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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Anxiety?
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
Anxiety?
by blueangelz, Jan 23, 2005 12:00AM
Hello and thanks for taking my question. I started having a heart rate that would go to 150's sometimes higher with some chest pain and sometimes shortness of breath and also with the lovely feeling of I was going to die. My doctor said it was panic attacks but I am not real comfortable with that diagnosis. I have so far had many EKG's even during the times of the racing heart and all come back normal with sinus tach. I have had all bloodwork including thyroid checked and that was also normal. Stress test that came back fine. I recently had an holter monitor and I am now waiting for the results on that. The problem I am having accepting this is...In the past month or so the chest pain seems to be more constant than not. How can anxiety cause this chest pain all the time. I have also noticed that my heart has seemed to do this funny little jump. With all these tests that have been normal can I relax and accept this as anxiety and know it is not my heart. Would these tests have picked up whatever could have been wrong? I have been extremely worried about this. I dont think I have that much stress in my life.I am a 30 year old female, I just quit smoking last week,slightly overweight which I am also working on. I have 4 children 10,7,4 and 1. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-M.D.-MJM, Jan 23, 2005 12:00AM
Hello,
There are several keys to trying to answer this question.
1. you want to capture the arrythmia on a 12 lead ekg. if it looks like sinus tachycardia -- like you wrote it did --
2. we need to record and document the initiation and/or termination of the rhythm. Anxiety will look like a gradual acceleration and gradual termination. An arrhythmia will usually start with a premature beat and sudden onset and sudden termination. Hopefully this will be picked up by the holter monitor.
If this doesn't answer the question, they may want to do an EP study. This is an invasive procedure where extra beats are electrically stimulated in your heart to try to induce the arrhythmia.
I hope this helps answer your question and good luck.
There are several keys to trying to answer this question.
1. you want to capture the arrythmia on a 12 lead ekg. if it looks like sinus tachycardia -- like you wrote it did --
2. we need to record and document the initiation and/or termination of the rhythm. Anxiety will look like a gradual acceleration and gradual termination. An arrhythmia will usually start with a premature beat and sudden onset and sudden termination. Hopefully this will be picked up by the holter monitor.
If this doesn't answer the question, they may want to do an EP study. This is an invasive procedure where extra beats are electrically stimulated in your heart to try to induce the arrhythmia.
I hope this helps answer your question and good luck.
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after having a long break of the same symtoms you are having now, they came back about 2 years ago. my heartrate went up and i have daily pvc and pac, rarely svt and short apisods of afib.
i took atenolol as needed and my heartrate went down, i dont take atenolol any more because i know i have a healty normal heart. my heartrate since last summer is normal now. i do still have chest pain and it still can throw me off, right now i take daily aspirin do to the discomfort. maybe your chestpain is muscular since you have a 1 year old child which you may carry a lot. i have 2 children and i think its a lot of work (i also work part time) i personally cant imagine to take care of 4 kids without feeling overwhelmed at times. good luck to you
Just wanted to let you know that as unfortunate as it is I think alot of these symptoms come from motherhood. I have six children 21, 18, 16, 12, 3, & 1. I started obsesing over my heart durring my last pregnancy. I had my son in January 2004 and it has took me until recently to come to grips and say okay this is anxiety calm down you'll be okay. From my first month of my pregnancy I had PVCs (I had never had them before or just didn't feel them). All of the sudden my world went out of control I felt everyone of them. I had chest pain, trouble breathing, insomnia due to the extreme worry. All I could think of was something is wrong with my heart what will happen to my children.
My regular doctor had me wear a holter monitor and diagnosed me with PVC's brought on by the hormones. All through my pregnancy I had myself convinced it was something more. By the end of pregnancy I was sure I had Postpartum cardiomyopthia. After delivery my blood pressure was elevated to 150/98. My OB wanted to put me on meds but, my internist insured me it was all the stress, worry, and the physical strain of labor. I know where your comming from. If you want to talk email me ***@****.
More than likely, the symptoms -- palpitations, chest pain or SOB -- will gradually dissipate after pregnancy but sometimes medication is advisable to help your quality of life and protect your health in the interim.
If you have high BP, then consider yourself at high-risk for damaging your heart, or worse. Losing weight, eating a healthy diet etc. helps, but so can taking BP meds.
