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I started having strange chest pain around 4pm today, which of course led to a flight/fight response in the middle of Target, so I left my cart and booked it to my car. (I struggle with health anxiety like you wouldn’t believe.) I initially came on this forum for ALS fears, but now that has passed and I have moved onto a heart attack. Unfortunately I know offhand the symptoms of a heart attack, and naturally I have them all. Pain in my arms, back and jaw. Nausea, lightheaded, tight throat with pain radiating up to my ears. I am trying to convince myself I am manifesting this all, but a little voice inside my head keeps warning me that just maybe I have put too much stress on my heart with all my ALS fears, that it’s finally screaming for help?!! What should I do? Should I go to the ER just to make sure? I am so terrified. Help!

Today was a very bad day. Let me preface this by saying I'm having a very unsuccessful time quitting smoking. I've done it before but I picked it up again about six months ago and it's been hard to quit. I did a stupid thing and I fished a pack I'd tossed out of the trash can (gross, I know) and smoked a few. Now I've got a sore throat and I'm convinced I've basically killed my self. Whether that's what kicked off today's panic attack, my first in years, I don't know, but I had a BAD one. Totally convinced I was having a heart attack. Had to drive home from work in a state I can't even describe but I just KNEW I was gonna get in a wreck or just stop in the middle of the highway or do something crazy or something terrible was going to happen. I don't even know. Well, now that my heart attack fears have calmed down I'm now certain I put salmonella in my lungs and throat and will be dead soon. I dont even even know how to chill this one out. Also: long time reader, first time poster. Hi!

Hi, First time posting. Just joined. I'm now so irritated with myself and my constant fears that I specifically looked for an anxiety forum. Earlier this evening I concluded that I was either going to die very soon of a heart attack, OR, I was fast approaching mental illness. Neither is an attractive prospect. Objectively speaking, the likelihood is that neither is true. But the reality is that my thoughts tell me these are the only two possibilities for me. For about two weeks, I firmly believed I was soon going to have a stroke and die. I get a lot of headaches and have regular migraines and also lots of minor weird sensations in my brain/head - pressures, engulfing feelings, slight dizziness sometimes. After being tortured by these thoughts and losing sleep and becoming exhausted I gave myself a really good telling off. Somehow... that worked and my anxiety that I was about to die from a brain aneurysm or stroke faded and disappeared! I got one really good night's sleep and felt transformed and elated. It was bliss. (Is this how normal people live all the time? They close their eyes at night and actually, honest to God GO TO SLEEP peacefully and wake up eight hours later? Who does that? Who has this incredible skill?). But, very disappointingly, the next night I became convinced I was going to have a heart attack. I was gutted. Why do I think this? Well, because I get chest spasms in the heart area every day, several times per day and have done for years, but that night I got a bad spasm and then a lingering dull ache in my shoulder and collar bone afterwards. I read on the news today that cases of sudden death by heart attack are very frequently misdiagnosed (people sent home with paracetamol/told they're having a panic attack etc) and that women in particular are much more likely to be misdiagnosed than men. The case followed a woman who had a heart attack who was 49 and told to go home and take a paracetamol. That's only two years older than me. I DREAD switching the light out at night because as soon as I lie down on that bed and try to go to sleep, the hideous, terrifying thoughts of sudden death (my children left in agony with grief etc etc) come rushing into my head and PLAGUE me. Will I be cold to the touch when they find me? Will they cry over my dead body? These crazy thoughts are driving me crazy. I'm sick of it. I've had enough. I'm angry now. Logically, I know it's unlikely that I'm about to die of a heart attack (I eat healthily, exercise regularly, and there's no family history)... but logic has nothing to do with anxiety. The thoughts still come and torment me. I genuinely feel I might die tonight. Last night. Tomorrow night. It's horrible. I sometimes sit up in a panic and switch my phone on for some distraction. I sometimes frantically feel for a pulse because I think my heart has stopped. But I'm exhausted and want to sleep. Got to get the kids up for school in the morning. I'm getting worse as I get older, not better. I think about my death during the day. I want to write a will. I imagine how I will suffer and how my children will find me. I've taught them how to make a call on my mobile phone for that time when they'll need to dial 999 to report that I'm dying or dead. It's ridiculous and incredibly intrusive. I love life! I want to enjoy it... and most of all I want to sleep and be free of the terror of instant death by heart attack or stroke - I've done my time worrying about having cancer. That battle is temporarily won. I have no symptoms that my brain could twist and convince me that I have the disease. A mole has been removed. The trouble is, my worries about illnesses and dying aren't baseless. I've recently been diagnosed with Crest Syndrome. And as I already mentioned I have frequent headaches and migraines, pains, aches, chest spasms, and weird brain sensations. When I get ill I seem to suffer much worse than anyone else, for longer. A cold will be incredibly heavy and thick, and will last three weeks and end up in sinusitis or an upper respiratory tract infection. My IBS will cause a thrombosed hemorrhoid which will eventually cause perineal thrush. SIGH. I guess my question is, I've had enough of all this crushing anxiety (and of course I wish all my actual symptoms would go away!). I have a doctor's appointment two weeks from now. What should I say? Is there any medication for anxiety like this? How can hideous thoughts be controlled by medication? I'd rather just tell myself to SHUT UP - but it's impossible when you have physical symptoms (chest spasms). Because your worries are then not groundless. Should I take medication at all or is it just a slippery slope? What about side effects/addiction? What the hell are my chest spasms?! Ditto brain sensations? SIGH. Thanks for "listening." :*-(

Hello all, I've been dealing with anxiety issues for the last 8 months. I had a full panel of test ran back in February and was told I was fine. However, I completely stopped working out because thats when everything started. It seems like my heart palpitations come and go. I can be watching a movie, laying down, walking up the stairs or driving (I have terrible driving anxiety). For the last two months my left chest seems to ache or feel like its being squeezed when I get my heart rate up to a certain level, or if I try to work out. I never in my life had palpitations working out. Now I can't go walking or anything! I could talk to someone and the slightest bid of nerves and my heart flutters. I just shampooed my hair in the shower and started getting palpitations. I feel like my body is registering any type of exertion as stress. Is this normal? Could it be more?? I had a 24hour monitored on yesterday and a stress test today. All were fine. While they were hooking me up, my heart was jumping irregular and they were able to catch in on the screen. I was fine on the treadmill. However, once my heart rate started to slow down, my heart was jumping all over the place again. I don't know if it was because I was thinking about my heart jumping around because my heart rate was so high or what. So as of right now, I have the dull achy feeling in my chest on the left side. I don't know if its anxiety or my heart is really stressed to the max. I keep thinking about my cousin who is only 40 and needs a heart transplant all because she was stressed (ex police officer with a lot of family issues). She also had anxiety. She is not a constant thought, but every time I have heart palpitations, I just try and relax to keep them from happening, but I get so flustered. I know that palpitations are normal, and I can deal with that. I used to get them before I started dealing with anxiety. What I can't handle is the amount of time its happening and the cause.. simple things like shampooing my hair or cutting a frozen piece of meat or any little type of exertion. I'm only 32, don't smoke, don't drink, don't drink sodas, eat extremely healthy, no caffiene, etc. Maybe Its hormone related? Has anyone else dealt with heart palpitations and achiness from mild exertion???