Sick of heart twinges! Someone calm me down please!

[mrseyeore]

I KEEP getting these two pulse-like pains in my left side right under my breast. They are sharp, and dont last long. I have seen a cardiologist and am currently wearing a 30-day ECG monitor. I'm just plain scared, and I know that doesn't help my anxiety. The pains are often followed by a wave of adrenaline but that seems to depend on my level of fear at the moment. It's not the same every time. but the little twinges are always the same.

[onebreathatatime]

I have similar feelings and am being set up with a 48 Holter Monitor next tuesday and I'm terrified already! I know it's hard to calm down, but we have to do our best. Do some deep slow breathing, stretching, a warm bath, drink some chamomile tea!!

[mrseyeore]

Good luck with the Holter monitor. I'm sure you will have normal results :) I tried your exercise trick today. Right when I had a couple twinges I stood up and stretched and moved my arms around, etc. .. then whammo - a few more pulses of twinge happened.... so I sat on the couch and just calmed myself down and they stopped. The reason i can't stop worrying about it is because i'm worried about something that is triggered by the worry chemicals in my bloodstream - or by exercise. of course when I was doing the stretching and twirling my arms I was thinking about the chest pains - so of COURSE they happened! Right?! I can't get away from the cycle :(

[mrseyeore]

so I had a good stretch where the anxiety was better, and I stopped thinking I was going to die every time I felt the chest pain. Now my arm is hurting and I'm scared because it's a new symptom. but it feels like muscle, not a heart attack.... heart has also been pounding a lot lately and feeling like it is beating in my throat.

[aml0017]

I had this before and went through the testing, everything fine with my heart. it would just feel like the center/left of my chest would flutter/seize for a moment. Very scary. However, I only have this when I am anxious, never when I am not. My dr. explained that sometimes when you are anxious and you have that continuous tight feeling in your gut it can lead to acid reflux and also esophageal spasms that can feel like heart palpitations. Especially when you are not breathing normally which anxiety does tend to make people breathe more shallow or even hold their breaths for a period. Normally when I feel this happening, I force myself to cough hard and it goes away. I have felt pain in my upper arms (both left and right) from time to time as well. There is so much tension in the upper body in response to anxiety, and once the anxiety gets started you start noticing all the little aches and tremors and flutterings that you would never notice before.

I think it is good you are getting tested if that will help alleviate your fears. It never hurts to be sure about things like that. In the meantime, if you find yourself tensing up, take some deep breaths, sit up straight even get up and walk. Once you have ruled out any physical issues with the doctor, take care of yourself. Walk daily, eat healthy, practice relaxation/meditation so you know you are doing the best for your body. I still suffer from anxiety sometimes despite these things but I find if I am taking proper care of my body I feel less anxious about things health wise. Also, after numerous panic attacks and anxiety episodes I can see the physical symptoms as arising because of my anxiety.

I hope everything will be ok!!

[Dragons]

I get twitches and sometimes little stabbing pains in that same spot. I also sometimes get this fluttering feeling at the center of my chest that freaks me out. But from what I understand, brief/stabbing pains and twitches like that are unrelated to the heart and are VERY common in people with anxiety. A few months ago I had a bunch of tests done just to be sure––blood tests, chest x-ray, EKG, stress test, heart monitor for two days ... all came back normal. I'm sure you're okay. :)

[mrseyeore]

Thanks. I just wish I understood the physicality of it. Someone today mentioned it might be related to IBS. but honestly I don't have any diarrhea problems normally. it's an immediate reaction to when I have an adrenaline surge. everything seems to start with the chest pain, then I feel either lower bowel cramping (like I need to go, go go...) or I feel the fuzzy feeling / tingle of the adrenaline in my core.... Either one of these starts first and the other soon after. It's a pattern so at least I know I've survived them before. Unfortunately since the feeling isn't really rational, I am always worried about the next time being "worse".

[Ins0mniac]

I've had these 'adrenaline rushes' before. They tend to come when I'm tying to enter the first stage of sleep (the stage when you feel like you're 'falling/floating' out of your body). When anxiety kicks in you're afraid of this feeling and your adrenal glands produce adrenaline/noradrenaline/cortisol (or other stress-hormones) in order to wake you up quickly.

Do you have hypnofobia/somnifobia (the fear of falling asleep), perhaps subconciously? After being awake for 3 days, I've became extremely paranoid, had extreme sensations (pulsating head, head pressure, headache, pressure on chest, difficulty breathing, extreme heart palpitations, all kinds of wierd noises from my stomach, acid reflux, ....) and started to have irrational fears: agorafobia (fear of being in unknown surroundings/around unknown people), depersonalization (feeling like I'm not real, and everything feels like it's just a 'movie') and hypnofobia (feeling 'the next time I'll go to sleep, I'll simply die').

I was lying in bed for 8 hours with my eyes closed and calmed myself down, untill the pressure in my head dissapeared and got 5-7 hours of sleep. After that day I couldn't believe that I've had these irrational fears. Sadly when you're paranoid and sleep-deprived, you can't think straight (brain fog). All you need to do is calm yourself down and realize that you can't die from insomnia/anxiety.

Nowadays (3 weeks later), I still have extreme difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, because the brain needs time to 'rewire-itself' and set in a normal 'biological-sleeping-clock'. Although, the extreme heart palpitations (stopped after taking Magnesium, Vitamins D/B6/B12), depersonalization (stopped when I became 'positive/happy'), trouble breathing (stopped after I controlled my breathing and diden't hyperventilate), acid reflux (stopped when I got my appetite back and started drinking/eating normally), waking up in panic (stopped when I realized that you can't die from insomnia/anxiety), etc...

Calm youself down. For your own peace of mind, you can undergo a 24-hour urine test with your Neurologist in order to check whether or not you have abnormal levels of stress hormones (Adrenaline/Noradrenaline/Cortisol/...). I personally did this test a week ago, still wating for the results, eventhough all of the symptoms dissapeared in the meanwhile.

Anxiety nearly allways causes physical symptoms, because our mind and body are wired together. So by worrying you simply worsen or prolong these symptoms.

Keep calm and good luck!

[mrseyeore]

Thank you.... I'm feeling slightly better today. I just am worried that there is something wrong with me because I am notoriously skeptical. Since i've had this for over a year now off/on ... it's probably safe to say it's not life threatening. but then I think that all this stress is causing me other life-threatening issues due to the toxic effects on the body. I'm glad that I'm on meds... maybe that helps somehow.