Health Anxiety - Hypochondria - Obsessed Getting A Heart Attack
May 28, 2016
I'm 23 yo with pretty bad OCD/anxiety and a whole lot of hypochondria. It's getting out of control. I've been obsessed with my heart for weeks now because it's always beating fast. And then of course I'll get the chest pain. And then I'll get pains in my arms and what I think are pains in my jaw which then makes me freakout and think I'm having a heart attack.... At 23 years old.
I've had a complete blood count test done to check my thyroid (mom has issues with hers) and everything came back perfect my cholesterol my triglycerides everything. Blood pressure is always perfect I eat healthy I've never smoked I could lose a good 5 lbs but I'm not overweight etc. I've had two ekgs done a chest X-ray but everyday I'm still convinced I'm going to have a heart attack or something because the aches and pains are still there. I'm starting to go crazy. I've been to the ER like 3 times this past week and have seen my regular doctor. I keep freaking myself because I tell myself "oh but you haven't seen a cardiologist". It's driving everyone around me insane and it's making it hard for me to be the mother and wife I was before all of this stuff started
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I've suffered from severe anxiety for about six months now. It started with headaches and fatigue, then I started getting panic attacks a couple of months later and now I am obsessed with my health and when I might die.
Today, for example, I woke up with a heavy right leg and also pain in my thigh and calf. My first thought was blood clot and now I've wasted another whole day worrying about it. This happens all the time to the point where I've become agoraphobic and find it very difficult to continue with work and any activities I used to enjoy.
I've had six sessions of CBT so far and I'm not finding it great to be honest. I'm just so so tired of constantly being aware of my mortality and scanning my body for symptoms 24/7. Even when I'm out, like last night when I went to a comedy gig, the whole night I was scanning my body checking everything was ok and preparing to make a quick escape if necessary.
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So I started freaking out real bad around 6:50 PM, I couldn't breathe and I started panicking my heart started racing and there's weird pains radiating from my shoulders to my chest, the pain isn't super bad, and it's fleeting, but I'm scared because it's now 8:37 PM and i'm still having breathing trouble, chest pain and the weird hot and stiff feeling. Am I going to die? I don't want to call the ambulance again because I was hospitalized on the 12th for a bad panic attack, I was given more ativan and sent home, I was a-ok for the remainder. I also got a prescription for 0.25 milligrams of Xanax, but have yet to get it. I'm just scared about my breathing and pain and tingling mixed with weird head symptoms. I feel like the heart attack is coming..
It's been 21 days since my fears of rabies symptoms showing. No surefire sore throat, headache, vomiting or anything, but neck and pains.. I haven't felt achy and fluish.
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I have health anxiety and it is literally ruining my life! I am obsessed with checking every part of me to find changes and when I do find something it's intense fear and panic like impending doom. I can't remember the last time I woke up and felt like I wasn't unwell. I am on a counsellor waiting list just don't know what to do in the meantime. Anyone else suffer this bad? Please only genuine sufferers reply as this is embarrassing enough as it is. I have never told anyone about my real problems with fear of being ridiculed.
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Has anyone experienced heart palpitations throughout the day and a fast heart beat that wakes you up in the morning. I'm going to the doc to make sure its nothing serious but i have suffered with panic attacks and hypochondria for years this is just new symptoms.
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hi for about 8 weeks now i have been having what feels like heart palpitations,i have visited my gp and 2 said they thought i was having panic attacks and 1 thought a stomach ulcer i have ended up in hospital twice due to me going light headed feeling sick and having numbness down both arms and racing heart both times i was watching tv when it happened! its driving me insane i have had 3 ECG's all came back normal i sometimes have pain in my left shoulder or in my upper back around shoulder blades or in my upper stomach both sides, i have sat and taken my pulse when it happens but my heart rate doesn't seem to change, i have another appointment with the doctor on monday but feel like im being laughed at and not listened to!
