Chest problems

[stillfighting07]

I think I have been here before, but people probaly don't remember me, anyway my name is nancy and I have anxiety and OCD, depression, Panic attacks and have suffered since I was a young child, anyway I have been having this feeling like something is sitting on my chest...I had a ekg done and everything looked fine...I just have been reading some post and I don't see anything about anyone having this feeling...do any of you get the feeling of something sitting on your chest?

[kdanielle]

hmm..i dont know..i have anxiety attacks and my chest either has sharp pains every now and then..and sometimes i have tightness in my chest..but thats basically it with my chest

[juliana]

Hi stillfighting.

I think I know that feeling you're talking about. It's good that you got an EKG just to be safe, but it sounds like anxiety. Does that feeling that something is sitting on your chest make it hard for you to breathe deeply? Do you feel like there's a heavy weight there that makes it hard to take a full breath? If that's what it feels like, I'm familiar with it. Anxiety has so many physical manifestations. Subconsciously tightening and clenching of muscles -- including the muslces in your chest -- is one of them.

I also get symptoms that I haven't read about anyone else here experiencing, but I know they're anxiety. I get a feeling like every single nerve in my body is humming. I also sometimes feel like everything inside me is shaking -- even though I'm not shaking on the outside. That happens most often when I'm lying in bed...

And I still sometimes get that feeling that someone is sitting on my chest. That happens to me sometimes in bed too. It started when I was a little girl. Night-time tended to be the time when I worried most. To add to my anxiety, an elderly relative had told me a Newfoundland legend about The Hag who would come to you at night and sit on your chest and make it impossible for you to breathe. So, I thought that's what was happening to me. It turns out it was just anxiety, though.

Yoga helps me to loosen up. It doesn't work right away, but I have found that practising on a regular basis keeps my muscles looser. It has also taught me some very helpful breathing techniques.

Something a singing coach taught me years ago has helped me too. To help me get proper breath control for singing, she used to make me lie on the floor (flat on my back) and sing. I know it sounds silly, but try it. You'll probably find it very hard to breathe, but stick with it. Lie there for a while and sing a song. You will eventually find that you will start to breathe properly -- from your diaphraghm instead of your chest. This position forces you to breathe that way. Once you get used to deep breathing from you diaphragm, you might find that chest tightness lessens. It's the anxiety of not being able to breathe that contributes to that chest tightness. It's a vicious circle. You're anxious, your chest gets tight which makes it harder to breathe, so the anxiety makes your chest tighter, etc. Learning to breathe properly and deeply can lessen this physical manifestation of your anxiety and calm you down.

P.S. I had a mild heart attack in the summer (caused by a blood clot). I'm fine now, but I learned something from that experience. Most women don't know that female symptoms of heart attack tend to be different from men's. While a man may get a tightness in his chest and pain in his left arm, women usually don't. So, that should lessen your fear of chest tightness a bit. You're smart to get tests done and rule out any dangerous physical conditions, though. Chest heaviness and tightness is much less common in women having cardiac problems. It can be a symptom, but not as often as in men. If it does happen to women, it tends to be a very isolated pain right between the breasts. There are a lot of different symptoms for women. I think every women should do some research and read up about the symptoms and be informed. I didn't even know I had a heart attack until I went to the doctor and told her my symptoms the next day. When it happened to me, I just got a sudden whooshing feeling in my head, felt very disoriented, nauseous and hot, and got a sudden intense pain in my neck which radiated upwards quickly and then settled in all my teeth and my jaw. I had never felt like that before. At the time I thought it was anxiety, but that was a heart attack. I had no chest pain at all.

[stillfighting07]

yea that is the feeling I get, like I have a weight sitting on my chest and sometimes I cannot breathe properly...about the breathing thing, I read some stuff about it and what it told me to do so I have been practicing it a bit when I have time...thanks for your replies....so since you had a mild heart attack do they think it was the stress? Just wondering.

[juliana]

I don't think it was the stress that caused the heart attack. I wasn't going through a particularly stressful period at the time. My panic attacks had been at bay for a while. My doctor told me it was probably just a little blood clot -- not stress related. She just had me take baby aspirin for a while to make sure it was gone... and she has told me that now I know the warning signs, I just have to make sure I call 911 if I ever feel that way again. It was very, very mild, though. It's not like I came close to dying or anything and it didn't damage my heart. My EKGs are fine.

I have passed out from stress before, but my doctor has told me that the heart can withstand a LOT of stress and anxiety. Even those times when we feel like our hearts are pounding out of our chests and we can't breathe -- that's pretty mild stuff for something as strong as the heart muscle. So, I think that's comforting news.

[stillfighting07]

well i'm glad everything is good for you now...and yes it is comforting news to know our hearts are strong..i'm just trying to make it through anxiety, it seems like I will live with this forever, I have been through therapy many times and it still affects my life greatly. I have a 11 month old baby to take care of everyday and just me feeling like this makes me sad because sometimes I don't feel like playing but I know I have too keep a smile and keep on living my life.