Breathing, Palps, Pain, and Pressure!!! :(

[panicagain]

So i went to the ER on Tuesday cuz i was having chest pains, shortness of breath and pressure/tightness in chest and they took blood, did an ekg then they put me on a heart monitor for hours but all and all the only thing they found was a kidney infection

Now 3 days later, i'm having the same symptoms but an added bonus of nasty palps

The main thing that bothers me though is the breathing thing, , what else can make you short of breath besides anxiety?

The reason i don't think the breathing is anxiety is cuz when i'm not having trouble breathing i consentrate on it for a while cuz i worry about it comming back and i can breathe normal for an hour or so but then right out of no where when i'm not thinking about it the breathing gets difficult again, usually followed by nausea and pressure in the chest area

Does anyone know what it could be? Any help would be appreciated, maybe something i could share with my dr for her to look into
thanks

[House fan]

Hi Panic

The unrelenting power of anxiety has the uncanny ability to scare us, and to 'con' us into believing with all of our heart that death is knocking at our door.

I know just how scared you are, but I can assure you that what you are experiencing is nothing more than exhausted nerves and very tense muscles within the chest wall. If you were having tightness and pain in other parts of your body, you would be less inclined to worry, but because it's your chest, then it MUST be heart related, right?

Well, wrong actually. You have had an EKG and bloods checked and this rules out heart disease, and ought to give you piece of mind, but in a person of an anxious nature, there is not a doctor in the world who could totally convince you that these 'horrible and frightening' symptoms are completely harmless, and that all you are suffering from is an acute bout of sensitization.

Nothing more and nothing less!

One of the most bewildering things about anxiety is that it has the ability to 'bluff' us, even when 'we think' we are totally relaxed. These symptoms just appear out of the blue, as if from nowhere, and it is this that keeps the fear-adrenaline-fear cycle in motion.

What you must realise is that you have unintentially conditioned your body to act in this way, and the signals it sends out are indeed completely normal. I can assure you that there is absolutely nothing organically wrong with your body!

Although you claim to be short of breath, I would very much expect that you are not short of breath, but you have the feeling of not getting enough oxygen into your body, or that even with deep breaths, your body is not satisfied with the amount of air getting into your lungs! Sound familiar?

Anxiety causes us to 'look within' more than we should do. I can imagine that you hate these sensations so much that you are waiting in dread of them returning, from the minute you wake up in the morning until they return (and they surely will return, because you are truly terrified of them!)

Let the symptoms come. Embrace them. Do not shrink from them or allow them to take over your life. Although you may feel differently just now, I can assure you that these symptoms cannot harm you in the slightest! Adrenaline released into your system, even in huge amounts has limited ability, and cannot harm you in any way!

Be assured, and be strong. Learn to live with these unpleasant 'sensations' for a while, remembering that they are a normal reaction to sensitized nerves, and when you truly accept this, and allow a bit of time for the chemical reaction within your system to 'calm down', these feelings will surely leave you. But please don't be impatient, let more time pass, and I guarantee you that in a few short weeks, you will be symptom free.

I hope this re-assures you a wee bit.

House.

PS. And forget the palps, they are just further confirmation of what I've said is correct.

[panicagain]

Thank You So Much
You obviously have went through this cuz you know exactly what i'm feeling You have made me feel better about it, (for now, lol) I'd love to be as confident as you seem Maybe someday

[Valka]

House Fan, thanks for a really good post. You've summed up health anxiety really well; in particular the heart attack fears that most of us have.

And panicagain, the first time (out of two occasions) I've ended up in casualty (ER) because of my health anxiety was due to what I thought were heart-related chest pains. I couldn't believe it was anything other than heart disease because I was constantly getting these jabs of pain and I'd gotten so stressed I couldn't breathe properly. The doctors examined me very thoroughly and monitored me for a while, but said from the beginning that it sounded very much like anxiety and that they saw a lot of people with the same symptoms.