Anxiety attacks after exercise.

[gshanereid]

Hey guys, I had an EKG, and the doctor said my heart is fine. I have been absolutely paranoid about heart failure for the past two months. Im 19, and use to workout all the time nonstop. I think I'm having panic attacks. My symptoms include skipped heartbeats (it seems like my heart will just stop, then I panic) I have called 911 multiple times but when the ambulance arrives my heart is back to normal and they explain how I was so active and my chances of heart problems are low. Yesterday I finally said screw it, Im returning to exercise. I did a 10 minute ab/core workout and everything was fine. Then I rode my bike for an hour and a half. Everything was fine. I woke up this morning and felt find then decided I would do my core workout. About 10 minutes after my workout I started having skipped, irregular heartbeats. I think it was an anxiety attack but not sure. Everything I read says exercise should decrease stress. So I was wondering why and what would trigger a panic attack after exercise. It was a good workout and I had positive thoughts throughout.

[grendslori]

I would suggest that you talk to your doctor about this and see if he can order a stress testn you to make sure you are not having any exercise induced arrhythmias. Exercise is said to reduce stess, however, when one is already worried about something happening, it stress is already there in the back of your mind. Sort of like the judge who tells the jury to disregard something they already heard; that's hard to do.  

[Jerry_NJ]

I'm not sure what the cause and effect here is, but as you say, exercise is supposed to reduce stress.  Still, if you suffer from anxiety and for some unrelated reason you had some heart palps after/during exercise and then go it in your mind the exercise caused the problem... well it could be that's enough to trigger it.

I think you should talk with you doctor about treatment for anxiety and see if that helps.  Here I assume you are self diagnosed with anxiety, otherwise you may already have medications.

At the age of 19 it is and an active physical life it is very unlikely, but not impossible, that you heart has any problems.  Try the postivie approach and try to address the anxiety and see where that takes you.