Pregnancy changes you, don't kid yourself or let someone tell you that what you're feeling isn't real. Giving life is a beautiful thing but it has physical trade-offs.
You've come a long way baby, but the field of Medicine has not caught up with female heart disease.
-- from someone who has been there.
It makes me a bit frustrated when I hear the label "anxiety" attached to every female who has cardiac symptoms. I'd definately have a cardio evaluate me if I didn't feel satisfied with my internist's diagnosis, or continued to have problems.
There are some on this forum who were thought to have "anxiety" and it turned out to be something else. They regret that now. I'm thankful for my internist who had enough humility to say "I think we need to send you to a cardiologist." After a few tests and a fresh pair of ears and eyes, a correct diagnosis was made as well as a treatment plan that has yeilded very good results.
I'm not sayin it's a heart related problem, and I'm no Dr. If they do the EKG, echo, holter, stress test and it all comes back fine, than you can rest assurred that it's not your heart. But I would encourage you to not readily be labeled as "anxiety" or "hormonal" if you keep experiencing concerning symptoms.
Sure, pregnancy and child rearing is exhausting work, but sometimes it's an easy label for us women.
I wish you all the best on your quest for optimum health.
Uptowngirl
If you are having symptoms that prevent you from living a normal life, I would suggest having a good look over (ECG, ECHO, HOLTER, and BLOOD WORK). If those studies are normal, look into other causes for your pain. Some people suffer from inappropriate sinus tachycardia, a condition that is interrelated with panic attacks and a host of other symptoms. Also be sure to look over your family history for both cardiac and mental disorders.
Best of luck to you all
i have the same problem. i am 34 yr old female and i have a fast heart beat. my blood pressure was taken and i have had 3 ECGs to trace my heart and both have been normal. my heart rate was 133 bpm about a month ago. doctor says its stress but i am worrying myself silly that its something more serious. so my GP has referred me to see a cardiologist. i am on beta blockers and now my heart rate is 62 bpm but i am so down in the dumps with it all. i dont know who to turn to. i have 3 daughters and my boyfriend but i dont want to burden them with my problems. so i completely understand. i dont want to go out the house lately and i have trouble sleeping. i cant seem to settle. feel so alone lately too but im glad i am not alone here. thank you all.
However, this past summer, I started experiencing chest tightness,especially upon exertion, but sometimes just spontaneously...a sensation of paused heart beats and chest discomfort/pain. I don't like to go to the doctor, but these symptoms forced my hand, so to speak. In addition to other symptoms, I had some chest wall tenderness in between the ribs on the right side and a nurse friend of mine suggested possible costochondritis, which the doctor was suspicious of too, but there was no offical diagnosis. I made the mistake of talking about my history with anxiety, even going so far as to wonder outloud if my cardiac-type symtoms were related to panic/anxiety. I say mistake, because the course of the visit changed dramatically thereafter. He did order an EKG(which was WNL) and some blood work, as well as a chest x-ray, but he also discussed GERD as a possibility(which I had few to no sypmtoms of) and prescribed Pepcid. He also gave me an Rx for Xanax and told me to go home, take two and get some sleep!
At my follow up visit two weeks later, he stated something like : "last time you were in here you were in a huff"...huh?? I was scared!! Hello!? He reviewed my test results curtly. The chest x-ray was WNL and the blood work was fairly normal, although my cholesetrol was 212 and HDL 145. He totally blew off my results, stating they were "no big deal". I am 45 and slightly(maybe 15-20# max) overweight, am on ERT (since 96) lead a stressful, yet somewhat sedentary lifestyle. No family history of heart disease,although my father has a hx of high chol. Obviously though, doc thought I was low to no risk for cardiac problems.
I explained to him that the last thing I wanted was soemthing to be wrong, but I continued to be concerned with symptoms, including angina type stuff that would crop up after a big meal, walking, etc. The doc ordered a 24 hour Holter. I went through all the inconvenience of thet and the cardiologist and doc did not even tell me the results! Granted, I suppose if they saw somehting suspicious, they would call? However, my doc's last words were "We will get to the bottom of this"! Yeah right!
Meanwhile, I continue to have "angina-type" feelings. I get off/on lightheaded, too and sometimes feel arm and back pain (both sides).
But... I am hestitant to persue further because to date, I seem to have been written off as a "head case"??
