My anxiety

[Jmurray0017]

Hello I am a 23 year old male and have had anxiety problems for over 2 years now and they are just getting worse.it's not just random attacks but almost constant worry or fear primarily of having a heart attack. I have been to the er several times and always have good blood work, ekgs, xrays, and have even had a heart cath. I am obsessed with checking my blood pressure and worry even when it's just a little high and always checking my pulse. I have chest discomfort every night some times sudden sharp pains and sometimes constant dull pains. Sometimes they are accompanied by shortness of breath and other times feeling like I'm going to pass out. I still worry that I may have a heart problem even after all my good test and would say that having a heart attack is my worst fear in the world. I play basketball once a week and am outdoors climbing hills quite frequently and am pretty good shape. All my anxiety started back over two years ago when I lost my best friend to a car crash and hav had several stressful situations since. I am so tired of worrying and always catch myself wishing I was "normal" and didn't have this constant anxious feeling. I have just rambled on now but this is the first time I have posted to a thread and I have read several and they do help so I was wondering if anyone could relate to me exactly.

[Chiliphil1]

Hello, I wanted to comment because I have pretty much the same problem, I have had chest pains, and the feeling that I could not breathe and also a constant fear that I was either having or going to have a heart attack, I was even afraid to do anything physical because I figured that would bring it on. I went to a doctor who said its not your heart, stop worrying but of course that did not help! Later I went to the er and had the bloodwork, ekg, and so on, but as you did all was normal. I felt a little better about it after that, but the fear did not completely go away and I still worried. I had a few weeks where I did not have the pain and I was happy, but a couple weeks ago it started back, most people will tell you not to goggles things because that will make you worry more, which I agree with however in this case I found a condition known as costocondritis, or something similar to that, basically it's chest wall pain that happens just at the left center of your chest right where the ribs meet the breast bone, sometimes it's dull others its sharp, and sometimes it hurts through to my back and even my left shoulder. I do not know if I have this condition or not, but I know that my heart is fine, so if the pain comes I tell myself worst case scenario its that, which helps me. Another thing that makes me feel better is this, if it were a heart condition, or angina or something similar when I am doing a physical activity it would get worse, but it doesn't I can do some exercise and have my heart over 150bpm and I'm fine, if something was wrong with my heart it would not do that! Anyway long story short, I have the same thing and have learned tat it is anxiety! This problem is also a self sustaining problem, in other words you get it from anxiety, then it gives you anxiety and on and on it goes. The biggest thing is to train your mind to realize it's not a heart problem, what I do is when the pain happens tell myself, "oh, there's that pain again that sucks" or " there goes that chest wall pain again it will stop in a minute" don't allow the thought of a heart problem into your mind. The doctors know what they are doing, if they tested you and feel that all is good then it is, stop worrying about it! Hope this helps by letting you know you are not alone. Best of luck!

[Chiliphil1]

I forgot. To mention that I also had the pulse rate and blood pressure obsession too, and you will drive yourself nuts! You have to understand that your pulse rate changes constantly as does your blood pressure, so variances are normal, especially with the anxiety which will raise both! Also I have the constant anxiety as well, not that I'm nervous or scared all the time but just never at ease, the only time I have attacks is when I think too much about the pain, so that's why I had to just let it go and learn to move my mind in another direction.