Worrying about heart

[Momof4]

Hello how is everyone I must say I have been better these past couple days have been awful!! Well I'm already diagnosed with anxiety and depression and I'm on Zoloft for that. The last time I had Any issues was about four months ago when I just gave birth to my son and fell into postpartum depression. Everything was going really well then a few days ago I started feeling chest pains which I'm pretty sure was from gas but my anxiety kicked right in from there. Ever since I have been worrying constantly that I'm going to have a heart attack or that I have some other serious illness. I have no other symptoms at all but I can't get it off my mind even when I'm not experiencing any pains I think about if it's going to happen so much that here it comes. It's the first thing I think of when I wake up and it continues on all day I just can't seem to shake it out my mind

[fortizboriqua]

Hello how is everyone I must say I have been better these past couple days have been awful!! Well I'm already diagnosed with anxiety and depression and I'm on Zoloft for that. The last time I had Any issues was about four months ago when I just gave birth to my son and fell into postpartum depression. Everything was going really well then a few days ago I started feeling chest pains which I'm pretty sure was from gas but my anxiety kicked right in from there. Ever since I have been worrying constantly that I'm going to have a heart attack or that I have some other serious illness. I have no other symptoms at all but I can't get it off my mind even when I'm not experiencing any pains I think about if it's going to happen so much that here it comes. It's the first thing I think of when I wake up and it continues on all day I just can't seem to shake it out my mind

Go to the previous page and read what I wrote. I wrote a long summary about heart palpitations. I hope it works for you.

[JPatterson]

I was diagnosed with Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia about 3 years ago. The symptom that you are referring to is called heart palpitations (HP). Heart palpitations is one of the most common symptoms when it comes to panic and anxiety disorder. It is also one of the most feared. I was in and out of the hospital. I too feared heart palpitations. But, what I am about to fill you in on will hopefully ease your fear of heart palpitations as it did for me. Your heart is one of the strongest muscles in your body. It can handle a lot more than you can imagine. A regular heart beats about 60 to 100 beats per minute (BPM). When you exercise it can jump to 200 bpm in a lot of cases especially for those whom are out of shape. In the beginning when I got (HP) I thought I was having a heart attack. And it would scare the living daylights out of me. It wasn't until I started doing these breathing exercises that required me to take my own pulse did I realize that my HP wasn't what I thought it was. First of all lets start with heart attack. The following are the symptoms:

Most Common Symptoms

The most common warning symptoms of a heart attack for both men and women are:

Chest pain or discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center or left side of the chest. The discomfort usually lasts for more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back. It can feel like pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain. It also can feel like heartburn or indigestion. The feeling can be mild or severe.
Upper body discomfort. You may feel pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, shoulders, neck, jaw, or upper part of the stomach (above the belly button).
Shortness of breath. This may be your only symptom, or it may occur before or along with chest pain or discomfort. It can occur when you are resting or doing a little bit of physical activity.



Other Common Signs and Symptoms

Pay attention to these other possible symptoms of a heart attack:

Breaking out in a cold sweat
Feeling unusually tired for no reason, sometimes for days (especially if you are a woman)
Nausea (feeling sick to the stomach) and vomiting
Light-headedness or sudden dizziness
Any sudden, new symptoms or a change in the pattern of symptoms you already have (for example, if your symptoms become stronger or last longer than usual)

