Chest pain and anxiety in full circle

[Fireman2244]

Chest hurts and is sore. Like my right side is sore to the touch and appears swollen. Yhe pain is right next to my sternum. It freaks me out. I fear dying on a daily basis and now my health anixety is geared toward my heart. I had an echo done by a cardiologist in December and he said everything looked fine. I don't get why i have these chest pains everyday then for weeks now. Im so scared to leave my family behind. Please anyone help me. What do i do?

[Fireman2244]

My left hurts too, but not as bad. Its freaking me out though. Im sorry to bother you all with this

[Agora1]

Hi Fireman I understand how any kind of chest pain can make our anxiety soar.

However, as long as you have been checked out by your doctor, there are other

reasons that can cause this. GERDS is one of them but yours sounds like it could

be coming from Costochondritis. It is a non life threatening condition that comes

on through stress where the nerve ending between the rib cage get inflamed.

I have had it over the years myself so I know what that pain feels like. The pain can

be sharp, stabbing when touching the areas between the ribs where the nerves are

located.

Warm compresses on the affected part can help immensely. After a while you will

find that relaxing plays just as big a part in ridding yourself of the pain. Putting a

heating pad on your back can bring down the tight muscles around the rib cage.

Check with your doctor to see if this might be a possibility. He may recommend

you address it in a different way. If it's GERDS than that's a different issue. GERDS

can come about by chronic severe stress that allows the gastric acids to back up

into the esophagus causing what seems like chest pain.

I hope you get some comfort in knowing that chest pain (when looked into) doesn't

always mean the heart. Once we focus on heart phobia (which I did) we have to

reprogram our thoughts to a more positive approach. Of course with anxiety, it

doesn't like to be beaten, may just come up with another focal point.

Come to this site as often as you need to. We're here to comfort and understand.

[Isaack]

Hey message me.

[Agora1 in reply to Isaack]

Hey Isaack, haven't seen you on for a while.

Hope you are doing better. xx

[Isaack in reply to Agora1]

Yes. I’m better. Thank God. Anxiety is horrible. How are you doing?

[Agora1]

Hi...yes, costochondritis hurts a lot when touching the area in between the

ribs. Ouch for sure.

[jertzky]

Feel sorry for you suffering.i have same conditions as your 6 weeks ago..I thought i am having a hearth attack..sternum chest pain that gravitate to my left and right chest..I got this symptom when I had a flue and did exercise like pull ups and inflamed my sternum cartilage.also i have notice some sore when i eat gassy food like foods with gluten and dairies.avoid wheats and red meats.I did mild stretching every day till the infamation heald.now I am back to normal.hope this can help.

[marknico in reply to jertzky]

Thnx for the reply at least I`m not alone - it scares the crap out of me and I never felt this bad before taking setraline I`m sure it`s messed up my system - and yes stomach ain`t right and I`ve never suffered with acid reflux before - but its the constant chest pains and yes central chest it`s like all my sternum aches and the shortness of breath worries me to I guess this could be a panick attack due to other pains ? Was you on any meds to help with it ? Cheers Mark

[marknico]

Hi I've had same symptoms chest aches constantly and get shortness of breath as well think it's in the muscles as it hurts to touch and moving agitates it as well. I was on sertaline 50mg for 6 weeks and came off them due to really bad side effects doctor said it would be OK but been off them 3 weeks now and still no better I'm just sick of feeling rough as I have fibromyalgia but since the sertaline this had made me feel 10x worse. Cheers Mark