Hello all! I'm new... afew questions...

[panicsucks]

Hello all

I'm jason i've been dealing with health anxiety (and other forms of anxiety in recent years) since the age of 9, as well as panic attacks since 2001... the health anxiety comes and goes and at the moment i'm right in the middle of an episode...

I was having a fairly cold shower at the weekend and i put the water over my head and it made me loose my breath (like it does in a cold swimming pool etc) it scared me alot but i realised what it was and got over it...

anxeity however has other plans and now i'm really concerned about my heart, i've had lots of palputations since this event (2 which i was made very aware of & i think im having loads of little ones? im not really sure there not as big as the normal ones but my heart seems to beat like mad twice then its either going very quiet or skipping a beat?) and its scaring the hell out of me, its alot worse when im about to go to sleep (i think this may be because i can concentrate on my heatbeat really well and i get anxious that it might miss a beat and scare me)

i'm 23 years old now... 24 in july i'm about to go on holiday with my girl friend i really dont need this to spoil things :( i've been dealing with these feeling for so long to the point where i've felt like my chest is in so much pain for about 4 mins im going to have a heart attack (which again scared the hell out of me)

i went to the doctors yesterday in desperation to put my mind at ease (iv kinda got the point that its mind over matter and the more i worry the more likely the palputations will get worse??(am i right in sayingthis?) )anyways she listened to my heart, all fine, i went on a ECG again all fine apart from she said my heart was going like mad ( probably due to me being extremely scared of negitive results....)

i also had and this is one thing that scares me alot high blood pressure 169 SBP & 87 DBP im probably about 1 to 2 stones overwieght (which im doing 30 mns of exercise a day since yesterday to tackle)

i just really need some reassurance... i'm so sick of living this way i know theres no easy cure but what can i do to help myself? what can i do to also lower the amount of palputations i get? thats the main problem at the moment

the doctor also gave me beta blockers bisoprolol fumarate 2.5mg i must admit i took one yesterday and it did make me feel less anxious however im not sure ifthats just a placebo or actually it working.. iv never been on drugs for my anxiety but im getting desperate now!

i really need help :(

[Charmbracelet81]

Jason-I totally understand what you are going through. I have the health anxiety as well and it holds me back from doing things or fully enjoying the things I do do. I have been in cognitive behavioral therapy for almost a year, no medication, and it has worked very well for me. I am venturing out more and rationalizing the catastrophic thoughts I get about my health, especially my heart. It has been and is my main focus. I have been to the cardiologist several times and have had all the tests, I have "benign ectopic heartbeats." So I have no disease or anything, my heart just skips around alot and flutters. Even the caridologist says it's from anxiety. It is hard to think that something psychological could cause such scary bodily reactions that only make us more anxious. Just last night I was trying to fall asleep and I could hear my heartbeat in my ear and it was pounding, then when I really tried to ignore it and was close to falling asleep it skipped 2 times in a row and it scared the heck out of me! I find that sleeping on my left side seems to make them worse. Do you find that to be true?

[panicsucks]

hey Charmbracelet81 and thanks for your reply

funnily enough yes i do get it more on my sides.... on my back is fine i havn't had any palputations all day things are improving now but thanks to the early mornings of anxious wakes im really tired and i think im having side effects of the beta blockers im feeling quite spaced out at the moment, i just cant win :(

they doctor asked me if i wanted a 24 hour ECG but then she also said the ecg i just did was fine so there was no need to worry myself for 24 hours + waiting for results

every time i see palputations and anxiety in the same place it instantly leads to the same result: heart is perfectly fine... its just the anxiety!!!

i wish i could get this in my head :?

[Charmbracelet81]

My therapist gave me something called a "coping card." It's simply an index card and on one side I wrote my recurring thought of "I have heart disease or something serious with my heart & will die at any moment from it." Then on the other side it says the fact straight from my cardiology report, "I have no structural heart disease or dysrythmia." So I use this card when I am nervous about my heart and having these thoughts, and it does help to see the FACT that is soooo different from MY interpretation of my sensations.

[panicsucks]

yea that does sound quite handy, im getting abit better with it all now i seem to have highs and lows however im still worried about my heart i keep searching online for no real reason i have not had a palputation now for about a week and before that they are extremely rare (once every 2 months or so?) but this still doesn't stop me worrying about it even though i know im ok i had an ECG & doctor listen to my heart and if i had any problems they would of spotted it

i keep wakeing at 7am, dead on 7am every morning becuase im anxious, its like a war, all day i spend sorting my head out then i go to sleep and bang, im bad again next morning, im going on holiday next week and i really don't want this over my head!

does anyone know how i can break this cycle? and ultimately just stop worrying over this? :cry: