New here and to possible anexity.

[JavaJoy01]

Sigh so where do I begin?

I'm nearing 35 and have been suffering badly. I think it all began a little over a year ago when I complained about my heart racing. Sometimes at night I would lay down and feel my heart beating hard and fast, so bad I could not sleep. One morning I had this odd weakness come over me and went to the doctors. I told them about my racing and pounding heart so they did an ECG. It showed up weird so they sent me to a cardiologist for a new one and more tests. I ended up with BP medicine and metroplol for my racing heart.

A few months after that I start to get a really bad jaw pain and head to the dentist. Got the Xrays and such and they told me my teeth was fine, felt I had TMD (Even sent me home with a pamphlet). First time I heard the word anxiety. Sometimes after that I find myself back at the doctors complaining about the racing and the weakness and this particular doctor brings up Anxiety and gives me Atival. I never filled the prescription because I was scared of it.

Fast forward to now. About 3 weeks ago I took a turn for the worst. The racing and pounding and chest pressure was so bad I could not sleep. I had to sit up on the couch just to relax. Sometimes when I could try to relax a rushing feeling would go over my whole body scaring me. It was the holidays so everybody was closed and the ER packed. I got over it and last week while I was making dinner, the weakness came back with the racing and pains and pressures in the chest. I finally broke down and went to the ER. Fearing it was my heart they ran and ECG and took xrays and a heart enzyme test. They concluded that my problem was not coronary related and gave me Antival. I finally took the pills. The next morning I went to my cardiologist for more tests and for a second opinion. My ECG was slightly more abnormal then the one I took a year ago, but my sonogram and stress test was fine. My doctor felt my heart was still ok, although enlarged due to my High Blood Pressure and my weight.

After this I ran out of the pills so I had to go back to my doctor one again (Who I'm sure by now has Hypochondriac on my folder). After having a long talk and telling her my history agreed with the other doctors. She gave me Bupro with the Antivan to take till the Bupro kicks in.

Here is a list of my symptoms...

Heart racing, pounding hard
Palpitations
Light chest pains (Kinda like a knot tightening and releasing)
Pains on the left and right side of the breasts as well as the inner part of the breast and under it.
Chest pressure comes and goes
Pains in neck, back, shoulders, rarely legs and arms.
Weakness of legs and feeling of extreme exhaust
Headaches
Tonight I had no appetite, just refused to eat although I knew I was hungry
Sometimes I wake up in a sweat (I believe it's called night sweats)
Got my first lump in throat which lasted 24 hours.

I also had my first sever panic attack at the ER and it scared the heck out of me.

It seems that everybody thinks this is anxiety, but I still wonder if the doctors are not looking for the right thing.

As I type I have a slight discomfort pain in the right side of my chest and my back and shoulders are killing me (Although this may be due to mother nature paying me her monthly visit today)..

I'll prob be at this forum when I have time, reading more then posting. I hope to learn a lot more about Anxiety and hope it calms me down. I'm tired of being afraid to sleep or breathe..

[getagrip]

Hello,

well, that was a bit much to spit out, but I hope it helped you. I'm new here too and have similar problems, and it certainly felt good to do my "hello world" here !

to your points, concerns ... well, I also have racing heart, I also feel my heart beating at night and wake up with such problems, last night with sweating included. My heart was also checked (this time I didn't have it completely checked like the last time, 4 years ago). WHen it happened back then they did an EKG, ECG, Halter-Monitor, Heart X-Ray, Sonogram, and the only thing they said was not 100% normal is that the first of the 2 beats on the EKG was a bit more flat than it should be ... but that the most important thing is a SINE Wave pattern. So, it seems my heart is ok, but these strange feelings sure make one doubt it !!!

anyway, this most recent case started 2 weeks ago, just after christmas. The last 3 years I've done nothing but work, and came home and worked more, and did not exercise EVER :-((( I woke up with a racing heartbeat and was sighing and yawning and my body was stressed (fatigued). I believed it was either a BURN-OUT (feeling guilty about how I've been treating my body) or something with my heart. I ignored this for 4 days, and then, on a Sunday, my problems were continuing during the day (rather than at night). My wife asked if it was ok for her to visit a friend, and I said "of course" ... after about 30 minutes of being alone I started to panic about my symptoms, and my heart started to race very fast, and I couldn't breath normal. I called Emergency and they got me calm enough to be able to drive there on my own. I had an EKG and it was ok, and my bloodpressure was 140/80, which is not very high, so the doc said I could go. At that time I still felt very tense, and my head was a bit cloudy (maybe due to suffering with this issue 4 days long at that point). I'm still trying to recover from this after 2 weeks. Worse yet, I have a phobia of high places, and I live at 1200 feet ( I know, not high ). I am now in a hotel and affraid to go home, for fear of a repeat incident.