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I'm looking for someone who understands who can give me reassurance and support as I constantly believe I am ill more so I'm scared to death of getting cancer and every niggle or pain sets off alarm bells. I have had health scares in the past such as breast lumps, abnormal cells on cervix all were treated and were ok. I have had several family members get cancer some who have died not close enough family members to be considered for genetic testing though. I am currently having problems with my kidneys the pain was unbearable I thought the worst but an ultrasound revealed a stone stuck in my ureter. After hanging on to see specialists etc I am finally having a CT scan tonight, (my worst fear) this is to see clearly the stone to determine course of treatment but of course I'm petrified that this CT is going to find cancer somewhere in my body. I particularly worry about cervical cancer although all my yearly smear tests have been ok this is an area of most concern and pains that I'm experiencing in my groin (most likely kidney stone related) worry me. This anxiety is crippling I get reassurance for one health issue then other symptom appears. So between pains from minor health issues and symptoms im probably creating myself from my anxiety my head is well and truly mashed. I hate going to the doctors for fear of what they might find. I have completed CBT which did not help so to hear from someone who is living the same hell as me would be comforting although I wouldn't wish my symptoms on my worst enemy. I have a happy marriage, kids a good job I should not be feeling as low and so preoccupied with health worries as I do.
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I'm 34yrs old, smoker and due to my problems a pretty heavy drinker typically 6+ tins every nite without fail, ironically I take them to help me but know it's doing the opposite. It's been 6/7 yrs now but the last 2 have been hell.it started with pins n needles in my face then pains in my arms and legs was convinced I was having a stroke even tho I obviously wasn't as this could happen ten times a day but I was always convinced each time. Then symptoms progressed to pains and tightness in chest, aching bones n muscles, headaches etc etc. I have self diagnosed everything from stroke heart attack and cancer sounds stupid when my doc can't find anything physically wrong wit me. Yet still 24hrs a day I'm convinced I'm dying. I'm on melds its sertraline which has definitely reduced the number of attacks I have from 10 a day to a few a week, but it's always in the back of my mine. I have a 19 month old son and 15 week old twin boys and my life, should be perfect but it ain't. Anxiety is ruining it I have severe mood swings I feel tired all the time n have no energy for anything anymore, does anyone else feel like this out there.
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I have a very bad case of hypochondria and cyberchondria !
I'm 26 years old and my anxiety is worse than ever. I've always been nervous even as a kid went through stages where I wouldn't leave the house because I was going to get eaten by a dog, struck by lightning etc. All very normal things of course! Haha.
So about 6 months ago I started working in a doctors surgery as a receptionist. And out of nowhere I began to have these symptoms and feelings that were all very new to me. And over the last few months I've diagnosed myself with more diseases than I've had hot dinners! I'd go to bed at night and my heart would be pounding and racing as if I'd just ran a marathon where in fact all I was doing was lying still. I ten began to experience pains in my left arm. Which worried me due to the connection between these 2 symptoms. Then eventually I started having the dreaded chest pains. That's it. I had heart disease and I was going to lose my life to a heart attack. This is when my life really went downhill. So I had reassurance from my dr that it was anxiety. Had a few weeks of cbt. Started to feel better. Then my therapist told me she was happy with the way I'd progressed and referred me back to my gp's care. Since stopping my cbt my symptoms have returned with a vengeance and I keep telling myself 'it can't be a coincidence of course they're back because your no longer have reassurance from a therapist' but it isn't helping. I've recently started having globus symptoms which are driving me crazy in thinking my throat is going to physically close up and that I won't be able to breath. Visited my gp who put it down to my GERD which is linked with my anxiety. I guess all I'm trying to ask is if I'm not the only one in this wicked situation. And is it affecting everyone else lives likes it's affecting and ruining mine. Am I the only one who keeps getting reassurance from therapists and GPs and still believe there's something seriously wrong with me?? Just don't want to do anything anymore. Feel like utter s**t all the time (which really isn't like me at all). Some advice also on whether you think me working in a GP's surgery is somehow affecting my health anxiety would be brilliant.
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I apparently suffer from health anxiety I have chest pressure and breathless every day and also have obsessive thoughts of death I keep thinking I have cancer or i'm going to die and leave my family does anyone else feel this way.
