperventilation or whenever I feel anxious, suddenly it comes to my mind of that article & reminds me of spasm. I ask one cardiologist whether, hyperventilation can cause coronary artery spasm. He replied me No hyperventilation does not cause coronary artery spasm or variant angina (but he did not gave me any logic or mechanism how it will not affect). but still it is not going from my mind & iam obsessing. I became so obsessed with the word hyperventilation, anxiety, stress & when ever i feel little anxious, i am thinking coronary artery spasm will come. Plz help me how to fight with this fear. I was coping with anxiety that, it is harmless & suddenly a setback came. How to come out of this. can u give me some tips.My life has become hell, neither can i sleep or relax or concentrate on anything. Whole day i am panicking. Every anxiety symptoms i started to fear. Sometimes i fear if coronary artery spasm symptoms can be silent, so how i will know. Whole day i am obsessing how to be protected by this disorder. I don't know how i enter the medical website, i should never go to the medical website again. The problem is how the hyperventilation would cause the arteries to spasm, how stupid that lady Elize Greene who is running the website embrace your heart had written. Very senseless article. I have seen 90% of the population are hyperventilating at some point. People are panicking or anxious, stressed, job pressure so all will get coronary spasm. My mind is always thinking about her article only. even if i become little anxious i start fearing that, this anxiety symptoms will bring coronary artery spasm. I don't know how to fight this fear. You are expert, plz help me. I will be grateful to you all life. God will bless you. I am worried to go to Doctor or getting opinion, what if they will tell. I walk daily for 40 minutes since last 10 years. My Lipid Profile is Cholestrol 170, Ldl 110 & Hdl 38. My BP is around 130/85.
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