In sum, I can relate to some of you about the obsessiveness.
I don't want to dwell on every little thing, but I can't help despite the stressors in my life, wonder if I have clogged arteries, ya know?
I've been given the anxiety diagnosis (which I have but I don't think can cause every day chest pain) as well as acid reflux (but the meds they gave me did not help). I've seen 2 cardiologist, 2 general doctors, and an internist who have all told me it is not my heart.
Well, then they should try having chest pains for 2 years with no known cause!! Something has got to be up! And now that the chest pains aren't present everyday (and have never been related to exercise at all), I get some tightness or heaviness while sitting on my couch watching TV. I also get pains in my left armpit area. The only constant thing I do all day is type -- there is no way typing can cause pain in your armpit or strain the muscles in your chest -- so what gives?
I'm at a loss -- I worry about it constantly. I've become a hypochondriac b/c of this. I can't accept an anxiety diagnosis without someone giving me an angiogram or something!
Dianna
yahoo messenger name cr8zy4jj
aol messegner name jjntricia407
I don't have messenger but feel free to email me.
***@**** several others already have and we have have some interesting conversations.
Now on to the real concern for me.
Since about 7-8 months, I've been feeling a strong heartbeat. I run every other day for one hour (and do not feel it while I run). I can feel the strong beating when my heart beats slow and I am relaxed. The more I worry about it, the harder I feel it beat. Sometimes I don't because I don't think about it, but its almost always there... always. I have no other symptoms and am very healthy. I am a hypochondriac... so I tend to worry about my health a lot… but I can definitely feel this heart beat and although I got used to it, it worries me constantly. Doctor listened to my heart and all sounded normal. Good rhythm, no weird sounds. Blood tests came back normal. But I never went to a cardiologist. I am too scared to go and when I only start thinking about going, I can feel my heart pound. Often when it pounds, I also feel like an adrenaline feeling, like before a roller coaster. I constantly think about it, like before I go to sleep. When I wake up, I don’t automatically feel the hard pounding, but then always somehow it is the first thing I think of and I start to feel it beating hard again. Please someone help, because I am going crazy from this pounding. My family is saying it’s all in my head, since I am a bad worrier. But I worry that it may be heart disease or something dangerous. Could it be pulmonary hypertension? I often feel hunger for air… but not like short breath or winded, but more like because my nose is almost constantly stuffed up in the sinuses.
Anyway. Sorry for the long post, but do you think this pounding heart is dangerous? Sometimes (especially when I am nervous or really worried about it and thinking about it, I can feel it in my neck, feet, fingertips, and see my stomach moving up and down with each beat. But during those times, my bp is normal (115/65) and heart rate about 60-64, and regular.
I have pretty bad anxiety and used to have panic attacks at school where I had to leave class because I thought I would faint or worse. It is hard. I have a deep belief that this is from my anxiety and constant worry. But this pounding started while I was on vacation!!! I’ve been worried since.
This is not just a single hard beat every once in a while, this is every beat, every time. Only times it is not there is when I am not thinking about it.
Oh, whenever I check my BP (like 5-10 times a day because I worry so much), I can control my heart rate, make it go up and down just thinking about it, and can do the same with my BP. I also check my heart rate all the time during the day because I worry that it (may) be too fast or too slow.
Am I crazy? For God’s sake, I have a psychology degree and am beginning to think I should be the one on the couch.
Thank you all, this board is precious.
Different things help different people. For me meds (was on almost all of the anti anxiety meds and anti depressants), therapy, biofeedback, group therapy, deep breathing exercises, yoga, EMDR NOTHING helped until I found a book written by a Psychologist, Dr. Claire Weeks who deals with people like us. This has finally helped me with my anxiety and panic attacks but as for the phobia about going for a doctor's appointment I could not get over it yet. My Cardiologist suggested that I take my BP at home and bring my readings to my doctor appointments. I was also put on BP meds since the Cardiologist thought that my BP must've also been high at home for it to shoot that high over the top at the doctor's office.
I know all about the "worrying and the what ifs" you are going through. I too used to get the strong heart beat, the skipping heart beats from hell etc. Try to get some kind of help like I said different things will work for different people, for some people its meds or therapy for some people like me it took one book to get 90% over my panic attacks so far. Something will finally click for you don't give up!
Good luck!