topic Re: Anxiety and Heart Murmur in Anxiety

Anxiety and Heart Murmur

Guest_10272 — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:09:25 GMT

I suffer with extreme health anxiety... And I mean extreme. Last weekend I suffered from searing chest pain, that radiated to my shoulder blade. I thought I was having a heart attack. I went to ED and had loads of tests and they all came back fine. However I was informed I had a heart murmur. Now im 54 years old and never been told that before. My anxiety went through the roof. 8 days later I saw my GP, who listened to my chest and said yes, I had a murmur... He said it was a grade II Systolic Ejection Heart Murmur and I was referred to Cardiology. I made an appointment for an Echocardiogram ASAP, because I am supposed to go on holiday soon. I paid privately to get it abd a stress test done and my mental health is in bits... I literally cant cope. I have googled until I feel sick and now believe I have heart failure and my life is over. A 54 year old man doesn't just suddenly get a murmur unless there is something seriously wrong. I just don't know what to do or who to turn to.. I feel sick and ill everyday. I have palpitations and cant tell if it's the anxiety or murmur. This is a nightmare!

Re: Anxiety and Heart Murmur

Eagle Ray — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 23:06:51 GMT

Hi LukeMJ,

I think an important thing to consider is that many heart murmurs are harmless. Yes, it’s important to do the further testing with the echocardiogram and check it out and there may be some underlying heart condition, but again it won’t necessarily be something serious.

I have a form of heart murmur called mitral valve regurgitation. It’s common and wasn’t found until 4 years ago when I was 46. It had likely been there a long time and just never been picked up before. So it’s entirely possible yours has been there a while too and not been picked up until now. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something suddenly wrong now.

In my case it’s not harmful in and of itself. Mitral regurgitation is more common in people with fibromyalgia and migraines. I have both of those and they and the heart issue can all be linked with chronic patterns of stress in the nervous system, including early life trauma which was present for me and set a pattern of chronic anxiety and stress early on. With the mitral valve issue my heart is not resting sufficiently between beats (systole) a lot of the time due to the hypervigilance of the fight-or-flight response (sympathetic nervous system) mixed with chronic freeze responses. This feeds the mitral valve issue. The neurologist Robert Scaer has written about these links in his books on trauma and the nervous system, including observing mitral valve issues in people with chronic pain, stress and trauma backgrounds.

So the greatest gift I can give to myself is to be as peaceful as I can, and I do things like spending time in nature and practising letting go of tension in my body. The only time I feel my murmur is during migraines when my body is in extreme stress and pain. So, if anything, it’s made me appreciate how important it is for me to take care of myself and find ways to de-escalate stress. I’m learning to just allow and be with feelings and sensations in my body (including stress and anxiety) rather than reacting to them, just giving kindness to myself (still a work in progress at times). By letting go of bracing against stressful feelings and allowing them to just be, the feelings and stress are more able to release rather than remain stuck in a loop, and this feeds back in a good way to my body, including allowing my heart to rest more. In my case, I have complex ptsd, so I’m having to learn to practise staying within my window of tolerance as much as possible where the nervous system is more peaceful. It can be challenging to shift these patterns so I get the chronic anxiety you describe, but I think returning to self-compassion and gentle kindness towards yourself again and again helps.

I do not even think about the mitral regurgitation issue in daily life and as mentioned I only feel/notice it during a migraine. So I guess what I’m trying to communicate is that it’s quite possible to live with a heart murmur issue and be peaceful with it. Doctors often want to rule out anything more serious and it’s good they are checking it out, but try not to panic or assume it must be something bad. Being kind to yourself and finding some peace will actually help your heart and body as a whole. Perhaps just resting in a peaceful nature spot until you feel a shift to greater calm in your nervous system may help. Very simple forms of meditation such as focusing gently on the breath which can help to let go of thoughts may also be helpful.

Take care and go gently,

Re: Anxiety and Heart Murmur

Guest_10272 — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 23:36:33 GMT

Thank you for that beautiful reply. I can feel the peace you now feel in those words....

I have had a torrid time over the years, for various reasons. The stress my body was under was at times unbelievable. At 54 years old, I feel all of that trauma is now manifesting and it does scare me.

Doctors have always told me the chest pain I was geeling was anxiety and more or less ignored it. When the pain got too bad I went to ED and they found the murmur. It's almost as if that is what I was hoping for. Finally a physical symptom to grasp hold of.

I was left with severe health anxiety after trauma and now, since being told I have a murmur, it has got worse. I am laying in bed writing this now, experiencing chest pain. Not bad, just fleeting discomfort. It feels like a never ending cycle.

My mental health is in actual bits now and I am just holding it together... But thank you for you kind and thoughtful words. They mean a lot!