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I have developed quite extreme health anxiety after having my baby four months ago and I feel as though I am making my husband's life, and my own, a living hell. We are currently on holiday where, there days ago I had a sharp pain in my breast and I am convinced I have breast cancer. My Grandmother had this and since. I got the thought in my head. I have been self examined almost continually to the point that I, and my family, have not left the house for three days and I have found lots of lumps and bumps that have only further convinced me. I have made an appointment for Thursday to see a private specialist when we get back. I am also having back pain near my epidural site which I am convinced is a cancer spread. Even as I write I can see how ridiculous this all is. A few weeks ago I had a melanoma scare and didn't leave the house for a week. It took three dermatologist reviews to convince me it was okay. I have seen my GP about my issues and I am due to start CBT next week but I am now worrying it won't be enough to help me. I am determined to get rid of this as I feel I am wasting so much precious time with my new family, but the irony is that this is all driven by a fear of leaving my baby to grow up without a Mummy. I cry every day about that thought and then I feel like such a bad person because I am healthy and there are people out there with genuinely life threatening conditions and I feel so pathetic. My husband is very supportive but doesn't seem to understand that I can't just 'talk myself out of it'. I don't know how to explain?
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I recently got tested for all stds and stis, this includes swabs, blood work and pelvic exams. Things came back negative but I read online that tests can be false negative. Do I have any reason to keep worrying? I've called the doctors back and they said their tests are accurate and said I shouldn't worry. But I can't get over this. I have been with the same man for four years, and recently stopped taking my anti depressants and anxiety medicine. Do you think this that's why I keep worrying? I can't get in to see a therapist. And can't get this out of my mind.
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I'm sat with family & friends in my local pub and I'm panicking! Nausea hot racing heart thoughts of a heart attack!
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For about the last 8 months or so I have developed a phobia of having a heart attack. I have heard of and know some people who have had them and one was a close cousin of mine who was only 41 years old when she died from it. She also had other medical problems also. Just the other day I had my annual check up with my primary doctor and found out I suffer from high cholesterol. This is new for me so of course now I'm really scared. I have already changed my diet to lower it but still the thought of a heart attack won't leave my mind. Always afraid that any minute I may have one.
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I'm 15 years old, the first time i tried weed was when i was 13. i have started smoking weed a lot more when i was 14 , i always got nervous to speak in front of a large group like a school presentation, but that nervous became more serious turned into anxiety, i just went to doc. today, my anxiety gets so bad at school i ask to go home because of it i look for every chance i can get to "escape" the uncomfortableness. i won't even read out loud at my own desk. i don't know if weed caused this because i love weed. i'm not a person that freaks out if i don't have it but if its in my face ill hit it. i went to a physiatrist for my first time she said i need to go to the docs.(which i did). IDK for sure but i think the doc. will give me med. i am just wondering if i can still smoke weed and take the med. without having my mini "heart attack''.
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So last weekend I was out with friends we had had a nice dinner and we're sitting talking when suddenly my heart started racing I wasn't panicked or anything and didn't really have any other symptoms bit short of breath and chest was bit tight my heart rate was 120 this last for about an hour and was nearly 2 hrs before my heart rate slowed to normal. Does this happen to you guys. I did go and get checked out and all okay.
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help! i have anxiety problem but recently i feel normal again until today i felt my left hand feel numb and it makes me scared whether it is heart attack. however i have exactly the same experience with this last week and i have done ecg and it turned out okay. i also have done ecg many times and every times it shows okay. but im still scare and feels worried. is it normal for anxiety patient or not?
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I'm going to be completely honest and as thorough as possible, I'm an addict, and I've had an addiction to stimulants for the last year and a half (consisting of about 95% amphetamine usage, never used methamphetamine). I usually keep my doses anywhere around 10-60mg cause I never wanted to over do it. Unfortunately, last week I dove in deep to my addiction due to a recent break up, about 4 days ago I did around 130 mg spread out through the day, I felt fine until I took my very last dose (30 mg about), at that point it only increased negative side effects.
After a while of feeling odd and stuff, I began to have trouble breathing and chest pains (I can't remember which started first), it kind of felt like they coincided, but I still would get very minor and infrequent pain without breathing, it felt like I couldn't take a full breath of air, and when I did the chest pain would kick in (more), it felt like a tightening pain. My left arm soon became somewhat numb and tingly, not numb like when you accidentally sleep on it, but just a little numbing that felt like it stretched down my arm through a single vein, the numbness was generally more intense under my armpit and bicep area, and would intensify when I rubbed certain areas. I had a very sore/stiff neck, especially around the area between my shoulder blades and neck, it wasn't on one side, it was mostly in the middle (my neck and back are still sore after this experience, as well as the tingling sensation in my arm but its not at all that bad, and it comes and goes). I had anxiety during this event, and I felt like when people would talk to me I wasn't truly comprehending what they would say, but yet I still was able to reply to them, I just didn't say much or think about what I was saying, I only could pay attention to what was happening to me. I felt like things were kind of slowed down and I was very fatigued and zoned out. I felt as if I was slowly meeting my demise. I believe I got cold sweats a couple times, but not much. I had some heart burn later that night, and the next but its gone.
