Covid anxiety or heart attack

[Guzman13]

Lately, everyone I’m working with is getting infected with covid. I’m a phlebotomist and i’m constantly interacting with people. I just found out my coworker has covid and I did her nasal swab. We were outside, both wearing masks, and she did not cough or sneeze as I was doing it. We had no further contact after that.

After doing her test, I feel like I started feeling intense anxiety about contracting covid myself. I keep watching the news and about how everyones dying and I keep reading about death feeling like my death is also approaching. As of yesterday, my legs and arms suddenly feel heavy for moments at a time.

I also got a really bad chest pain yesterday at work after getting really angry at the doctor I work for. It was right on the center and it lasted about 5 minutes. The more I felt the pain, the more I started to panic. As soon as I calmed down, the chest pain went away. Of course, my anxiety has me thinking about the pain and how it could’ve been a heart attack and I should probably be at the hospital making sure it’s not one. As of today, I have the pains and they come and go. The more I think about the pain, I start feeling it in my right shoulder and my upper back because that’s where you get heart attack pains. I don’t have any other symptoms though like feeling out of breath or any of that. I’m still super scared. As i’m writing this, i’m feeling the same pain in the center of my chest and upper left arm just coming and going in waves of every 5 seconds. I don’t know what to do and i’m terrified of going to the hospital and actually getting covid or getting turned away for going all the time thinking i’m having a heart attack for the 100th time.

My mind is telling me is this covid or am I really having a heart attack.

I’m 22 and have constantly gotten my heart and lungs checked because of my thousand types of chest pains i’ve ever gotten.

[Hidden]

Hello

You both had masks on so as for covid you should be fine people taking people's tests every day at centers they are covered up and they are not catching it so neither should you plus you don't even know she has it anyway

Covid frightens me and I keep watching the news , people tell me to stop it , look once a day if I have to and no more at the most to keep my anxiety levels down , I have to admit I struggle to resist but they are right and sometimes by us including me not taking good advice end's up making us our own worst enemies !

As for the pains , as you know I had a heart attack which I am still struggling with and all I can say is I am agoraphobic so getting me out the house is a miracle and even more now covid is out there , I have HA to and in my head I have had everything , but the day I had my heart attack deep down I knew something was not right and as much as I was petrified to get to the Hospital I knew I needed to go this time it was not HA

I think even people with HA or I know this is the case for me I am always in a panic that this and the other is wrong but somewhere even though it feels so real we know when it is not right , over the years I have had a few things go wrong and something kicks in that you do actually know this is not my HA and all I can say if you get that gut feeling act on it despite the fear or how many times you have been with something but if not then chances are anxiety is playing up !

Take care x

[Miniwheats]

Hi there. I understand your covid fear and your need to get repeated reassurance about a medical issue. I am still navigating my covid fear and learning how to better deal with health scares and I've come a long way. May I recommend an excellent book I recently finished reading? It's called "Needing to Know for Sure" by M. N. Seif and S. M. Winston. It helped reduce my fear of contracting covid19 in indoor spaces such that I was able to go to the bank for an extended meeting that took place in a small office. No way in heck I would have done that prior to reading this book. It teaches you how to better tolerate uncertainty so that you are not constantly seeking reassurance and having that awful back and forth debate in your head about whether or not you should be taking just that one more action that you think will finally lead to a resolution of your problem or whether you should be leaving the problem alone. It's partly about understanding your triggers and learning that you're already tolerating uncertainty in hundreds of other areas of your life without even realizing it - they're just not at the forefront of your attention because you're not thinking about them. Our thoughts, because they feel "true", can convince us that there is an "emergency" where no real emergency actually exists and this book teaches you how to distinguish between the two. I've read alot of material on anxiety but these authors have framed aspects of it in a way that is unique from anything I've read before and I think you too will find it quite helpful.

[Starie]

Hi, it’s awful feeling like that. I am a manager of a care provider and suffering anxiety and working so closely with people is hard with covid. I am forever thinking what if I get it and then you think your get it going symptoms it’s horrible.

Don’t watch the news, since the first wave I’ve switched off from watching the news. Obviously in my job everything at the moment is covid related so when I get home I don’t watch the news or even read articles etc. I know on your job it will be people talking about it all day so try and have some time away from it.

You and your colleagues was outside in fresh air both with masks and PPE so the transmission from here to you would be very very low. There are lots of people who swab people with covid and they are ok so try not to get so worked up I know that is easier said than done. The jobs we do don’t help in situations like these, but remember your doing an excellent job in helping people and try and find some time for yourself xx

[Hb2003]

I went to the cardiologist for chest pain what you might be having is Costochondritis