Chest pressure, jaw pain,eft arm pain

[shell1925]

Hello all!  I'm a 35 year old female that has been suffering from chest pressure that goes into my jaw and left arm for about 6 weeks now.  I have had numerous EKG's, bloodwork, Echocardiogram, stress Echocardiogram and a CT scan of the chest.  I've been to the ER only to be told I have "atypical chest pain" and to follow up with my PCP.  I do have Mitral Valve Prolapse but they don't think my issues are coming from there.  When this all started I did not have anxiety.  After dealing with it for about 4 weeks my Dr prescribed 50 mg Zoloft and .5 Ativan to take as needed.  It's been 2 weeks and it seems as if my symptoms are getting worse.  My symptoms are heart related symptoms but no one seems to think so.  I get the chest pressure when I'm sitting there doing noting and I get it when walking.  I'm becoming depressed because I don't feel myself but no one can help me.  Does anyone else have these symptoms with their anxiety?  I'm so scared that I'm going to have a heart attack.  I go to see my 3rd Cardiologist today to see if they have anything different to say.  No one will do a heart cath on me because of my age but I know that is the only way to know 100% that my heart is OK.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[MYoungAtHeart]

I don't think there is anything more frightening than the heart palps or arm pain or chest tightness when working with anxiety.  Its like anxiety to the nth degree, once you begin recovery you tell yourself, "its anxiety and I am working on correcting the problem" and then from out of no where comes another wave and another and the scareyness adds to the anxiety.

Once I began therapy with my Medical doctors approval when all the physical tests turned out ok, I still continued to have the heart symptoms off and on for about 2 years which only made me want to dig in more and get these symptoms behind me.

It has now been at least 10 years since I had any heart symptoms or arm pain or chest tightness.  In case it would ever happen again, it would only mean that I need to pay attention to something that is going on in my life and get it worked on immediately.  I have a little bag of tricks I use for motivational purposes, a qualified therapist will help you with your own toolbag, and I try to ward off the thoughts that cause anxiety on a daily basis.  

Good luck to you

M

[cj29]

My original experience came with concerns about my heart.  I was having every symptom that I thought was related to heart trouble.  From chest pain, tightness in my chest, pain in my arms, jaw, etc.  I had never had any experience like this before so naturally it initially was very frightneing.  I was at the ER multiple times, saw variuos cardiologists, had multiple tests done only to confirm that heart health wise, I was okay.

I spent months fighting the docs until I finally entertained the fact that it might be anxiety (which of course in the end it was).  First, the good thing is that your heart is fine...you did your due dilligence by checking with your doctors...a heart cath is not the only 100% way to know your heart is fine...they would only give you one if other non invasive tests indicated that you needed to have one...which it sounds like you don't and that is a good thing :).

Anxiety is VERY powerful...for me, once I had convinced myself that I had heart issues every little feeling that I felt, I interpreted it or linked it to my heart.  I believe that I became so oversensitzed to my 'symptoms,' that I was constantly scanning for something wrong.  Second, I misinterepreted every feeling as something catastrophically wrong with me when in fact I would have probably not even given it a second glance before my initial experience with anxiety.  For example, I can sit here right now, and feel pain in my left arm. If I was in an anxious state about my health, my anxiety would rise, I would believe something is definitely wrong, and it would generally go down hill from there....

But as with any challenge (anxiety is just that in my opinion), there are ways to confront it and conquer it.  It may sound cliche, but knowlege is power when dealing with the unknown; the unkown in this case is the anxiety and as humans we tend to fear things we don't understand.  In my experience the most crucial step I took was to learn about the anxiety through counseling.  First, it shed some light on why I was feeling the way I was....second, it showed me that so many share the exact same experiences with anxiety (i.e...mine started with fears from heart health), and three, it gave me a path to confront it.

I know if may seem unplausible right now in your mind that it can be anxiety.  I was there too.   But the good thing in my opinion is you are going to get through this and be much stronger in the end for it....keep us posted!  And ask as many questions as you like.