It came across to me that maybe this was a panic attack but the pain lasted 2-3 hours, after that it wasn't horrible, but it was still somewhat there, and the mental aspect of a panic attack wasn't that intense. I also do think that my left arm may just have "mouse arm" (cant remember medical term), cause I use a computer a lot, a part of my muscle/tendon in my hand has been sore for a while, and it is somewhat acting up now as I type. I really am not sure if a lot of this is me overreacting, or just a placebo effect (I hope so). I've had minor chest pains since I was 13 (I just turned 18), and every time I went in to get my heart checked out, they said I was fine, and that I had a slight irregular heart beat but it was nothing to worry about and a lot of people have it but don't know.
I also have this weird problem with my thought process either that started the night of the incident, or I haven't noticed before. The only way I can explain it is as if my brain buffers for a moment when I go back and forth between two thoughts, it's like I over excite the neurons responsible for those thoughts and I end up overriding my brain for a brief second with confusion, then it's fine. I do have some chest pains now, but it isn't very often, and honestly happens mostly when I think about it or worry about it (same with the left arm), which is why I think I could be conning my self about this entire incident, because I've had panic attacks before but they weren't as bad and were more mental than physical.
It's dumb of me but I never went into the doctors cause 1. I was too paranoid to go in, and 2. I don't want to worry my mom or waste her money just so the doc's (possibly) find nothing. I haven't lately because all I've been doing is researching about this stuff, off and on I think I'm fine and then I don't. So I came here to settle it once and for all, I have a doctors appt. next week anyways so if you guys don't think its serious (I don't, but it could be denial) I'll just wait until then, if it is then I'll go now. I know everybody says "If its your heart then don't risk it", but every time I go in for my heart, it's always nothing.
My family nor myself have a history of heart disease, diabetes, or just flat out obesity. I'm very fit, just oddly muscular for my age, but I don't work out as often as I should now-a-days. I also smoke cigarettes, and my heart pains/arm numbness do come back a bit when I have a cig, but then again it could just be my head. The last time I had any form of a heart test was probably about a year or two ago, it was an EKG and I believe a blood test, but my memory is a bit foggy in that area. My heart rate is normal, I don't know about my blood pressure, but I believe I got a test for it lying somewhere around my house. My last dose of amphetamines was today, yes I know its stupid, but it's literally my last dose (I weaned myself off).
Oh and I did have sex last night, being in the moment I may have over did it (I usually get this feeling just without the numbing), my heart pounded like hell, I got heart burn during it, my left arm and leg became pretty numb, I was kind of tremor-ish, and that's it. Once I orgasmed the numbing went away (except for under my armpit area), and my heart was fine, but beating pretty fast (110bpm).
So do you think I likely had a heart attack? Or do you think it's something else? Or a combination of things? Or simply nothing but a placebo affect or panic attack? And by the way how long does numbing of the left-arm and chest pains last after having a heart attack?
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I had a heart catherization done in may 2014 and all was normal thank god now my question is what are the chances are for a person with mirmal heart cath to develop a heart attack , and can it happen withen a year from the cath please ?
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Really suffering and struggling with health anxiety regarding my heart. Is anyone going through anything similar?
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I'm now, 44 years old had my first heart attack at 30 years old. Doctor has no idea why. Lately I'm having the pains again. But seems to be a few days after I do big jobs. " I drill holes in steal with a drill, put the drill against my shoulder and push in to the wall." Never hurts until 2 to 4 days later, Also hurts in long drives from bouncing cars and trucks it bothers me too get me sleepy. When I was age 30 I ran a lot bounced as I ran or running. If this could be true what would be good questions to ask the card. What test to ask for. Is their a test for this? The card says Vanes should look like cheetos, but mine are smooth/no problems. They give me more meds. Then on my way. Would muscles in my chess also be permanently damage too? I know heart damage happens every time their is a attack. No more vibration near my chess. Been doing my job for 25 years. Does this sound to crazy? What other info you Docs need. Where could I find more info for this. I heard truck driver have the same thing bouncing in trucks all day.
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