Could anxiety cause this?

[sks4613]

I am a 32 year old male. I am overwieght at 5'10 220lbs. I am employed in the F&I industry own my own business so I do deal with a lot of stress. I was out seeing a client about about 10 weeks ago when my life changed dramaticaly. I was finishing up paperwork at the clients table, stood up, shook their hand and started to walk away from the table. As I walked away I began to feel a growing pressure in my neck and face. It felt kinda like someone was chooking me without feeling them touch me if that makes sense, all the pressure from the blood being cut off to my head or like someone flipped me upside down! The pressure grew and as it did I freaked. The pressure was mostly in the front of my face but did go away rather quickly. It was without a doubt the most terrifying experince in my life. I asked them to call me an ambulance but decided to drive myself to the E.R. instead. My entire body was trembling from head to toe, and my heart was racing 130 plus for over and hour. The nurse at the E.R. said I was to young to have my first M.I. and gave me four baby aspirin and the E.R. doctor wanted to sedate me. The E.R. nurse said I was showing some fibrilation but did not define what type. As I was not having a heart attack I did not take the sedatives and after my heart slowed down I was released and promptly went to see my family doctor.
   My family doctor at first was like well just wait and see what happened and this was probably caused by stress. I waited and after what I am certain were panic attacks from the feeling of just waiting for this to happen again he finally had me admitted overnight for observation in the hospital. I had no probs while I was kept and again he suggested nerve pills and a beta blocker. I did wear a PDS device for a month and had at least one reported ECG that the doctor saw, again he stated stress and I needed to take the beta blocker. I had a cat scan as well at the hospital, chest xray, a TON of bloodwork but nothing abnormal. While up moving my b.p. will be 140/80 sometime 145/85 or 90, but while resting I hit 130/70.
    While I have been under a GREAT amount of stress the last 5 months. I had disc some herniations at L4, L5 and was unable to stand or walk for about 3 weeks, then I could get up but couldn't walk or sit for another two weeks etc. Gradually I have gotten better. It has taken about 5 months to be able to get around again. This was about month 4 when this episode happened.
  My concern is that the doctor knowing about the back problems has used that to easily lable it as stress and not do adequate test. I have a lot of angina, at times my heart beats so hard I can watch my clothes jump around. I have had several episodes of palpitations where I feel my heart racing or beat irregulary and that is scary but I am able to get through it. I was nervous about taking the beta blockers as I have been told they only work for ventricular tachycardia.
   Has anyone when having panic attacks had or experienced this or can panic/stress cause this. Should I request more tests? If so what?
Thanks in advance!

[JSGeare]

For what it is worth, why not drop by my journals and read the one about "Could it be?" and see if there is anything of value for you there. That's the hell of anxiety- its like herding cats when it comes to chasing down and properly identifying symptoms. Please stay with us and keep us up to date.

[NaluKana]

First i would like to state that i am not a doctor. I used to work as a paramedic for an ambulance company in los angeles, and although i have had some medical training, you should not disregard anything that your doctor says due to any of my comments. That being said there are somethings that i might be able to pass on to you from my dealings with anxiety and heart problems.

I myself have and am still dealing with anxiety and stress problems. It can be very disabling at times for me, like a living hell. For me it has definently caused heart palpataions and increased my heart rate. Angina is also a very commenly reported complaint among anxiety sufferers. If your doctor thinks that they are due to anxiety i would tend to believe him and try to not freak out about it, although i know even for myself that it is extremely difficult to do. Also the feeling of choking or pressure in your throat could be due to the anxiety or angina that you are experiancing.

As far as the beta blockers go, they can be helpful in different types of arrhythmias including fibllerations including ventricular and atrial. They are also helpful in dealing with angina. However i think that it is worth noting that if you feel uncommfortable taking these meds that there are different kinds of meds that they can prescribe for these conditions and depending on who you talk to in the medical community might even work better. Being that you have had a full heart work up and your age, i would tend to agree with your doctors that it is due to stress/anxiety. The PDS would show any problems that you are having with your heart i imagine (Not too familiar), and during your stay im sure that did an EKG on you and they would be able to tell if you have had a heart attack or any other heart problems.

I wish i could be of more help as far as more tests to run to put your mind at ease, but im not really trained that area. I hope that you find some relief from the stress and that helps alleviate your symptoms.

Hope this helps! :)