Chest Pain from Anxiety

[ChicagoFan689]

I just needed to get this off my chest (no pun intended). For the last week, I have had tons of random symptoms - throat/chest pain, pain in between my shoulder blades, numbness in my arms/hands. Of course, for a person with anxiety, this can only mean one thing - I must be having a heart attack. I am 25 years old, female, with no family history of heart disease - therefore, my risk of a heart attack is really low. But I get palpitations, and pains - so of course last night, I went to the ER. I received an EKG (normal), a chest x-ray (normal), and a variety of blood tests (all normal).

I am still having the chest pains, and throat pain as well (which is probably from GERD that I have given myself by being so constantly worked up), and I'm just terrified. I am really sick of feeling scared all the time, of having to feel my pulse every time I get a palpitation to "make sure" my heart doesn't stop suddenly.

I'm tired of my wonderful husband feeling frustrated with me because there's nothing he can do, and because he believes there's nothing really "wrong" with me from a physical standpoint.

I'm tired of having to excuse myself at restaurants because I start to have panic attacks and the only thing I can do for myself is to lock myself in a bathroom stall until I can calm down.

The last PCP I had told me that she would send me for an ECHO test and a holter monitor, but did nothing for my anxiety. I finally made appointments to go back to a new PCP and to see a psychiatrist. That will happen later this month. Can anyone commiserate?

[Im-Suffering]

I just needed to get this off my chest (no pun intended). For the last week, I have had tons of random symptoms - throat/chest pain, pain in between my shoulder blades, numbness in my arms/hands. Of course, for a person with anxiety, this can only mean one thing - I must be having a heart attack. I am 25 years old, female, with no family history of heart disease - therefore, my risk of a heart attack is really low. But I get palpitations, and pains - so of course last night, I went to the ER. I received an EKG (normal), a chest x-ray (normal), and a variety of blood tests (all normal).

I am still having the chest pains, and throat pain as well (which is probably from GERD that I have given myself by being so constantly worked up), and I'm just terrified. I am really sick of feeling scared all the time, of having to feel my pulse every time I get a palpitation to "make sure" my heart doesn't stop suddenly.

I'm tired of my wonderful husband feeling frustrated with me because there's nothing he can do, and because he believes there's nothing really "wrong" with me from a physical standpoint.

I'm tired of having to excuse myself at restaurants because I start to have panic attacks and the only thing I can do for myself is to lock myself in a bathroom stall until I can calm down.

The last PCP I had told me that she would send me for an ECHO test and a holter monitor, but did nothing for my anxiety. I finally made appointments to go back to a new PCP and to see a psychiatrist. That will happen later this month. Can anyone commiserate?

You are very intelligent, which leads to overthinking, analyzing.

I would not suggest you look so much for peers to commisurate, empathize maybe, either one you could really do without. The need for sympathy is one of the downfalls, should you express that need, then you must manufacture the problem in yourself first. If you had no issues, you would have no need for sympathy. Now, in the act of sympathizing, they compound the issue and attract more of it in themselves. So it can be damaging all around. In the act of sympathy it is difficult for both the holder and recipient to use the imagination constructively, picturing positive outcomes, indeed it is most always the negetive that is the focus. So do not sympathize so much verbally or mentally, replace that with love and a healing light, picturing health and vitality, you see.

As I have said before :


An illness (physical or emotional) is always a failure to solve a mental or psychological problem in the correct manner . . . The energy that would be used to solve the problem instead is spent maintaining the illness. It is therefore necessary that an attempt be made as soon as possible to solve the problem, which of course must first be discovered by the ego, which has avoided it.

So instead of commisurating, get to work on healing the self, that is thy purpose. For in the suffering the lesson is learned not to suffer, that is its purpose.

Lastly do not have your husband commisurate, but follow the above instructions for constructive use of his imagination. Sending you love. Acting in love, and expressing love. Not sympathy for the sick lady, you see.

That is all.