Heart feels like it is dropping/stopping

[Mikey2323]

Hey all! I am new to this community but feel like this could help me with my physical and emotional health down the road.

I just wanted to start by saying that I am an 18 year old male, 6 foot, and 170 pounds. Very active in the weight room and played varsity athletics. Over the passed 6 months or so I have been feeling this very scary feeling in my chest/heart. It is very hard to describe but I'll do the best I can. It is like my heart feels like it stops or drops. Almost like a super intense feeling of dropping from a roller coaster but instead of the stomach it is in the chest. The feeling lasts about a second if that but afterwards I get super anxious and go into an anxiety attack fearing that I will have heart failure or that it is atrial fibrillation or something like that. I have had anxiety for about the passed 2-3 years which developed when I had mono. I'm definitely a hypochondriac and always fear something horrible is going to happen to me, even sometimes subconsciously. I have had blood tests done and had an EKG test done 3 years ago and all came back great. Although when I had my EKG done I was never experiencing the dropping feelings that I currently have, just a racing heart at times. I talked to my doctor about it when I first felt these feelings and he was almost certain it was from anxiety. My question to all you out there is do you think I should do any further tests on my heart? And if this anxiety induced, what exactly causes my heart to do this? Thank you all very much!!

[achillea]

You have described the classic sensation of a Premature Ventricular Contraction or 'PVC.'  You can google it.  Certain scary features will pop up, but the things to be aware of are these:  

In the absence of disabling symptoms--such as great pain, faintness, nausea, a weird, drenching cold sweat, the sensation of an elephant on the chest, and being middle aged plus having relatives with early-onset heart disease--you are at tiny, tiny risk for heart disease.

At eighteen, you have entered the age when our bodies reach physical maturity (which means we stop growing and go into maintenance as long as possible), and we humans become aware of our mortality.  It scares the living pooh out of us, and we start to listen to bodily 'noises,' which are largely meaningless in young maturity, in the absence of inability to do our normal stuff.  You do not have that problem, right?  You are just worried by odd sensations.

I would advise this:  By all means, see your doctor and get a full evaluation, including an EKG, because having a baseline is a Good Thing as you go through life.  And if your doctor tells you that you are healthy, believe it!  If you cannot, see a mental health therapist to help you live your life as a young human should, without being a captive to weird but medically insignificant heartbeats.