So as you can see there are a lot more symptoms to having a heart attack then an accelerated heart beat. So now lets go back to taking my pulse and how it helped me lose fear of HP. I would take my pulse for 30 seconds and multiply the amount of heart beats by 2 and that would give me my BPM. After learning how to take my pulse I came up with idea of checking my pulse while having heart palpitations to measure how hard my heart was actually beating. And to my surprise the first time I did that I found that my BPM was well below 100. Im talking somewhere in the range of about 75 BPM. I found that my heartbeat only increased slightly from my norm. I would check my BPM every time I would have HP after that day and every time I got the same results. Ultimately, it helped me lose fear of HP because my heart was beating normal. It got to the point when HP came on I would laugh at it because I knew it was all an illusion of having a heart attack. It slowly started to disappear until it finally went away. When you have anxiety and panic disorder the thing that fuels it is fear of the symptoms. When you fear the symptoms, the symptoms get worse. So when HP comes on your initial reaction is fear. Because you think you're having a heart attack. Once HP comes on try to ignore it. And if you do it will go away almost as quickly as it came. Lastly, lets talk about what HP really is. Being that I knew that my heart was beating normal i was baffled as to why I was feeling that my heart was about to jump out of my chest. When you get panic disorder one of the things that happen is your nervous system becomes overly sensitive. I found that lights were brighter, dishes clanging made me cover my ears because it seemed like it was so much louder, I even felt my boxer briefs pulling on the hair on my legs to the point it became uncomfortable. Once I realized that my nervous system was overly sensitive it explained my HP. I was feeling my heart beat normal but I felt it easily because I was sensitive to almost every sensation in my body. I hope that this helps all who read. And know that you can actually beat panic and anxiety because I am living proof that you can. Remember that there is hope. There are 2 things that you need to do. The first is accept what you have. The second is to lose fear of the symptoms. The most important for me was I trusted God.

I don't think this is helpful. All the heart attack symptoms you outlined can all be felt during a panic attack and worrying about your heart. My heart palpitations are not just a feeling of a sped up heart rate but a feeling like my heart has skipped a beat.

[Estelle2008]

Tight chest sensation - check
Pains in left arm, chest, abdomen, jaw and neck - check
Nausia - check
Cold sweat - check
Tiredness - check

The only thing going for me is that my blood pressure is within normal boundaries. Oh, a new symptom for me: lack of appetite. Can all of these symptoms also be anxiety?

Anyway, I'm going to the doctors tomorrow and will insist on a thorough check up. Hopefully I can keep my anxiety about it in check 'till then!

I just wondered how you got rid of these feelings when they come on? I have been under quite a bit of stress lately and today my brothers and I got great news and our fathers farm/house finally closed! This has been a very long process and I thought I was handling it well, it was suppose to close sept.30/15 then the date changed to Oct.16/15 and then today it happened! I should be happy and thinking about what I am going to do with my portion of the money and instead I have a weird pain in my upper arm and a few palpitations! Now I am 4 hours later and I still have my weird pain in my upper arm. I have a bad case of health anxiety, I worry every single time I have a weird sensation! My left hand on the heel part of it is also tingling, been most of the day.

[Aly1506]

If you think it will help, get checked out by a doctor, but I have to say, I experience all those things as I have health anxiety too. Have you tried mindful breathing exercises? I also find that if I'm able to do something that gets my mind off it that can help- just because I can tell myself layer if something was really wrong my heart wouldn't 'care' I was distracted

[Kixxi]

If you think it will help, get checked out by a doctor, but I have to say, I experience all those things as I have health anxiety too. Have you tried mindful breathing exercises? I also find that if I'm able to do something that gets my mind off it that can help- just because I can tell myself layer if something was really wrong my heart wouldn't 'care' I was distracted

Same here.

[ad0885]

Your definitely not alone on this one.
I've forgotten how many Heart Attacks I've thought I was having. O_o

Same here. I've been dealing with this for about 4-5 years now. This is the only type of anxiety I have is health or fear of how my hearts beating constantly. I never had any problem with anxiety until I hit 25 years old and then I started noticing myself beginning to have panic attacks. I thought I was the only one too though I haven't met anyone with this problem until I fell upon this thread.

[sazco]

Same here. I've been dealing with this for about 4-5 years now. This is the only type of anxiety I have is health or fear of how my hearts beating constantly. I never had any problem with anxiety until I hit 25 years old and then I started noticing myself beginning to have panic attacks. I thought I was the only one too though I haven't met anyone with this problem until I fell upon this thread.

You gotta figure out if it's your diet, your heart, or anxiety... or all three. One can affect the other pretty easily.

[Umi]

it seems like allot of people think of that there is something with their heart.
its just probably our mind thats in this continous stress mode and it makes your heart pound faster.
i think you need to find a distraction, maybe playing some games?

[Kirk]

My wife once went to the ER with chest discomfort and nausea with some vomiting. It turned out to be GI related. Stress can also
cause many heart related symptoms.