Re: Anxiety and Heart Murmur

Eagle Ray — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 01:21:20 GMT

Dear Luke,

I’m so sorry that you’ve been through all that stress, trauma and anxiety. I’m certainly not wanting to diagnose where your heart murmur is coming from because I absolutely can’t do that. But I thought by sharing my experience it might shed some light on possible interactions between stress/trauma and the body.

What I learned is that when stress is ongoing (i.e. sympathetic nervous system activation) it reduces heart rate variability. Having a decent amount of heart rate variability is good for us, but when we are chronically stressed the heart beats very regularly with little variability. This is the nervous system gearing up for action in relation to a perceived threat (fight-or-flight response). If we fight, flee or release this activation through just allowing it to come out and feel safe again we discharge this hypervigilance, returning the heart to healthy variability again. But us humans often get chronically stuck with stress, including in relation to anxious thoughts. So we get stuck in a loop with no discharge to rebalance the autonomic nervous system. What I think has happened in my case is that years of chronic stress, anxiety and trauma patterns kept my heart in a sympathetic state too much, so my heart rate was too fast and even for too long. Eventually this skipped it out of rhythm and caused the back flow of blood and mitral valve regurgitation. Now that I realise this, I’m aware I need to be kind to my heart and let it rest. If you can have kind, loving and nurturing thoughts towards yourself that can really help the heart kind of sigh, let go and be at peace. If it’s hard to generate that loving kindness towards yourself (and I know that can feel hard to do), imagine the loving kindness you feel towards a person or pet, anything you really care about, and redirect that love to yourself. This can actually be really healing for the heart.

What is great is if you can find a place of safety within yourself. I know this can take some time and practice. I had something traumatic impact me 3 months ago and I’m in the process of rebalancing again at the moment. Not surprisingly at the height of the trauma I had chest pains. But that has settled now. Even in the last two days I’ve spent a few hours lying on a bench out in nature, connecting with the bird sounds, a stream babbling past, the river, the clouds moving across the sky, the feeling of the air etc. if you can return to your senses in the present moment it can do a lot to alleviate stress, tension and anxiety in the body. The art of letting go is a wonderful thing and it gives your body a chance to restore some balance and peace.

These days my heart rate is much slower than it used to be and I can even feel increased heart rate variability if I can hear my heart beat. When I have a migraine the heart rate speeds up again and is very even, and that’s when it will produce heart murmur symptoms. But once I recover it goes back to a healthier pattern. As mentioned, I’ve had a really rough time recently, but I do know my body has done much restorative healing in the past so it can again.

I think it’s important not to be afraid of symptoms. You don’t need to be afraid of anxiety itself. That is just your psyche and nervous system trying to protect you. It’s a communication from the body that’s trying to make sure you’re ok. You can befriend that anxiety and be kind with it, even talk to it if that helps. That can do a lot to alleviate health anxiety and other types as well.

Take care,

Re: Anxiety and Heart Murmur

Guest_10272 — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 13:05:32 GMT

Thank you again...

I have beenbwriting a book all afternoon today, so my mind has been somewhat occupied. Occasionally I looked at my phone, about fluttering in my chest I am feeling at the moment. I keep hoping it's not serious and I have had the fluttering for about 7 years now. So if it was bad, I would have already known.... Well I'm assuming so anyway.

My mind will not let go of the worst case scenario. In my head I am making plans for the inevitable.

Sorry to burden you...

Thank you again, your words mean a lot!

Luke

Re: Anxiety and Heart Murmur

Eagle Ray — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 19:22:05 GMT

Dear Luke,

I hear you. You are not burdening me at all. It’s totally ok to express how you feel. I’ve been dealing with anxiety all my life and it’s only recently I’ve really been learning to befriend it and not be afraid of it. Gradually I am coming to have a relationship with it, to talk with my anxiety and understand it. The more I do this, the less the anxiety has a hold over me. The anxiety starts to let go and I feel more safe and calm within myself. As mentioned before, it’s a work in progress, but I can feel things shifting so I’m not so much taken over by anxiety now, and I can even sort of welcome it so the anxiety itself realises it doesn’t have to intensify and freak out. I hope that makes sense?!

it’s wonderful you are writing a book. What a great thing to do. I think distraction through something that absorbs you can be a wonderful way of managing things like anxiety. I love photography and I get really absorbed in both taking the photos and editing them afterwards on the computer. It’s like everything else falls away when I am doing that which is a great circuit breaker for any fear and anxiety I might have.

I think an upside of being someone who experiences anxiety is that you are often also a sensitive and creative person, and that is a gift.

Go gently and know that you have a space here if you need to express your worries. Sometimes just expressing how you feel outwardly helps to release the stress of holding anxiety in, making it easier to see and address it.

Take good care of yourself,