I would like to know if I am experiencing a anxiety or acid reflux or both??

For a little over a year now I have been experiencing chronic chest & back pains that last all day. As well as a burning sensation so intense in my throat and espophagus that it also feels like my spine is burning.
It all started when I had a sinus infection last october, I was a smoker and smoked in sickness and health even though it made me feel worse. I was put on antibiotics for my SI and my symptoms went away. And then about 2 weeks later they came back full forse. This was when swine flu was becoming an epidemic and I was convinced that's what I had even though doctors said other wise. One day shortly after this while eating lunch I felt my heart palpitate. I thought I was having a heart attack so I rushed outside smoked a cigarette and called my mother who said to go straight to the ER and the drive to the ER and waiting period to be seen by a doctor made my heart palpitate every few minutes or so. Naturallly I started having a panic attack and feeling like I couldn't breathe.
My friends boyfriend had been having the same sinus infection symptoms as me but was instead diagnosed with pneumonia so I was convinced that was what I had even though I didn't have chest or back pains like he did. So when I was having panic attacks and trouble breathing at the ER I started to feel chest and back pains I hadn't experienced before...>>>

[Ratnakar ., MD]

Hi,
Anxiety can present with physical symptoms.
GERD does not cause back pain, though there may be radiation of pain to back sometimes.
Continue taking xanax if you find relief.
If it is due to GERD then you will find relief with Prilosec.

[sicksadworld]

continued..


They sent me for xrays said everything was fine and that it was anxiety. This sent me into a depression and from then on my spontaneous symptons have been chronic, lasting all day everyday for over a year. I have been to the ER countless times and they have ran numerous tests of my heart lungs & digestive system.
They found a hernia which one doctor seems to believe is causing GERD, which might be the main cause of all my physical symptoms. I'm not so sure...
To this day I have burning in my back, chest, & throat, chronic headaches, nasal problems..etc. I always feel short of breath so it scares me to work out even though many doctors say that would probably help me. i am in constant pain and i used to be a social butterfly, now i am a recluse and laugh at the idea of going out with friends and having a good time. lately i have been taking a lot of xanax which seems to help or atleast make my symptoms not feel so severe, but they are still present. i just want to know if anxiety has ever manifested itself into physical symptoms like my own and interupted anyones life? has it ever made you feel like you have diseases you dont have and have anti anxiety meds ever worked to cure you of these symptoms? i just dont want to bring this crap into 2011 because it has completely ruined 2010 for me. and since im not dead yet and i havent had any major hospitilization in the last year for some kind of serious illness i am beginning to believe this could be anxiety.
but it is driving me insane and making my future seem very bleak. i rarely ever want to wake up bc i dont want to deal with the symptoms and i imagine killing myself to just be done with it all regularly.
someone please help me before the new year.
what do you think it is?? gerd, anxiety?? something else all together??

[honeypie21]

Hi i suffer with both.. Not nice

I have had anxiety nearly all my life and am only 28 (yes anxiety can cause all different type of symptons and sensations not nice i no as i think are anxiety is all in are head!!
anyway for about 1 year now i started off with this horrible burning raw feeling in my tummy and just kept getting worse traveling all over my stomach, chest and even around my belly button area & to top it all off it now goes between my shoulder blades (weird i think)
anyway i have been the doctors 100 of times as am now suffering bad trapped wind, sore throat & water bash (were you get alot of saliva) am just sick of a new sympton coming every day to add to the others i already have..
my doctor put me on gavison which i find crap and i have now just got new tablets which am yet to start taking (lansoperzole 30mg) hopefully these wil be alot more help
so i no how your feeling your most prob just suffering from GERD but having a bit of anxiety as your worrying about it thats what makes my anxiety worse always worrying about it.....
take gavison b4 and after everything you eat or drink x

[SeanMeagher]

I feel a lot of the same symptoms. I get SUPER anxious, and get REALLY bad chest pains. Some of the things you need to tell yourself, and figure out, is that it changes with movement. If it changes with movement, then it isn't your heart. A heart problem will occur in ANY position. Also, you need to calm yourself down. I know it's really hard to do when you feel like this. You just have to keep telling yourself that things are going to be ok. if you tell yourself it's gonna be ok, then it will be. No medicine can do that for you.
Also, try to go out and do stuff that will keep you busy. That is probably what the doctor meant when he said that excersizing will help. You need to keep your mind occupied. THAT is what helps anxiety.