Heart anxiety

[Kingchris]

Hi my name is Chris Royal I'm 21 years old and I've been dealing with health anxiety for a few years now I've had almost every symptom known to man from sharp chest pains dull chest pains to skipped heart beats in a row now I've had almost every test done I've had multiple EKGs blood test chest x-rays all normal and my doctor has even listen to my heart and said that it sounds beautiful but he sent me for an echo which was normal. But lately this week I haven't been sleeping much at all I will fall asleep and wake up 2 hours thinking that I've been sleeping alot longer than that. And today out of nowhere my heart began to flutter like 4-5 times in a row I checked my pluse and there were pauses is this my stress and lack of sleep and my anxiety causing those skipped hearts beats. Any help please I am so so scared!😣😣

[Agora1]

Hi Kingchris, I know how frightening it can be to feel the flutters and skipped beats. Considering you were checked out by your doctor and found to have no heart issues, I can say it sounds like anxiety. Are you by any chance drinking alcohol or caffeinated beverages? These will feed into the heart irregularities as well as the stress.

Since this has been going on for a few years, do you remember what brought on your Health Anxiety? Realizing where it came from may help you accept the anxiety symptoms. Just a thought.

[Kingchris in reply to Agora1]

Yes it all started I was 16 whenever I took this pretty work supplement which caused me to have panic attack in class. And every since then I've had this fear of something being wrong with me. I'm 21 now and all of my symptoms come from my heart now my mother was diagnosed with a rare birth defect of her heart and had it corrected a few years and oh of course that made my mind of oh no what if thatso what you have! So years go on and I'm losing sleep battling more anxiety and that's when I went to my normal Gp were he performed a stress test and cent me to a cardiologist for a echo and 30 day event monitor which all came back normal. My mother asked her cardiologist if there was any chance that one of her kids could have inherent this disease and he told her absolutely not 0 chance and that did ease my mind for the most part until these random erratic heart beats happen like today just standing in the kitchen and all of the sudden I feel my heart begin to flutter to few times and checked my pulse and pauses in themy and now I'm back to square one... I haven't been getting much sleep this week also could that maybe impact this??

[Agora1 in reply to Kingchris]

Kingchris, I certainly can understand better where you got your heart phobia from. The fact is you have been examined by your doctor as well as a cardiologist and everything looked good. They would certainly have been able to tell if you had what your mom did. That besides your mom checking with her cardiologist regarding the chances of you inheriting the disorder, gives you great odds that you don't have that problem.

Not getting sleep or having it disrupted long term can give you heightened awareness of your anxiety and your body reacts to it. Stress of any kind can give your the irregular beats and yet not be dangerous. The pains you experience in your chest are most likely coming from the tight muscles of your chest wall impinging on some nerves giving you those sharp pains as well as dull. When you get that and you get scared, it sends a rush of adrenaline through your body and gives you the skips and flutters.

Try using some relaxation techniques. I use You Tube and type in Audio Relaxation and Deep Breathing. Listen to one that you can react positively to for about 10-15 min. It will amazingly quiet your heart and your mind.

[Kingchris in reply to Agora1]

I've even gotten the flutters like this whenever I'm calm it's so frightening

[Agora1 in reply to Kingchris]

kIngchris I use to as well. That's because we are never really calm completely. Our nerves are over sensitized, always on alert. There are times my body may jerk forward while I'm trying to relax. It happens. Eventually you will be able to dismiss it by accepting that it is not harmful.

[Kingchris in reply to Agora1]

Yes I hope I can one day... have you ever had this happen??

[Agora1 in reply to Kingchris]

Kingchris, if you mean flutters and skipped beats, then YES. That's how my anxiety started with my being focused on my heart. What turned me around was exercising 5 times a week in water aerobics. Doctor approved. It got rid of the adrenaline causing the heart irregularities

[Kingchris in reply to Agora1]

I used to workout religiously but had to stop because of an injury and hello anxiety is back and worse.

[Agora1 in reply to Kingchris]

It's interesting that you said that Kingchris, because after years of my doing water aerobics, I stopped 5 years ago because of the anxiety and became agoraphobic. Staying in the house and stopping exercise did me in big time as well.

I'm thinking of getting back shortly because it was a natural way of bringing up that endorphin level.

[Contra21 in reply to Kingchris]

Me too when calm no anxiety u still get them or a run of irregular beats,?

[Jaymrene]

That is my life to a T!

[Kingchris]

What is this