Health Anxiety problems

[Shadowcat]

I am 16, and recently I have begun having horrible fears that I'm having a heart attack. It feels hard to breath a lot of the time and I have occasional chest pain. I am also occasionally lightheaded. I know these are all things anxiety can do to you, but it just doesn't stop me from thinking what if I am having a heart attack. Please help, I'm 16 and I really don't want to die.

[Kirk]

At 16 your chances of having a heart attack are just about impossible.

[Shadowcat]

Thanks. That helps more than you probably realize.

[Shadowcat]

The EMTs said I was fine but the anxiety and everything makes it hard to believe them.

[Kirk]

Anxiety can produce some pretty bad physical symptoms which can terrify you. I hope you feel better soon. Try to remember you have your whole life ahead of
you to enjoy.

[Kirk]

I myself have had some pretty bad health anxiety symptoms.

[codedpeace]

Go to Youtube and type in Chest Pain in Anxiety & Panic Attacks by Charles Linden ( i don't have enough posts to post links yet -_-)

I found this video to help calm me down. I am in a similar boat you are in. I get a tenderness in my ribs and my mind goes to Heart Attack and panic almost too instantly. The key is to remind yourself that there are countless non-heart related reason to have soreness or tightness in your chest and that anxiety commonly makes us think that we are suffering a heart attack when we are not in any threatening danger at all.

The speaker in the video describes encountering lots of individuals suffering from anxiety and complaining of heart pain or chest pressure and he says none of them had a serious illness or died. it's the anxiety feeding itself and wreaking havoc inside your mind more than anything.

[MainerMikeBrown]

Shadowcat, you don't want to fear having a heart attack only to find out that you had nothing to worry about. Fearing something that's unlikely to happen is a waste of time, as you only live once.

[lemonspark]

Hi Shadowcat, like a few other members here have said, the chances of you having a heart attack at your age is slim to none. What you're describing sounds more like an anxiety attack.