Just anxiety or something more serious?

[hannahrose91]

Well, I'll start out saying that I'm only 21, not a smoker, and not obese, so I know it might sound totally silly that I'm getting worried about a heart attack.

But, for the last few days, I've been having mild chest pain on and off.  A little bit today and especially yesterday, I was having heartburn as well.  And just tonight, I swear I'm having this funny feeling in my left arm.  I wouldn't describe it as pain, I guess I would say that if kind of feels "heavy".  My whole body has also just felt tense and not very relaxed at times for these past few days.  And also very briefly this evening while I was riding in the car, it felt like my hands and feet suddenly got these chills, and again, it kind of radiated to my left arm as well.

I do admit I'm pretty anxious and a bit of a hypochondriac.  I almost wonder if I'm imagining some of this stuff, but I don't know.  When this chest pain was starting, I thought it was definitely due to anxiety because I had a job interview coming up.  I do think I have worse anxiety now than I have at any other time of my life, just because I'm becoming an adult and really trying to get out into the real world now.  But I did the interview yesterday morning and I was sooo relieved.  But my chest pain hasn't gone away, it's almost gotten more frequent.

I've also been on Nexium for awhile because starting last summer, I had issues with abdominal bloating.  My doctor thought I might have had GERD (acid reflux) but I wasn't that convinced since I really never had heartburn.  But, I had actually been forgetting to take it a lot during the last few days, and then I started to get the heartburn, so I don't know if there could be a correlation there.

Again, I know it must be so unlikely I'm having any heart problems. But what's really freaked me out is the arm thing I was talking about.  I read something about pain or discomfort starting out in your arm when you have a heart attack coming on.

I also ended up at urgent care a few months ago because my heart suddenly started racing really fast and thudding in my chest.  It only lasted a few seconds and did not happen again, but I still went and got it checked out.  They did an EKG and nothing was wrong, so the doctor chalked it up to anxiety.  I had just been in a minor car accident the day before and I WAS worrying about how I was going to pay for getting my car fixed, so I thought he was probably right.  Since then I haven't really had any palpitations.  It's just chest pain, heartburn, my body feeling tense, and the weird arm thing now.

[grendslori]

The symptoms that you are describing do not sound heart related. I was reading a post written by someone with major anxiety issues; get help for that and you will probably feel so much better. Also, understand that it takes about 20 years of eating junk food to cause coronary heart disease. You are not old enough for any of that and if you had Congenital Heart Disease, you would have known about that by now. Go enjoy your life, there are plenty of young people who would exchange places with you in a heartbeat!

[joshua77]

anxiety can do crazy things to people just get checked out first and the work on the anxiety it can be a pain. it doesn't sound like you have to worry but im not a doc so good luck with everything.