Constant health anxiety

[Gmfc]

Hi all, I’ve been designing with pretty much constant health anxiety for over a year now. Mostly focuses on my heart. I’ve had number ekgs blood tests and echo about a month ago everything comes up clear. I’m 29 years old. The doctors have disgnosised it muscle/cartilage inflammation. I’m always thinking I’m having a heart attack or something more serious. Does anyone else have this?

[Gmfc]

****dealing****

Not designing.

[Ceelos81]

You get heart palpitations? Like pvc/pac?

[destinymichelle]

I go through this 24/7 which then triggers an anxiety attack.

[Gmfc]

Yes I get palpitations sometimes which of course makes me panic. I’m so tired of feeling like this.

[Pamdon81]

Yes, this is what caused my anxiety to get worse! I cope a lot better now

[Trajikk]

I’ve been dealing with this for around 5 months or so.. it honestly drives me insane because I don’t understand how my the left side of my chest can be in what I’d describe as mild pain and I have heart palpitations which usually consist of my heart feeling like it’s beating hard and I can feel it easily. How all of that can be anxiety related. And yet all the tests I have taken were “normal”

[Gmfc]

It’s so frustrating. It’s not normal. I feel like doctors brush a lot of stuff off as “oh it’s just anxiety”

[kelm123]

The sooner you decide to trust the doctors, the sooner you'll begin to recover. I was in this exact position for over a year. Your fear is creating a cycle. Your heart is sensitive because of the constant surge of stress chemicals that your body is releasing in response to your fear. Stopping the cycle is the hardest thing I've ever done, because the progress is slow. You have to retrain your mind. Mindfulness helps me. I bet you think about your heart all the time. Try picking a small, short activity like folding laundry. While folding concentrate on describing how the clothes feel, smell, look, and notice all of the physical things around you in the same way. You may only be able to do it for 5 min, but you'll see that you can do it longer as time goes on. You'll give your mind a break from fear. Praying for you. I know this feels like such an impossible battle, but you can overcome.

[Gmfc in reply to kelm123]

Thank you. I know you are right. It’s hard to get over.

[Kariben]

Yep! I have dealt with this exact fear for over 20 years. Started with my first panic attack in my early 20’s. I have a cardiologist who gives me yearly pep talks — as he calls them. I have had tons of different test, and all came back perfect. It is my anxiety. My heart skips beats or races. Sometimes it is a heavy pressure in my chest. My cardiologist says I am so in tune with and focused on my heart that I notice things that most people have, but don’t ever feel. I have had to learn to trust my doctors (still a struggle sometimes). Also, my cardiologist gave me some good advice. He said to think of a broken leg. It hurts, right? But if you try to walk on it... it hurts so much more. The heart is the same. If there is a problem with your heart, then it will hurt more of you put any type of exertion on it. He said that when I feel the pain, pressure, etc. to get up and walk around. If it hurts a lot more, then MAYBE a cause for concern. Also I keep a list of all of heart tests with dates that I have had done. Then I read it when my heart anxiety is up. Honestly, sometimes my anxiety gets the best of me and I have to go into my cardiologist early than planned and he talks me off the ledge. Find a cardiologist or doctor that will listen and make sure that they know you might need some reassurance every once in a while. May you be blessed and keep fighting the fear. It gets better!