Chest Pains

[jmendo97]

I have been experiencing chest pains for a little over a year now and was unaware why. Sometimes they would be extremely painful and sharp and last for several minutes. I ended up convincing myself that something was physiological wrong with my heart, because of how severe and long the pains would last. I ended up going to the ER and waited hours for the doctor to tell me it was my anxiety. And honestly, I just felt angry, and disappointed. I couldn't believe that my anxiety was causing me to have such pain in my chest, and I ended up crying in front of the nurse because I felt like I had wasted my time. I still can't really wrap my head around it.

[Raiinbow08]

I feel like I am going through this same situation right now. I suffer from GERD as well and could not tell if I was having a heart attack or if it was the GERD. I went to my doctor and they did an EKG and she said it was the healthiest picture of a heart she had ever seen. Now I’m just wondering if it is just my anxiety.

[jmendo97 in reply to Raiinbow08]

Yes, the doctors said the same thing about my EKG and lung and chest x-ray. It was completely healthy. The doctor told me that my anxiety was just mimicking the symptoms of a heart attack, and it might be doing the same thing for you. I think thats scary, but now we both know that our hearts are completely fine, its just psychological, which is somewhat comforting but not really.

[Raiinbow08 in reply to jmendo97]

exactly! I think the worst in situations and my mind starts going crazy like what if they misdiagnosed me or something! What if? What if? It sucks! And yes truly scary that it could mimic a heart attack!

[jmendo97 in reply to Raiinbow08]

It's always the "what if's" that just mess everything up. My old therapist used to tell me that whenever my mind would start to go into the "what if's", to take a second, stop and tell yourself about the now's. Example: what if they misdiagnosed me (which is exactly went through my mind as well). In that situation I said to myself... Ok no more what if's... They ran the test, and it showed nothing. I know now in this time that I am healthy, my heart is healthy, my lungs are healthy, I am fine.

Honestly this cycle of "what if's" can be extremely debilitating and I totally undertsand how hard it can be.