anxiety chest problems any help greatly received

[ashley16082008]

hi i was diagnosed with anxiety and panic attacks around 3 yrs ago and since april last yr i always felt short of breath and my throat felt tight all day i was told im fine but i was convinced there was something wrong but about a month ago i felt a weird sensation in my chest and it scared me so i went to a and e they did all the usual tests blood pressure, ecg/ekg and i was told i was fine it was just anxiety, i went to my normal gp because i wasnt convinced they asked if i did anything that could cause muscle strain and i must admit just before the chest feeling i was trying to start a petrol lawn mower and my dog pulls a lot on his lead so anyway they did blood tests and another ecg and all was well but here i am still having a heavy tight feeling in my chest all day. could it be a muscle strain and my anxiety is making more out of it because i know i worry about my health far to much. if anyone else has had issues like this and found relief from somewhere any help would be great. i was also given diazepam to be taken 1 three times a day i am starting those today will it take a day or 2 to get full effect?
any help would be amazing
thanks in advance

[Gulfstream2]

Hello,

Getting your heart rate up will convince you that a racing pulse is nothing to fear at all, in fact the exercise will really help you out - I had the same fear, thinking something was going to happen but after I got exercising I would feel really good actually, and I really had no reason to fear it because before, I used to exercise a lot, not excessively by any means but I used to swim frequently, jog and do resistance training and all those times I never was worried about my heart rate.

I think what caused the problem for me was I had a big delay in not exercising, I wasn't able to get out and brisk walk / jog for nearly two years and one day I just went out and ran hard and I wasn't prepared for that obviously and hadn't felt my heatr beat like that in a fairly long time and it probably caused my apprehension towards exercise. You'll get over this, remember that exercise helps, it doesn't harm. Best regards to you.

[ashley16082008]

thanks for your input i have regular meetings with my therapist every week he comes to my house and he wants me to do some exercise to get my heart rate up to challenge the thoughts but i have to admit i am worried about it its so stupid but its like i try to convince my self i have angina or something like that its horrible. but i am going to go to the gym next week with my sister shes a nurse so that might help ease the situation a bit. the other thing that confuses me a bit is how can anxiety make me feel this way all day?? its like i have a constant battle going on my head it drives me crazy

[nursegirl6572]

You have already been diagnosed with anxiety, so you know you've got that going on.  Sounds like you suffer from a good bit of health anxiety, which is common.  The good thing is, you're getting help, you've started with your doc.  You've had a very thorough work-up, and your heart is fine.  YOU rationally know this, but when you feel the twinges of pain, your anxiety starts up and you start "what iffing" (also called catastrophizing, or imaging the worst possible scenario).

You will notice an improvement in your anxiety with the valium fairly quickly, most likely after the 1st or second dose.  That should make a difference.  Also, you need to seek out some therapy.  While the meds are going to help you decrease those symptoms, you need to learn how to break that cycle of anxious thinking and worrying, and stop the "what iffing".  CBT is a great kind of therapy for anxiety.

In the meantime, when you're feeling anxious, remind yourself that fear is not fact.  The FEAR is there is something wrong with your heart, it's going to stop beating, you're going to drop dead from a heart attack.  The FACTS are, you've had a thorough cardiac work-up, and all was okay.  If you had something big and bag going on with your heart, it would have been found.  Also, if you were having a major cardiac event, it would have happened a long time ago.  The things you're worrying about aren't likely to take weeks or months to come to fruition.  A heart attack isnt going to drag out over a period of weeks...it's going to happen.  Lastly, you KNOW you have anxiety, so you KNOW your fears are irrational.

Please keep in touch, let us know how you're doing!

[Life360_Dave]

Sounds like the lawn mower and dog caused the strain, since all checked out ok with the doc. It all happened at the same time. Strains can be debilitating. Just take the docs instructions and rest in the fact that all tests were good. As you age youll find out that ifs its not this its something else.