Anxiety or heart problems?

[WhereDoIBegin]

Can anyone relate to me or give me guidance on what I should do to help myself?

I have anxiety and am taking an anxiety medication. My main trigger appears to be health, although sometimes I feel anxious for no reason at all.

A little background, I was an alcoholic for 3yrs self-managing (unbeknownst to me) my anxiety. I have recently gone sober (42 days). The decision was made after a rather large panic attack in which I was convinced was a heart attack. I am on a super epic health kick, doing everything I can that is recommended for lowering anxiety. Eating right, sleeping good, walking, yoga, meditation. I'm really happy with my progress.

The issue I am having & I am hoping someone can relate to help ease my uncertainty, is that I am getting chest pains.

Yes I know chest pains come with anxiety, but I am talking about chest pains that I get that I believe come often when I have no anxiety.

For example, yesterday I had quite a good day, and I believe I wasn't feeling anxious, but then I get some seemingly random chest pain. It lasted a couple minutes and then it was gone I believe. The problem is this obviously builds on my anxiety. And now this morning I have had quite a 'jittery' morning, and it is the only thing I can put it down to.

I have been and seen doctors, but I feel like they'd just rather hand me some pills and get me out the door.

I've been prescribed heartburn meds, but I believe that doesn't change it. I have had an ECG and they are happy with results. Blood tests same. And tonight I have a stress test. They have suggested going to a higher dose of my medication but I really want to go the other way and get off the medication, not on more....

I guess I am asking:

A. Does anyone else experience similar thing(s)?

B. Do you guys agree that it is probably (I know no one can say with 100% certainty) just anxiety? And,

C. Do you think after the stress test comes back positive that I should steer away from anymore tests? The problem is I don't want to be wrong, and not get the tests I might need, but all it really does is feed my anxiety "What is wrong with me, am I going to die?" It is a hard circle to break out of.

Thanks

[Croix]

Dear WhereDoIBegin~

Welcome back.

At this stage if you have a heart or other chest problem and is has a medical cause it realy needs attention. That involves tests.

If on hte other hand it is caused by anxiety the only way you will ever be convinced the pain is anxiety is by taking tests until you manage to believe negative tests are telling the truth.

I have chest pains, been to ED more than once, have every sort of test from ecgs to blood tests to stress tests to cat scans - all negative. All more than once. So in the end I accept they are caused by anxiety.

I have found that these sort of symptoms are not necessarily related to any particular stressful occasion, they seem to have a mind of their own. The exception being panic attacks where one feels one is having a heart attack right on the spot.

I guess the most important tihng I have to say is to ensure those pains are not physically related before you assume they are anxiety. Also things change as one gets older and later on a real issue might emerge - moral of the story is to get regular tests.

Croix

[WhereDoIBegin]

Hi Croix

Thanks for your reply

It is nice to relate to somebody

I agree, I definitely don't want to miss something, but I have had the ECG's  & blood tests several times too.

I have now also had a stress test which the doc was happy that my heart was healthy and working as it should.

So I think it might be time to embrace the anxiety and perhaps work on ways to improve moving forward.

Nutrition, Exercise, Sunlight, Yoga & Meditation are my foundations right now.

I dream of a day that I might be pain free 🙂

Thanks

[Croix]

Dear WhereDoIBegin~

I'm glad all your tests have come back to show you are healthy. For me at least the hard part was convincing myself the tests were in fact accurate, always looking for a loophole that could indicate they have overlooked something or made a mistake.

I eventually accepted there was nothing wrong, and while I have an annual checkup, that is simply good practice, keeping an eye on your physical health.

Croix