Ok, I rambled here, but this is a shit situation, and I CAN RELATE TO YOU SO WELL !!!! The difference from your situation is that I don't have chest pain or pressure ... but I did have dizziness, which concerns me.

I'm very curious about how your own situation will develop. The first thing that occurs to me regarding your own situation is that you should check if you're breathing normally. Hyperventilation Syndrome can mimic more things than you can possibly imagine. Try checking this out... if I have more ideas I'll let you know :-)

[JavaJoy01]

Thanks for the reply.

I still sit and wonder what else could be wrong, what are the doctors missing or not checking for. I spent most of yesterday crying-Not sure it it's the meds, the panic or my hormones.

I don't understand the heavy feelings, the pain, the rushing feeling, the racing and pounding (Which that seems to have calmed down, not I wish all the aches and pains would go away). My mom keeps telling me that your nerves can really mess with you.

I'm not at the point where I'm scared to leave the house and be around people, but I do spend most of the time frightened about what could be wrong with me. I seem to be at my worst at night after 5:00. I don't even want to eat. I feel like I'm shaking, I get that rushing through my body feeling, I cramp..

For example, right now I feel somewhat ok, except for the weak heavy feeling..

I really don't know what else I can do, I owe the ER big bucks and I'm tired of running to the doctor every other day.

[getagrip]

Hey there JavaJoy,

I know that heavy feeling ... the feeling of getting up in the morning and feeling like you're just a big dead weight, and your legs hardly feel like lifting you up. This is also how I felt the first 2 weeks long ... and I just thought "when will this shit come to an end???"... well, it takes a lot of persistence. The last years I didn't have ANY normal habits in my life ... no regular sleeping patterns, no excercise whatsoever, no regular work hours ... meals at all different times ... so I finally decided it's time to CHANGE ALL THAT !!! The last 3 weeks I've been doing everything RIGHT for a change, in the hopes that it can help me to feel good again. IT SEEMS TO FINALLY BE HELPING !!!

Well, as for your PAINS, I cannot tell you what it is exactly, but in my own case (the last time, 4 years ago) I thought I had heart pains, and there wasn't a single doctor that could help me ... finally I went to a Natural Healing practitioner (not sure if that's the right name for it) ... anyway, he claimed I had an inflamation at the base of my esophogous (basically at the opening to the stomach). This inflamation (so he claimed) was caused by it literally sticking (gluing) to the ribcage. He said that this could cause the pains I was experiencing because there's a nerve that runs down along the esophogous and was clamped-in by the inflamed, shifted organs, and the same nerve travels to other parts of the body, where I was feeling pain.

Hey, the fact that you're worse at night indicates to me that you, like all of us, are more focussed on your issues/problems ... the nighttime is a perfect time for us all to get WRAPPED UP in it ... instead, turn on a great TV program and ENJOY IT :-))) I know that's a hard thought, but I also noticed that when I take my mind off of things it gets a little better. Also, if your nerves can take it, try taking a nice hot shower to relax your muscles ... if the heat makes you worried/nervous try taking a LUKE-WARM shower first, and gradually increase the temperature each time ... and repeat this every night before you go to bed so that your body is more relaxed for sleeping ... this seemed to help me A LOT !

and ... like I said ... practice BREATHING TECHNIQUES !!! WE ALL NEED TO BREATH FROM THE DIAPHRAM (i.e. from the Stomach). We also need to learn to breath SLOW AND DEEP, rather than SHALLOW AND FAST !!! When we are nervous we tend to do this wrong !!! Get a book on overcoming anxiety (I have a couple ... like "Overcoming Anxiety for Dummies"). It first helps you determine which person type you are, and for each type of person there is a different strategy for relieving your stress. If we can master these techniques there is hope to reduce or avoid the MEDS.

Anyway, I hope you are feeling a little better JavaJoy. Best wishes.