A few weeks ago I felt my heart fluttering and beating irregularly which sent me into a cycle of panic attacks (which I havent had in a long time) and I ended up in the ER because I was severely afraid that something was wrong with my heart. They ran tests including EKGs and found nothing. Since then Ive seen two doctors who have both concluded that the palpitations and fluttering are all a side effect of stress and anxiety. I was lucky enough to get a few days off from work to rest and relax, but my anxiety and panic has yet to subside and I feel irrational and am convinced that Im going to have a heart attack or just die in my sleep for some reason. I havent felt like this in years and its miserable. The doctor I saw yesterday thankfully gave me something to calm me down so I feel normal right now and decided to post. Right before I start to panic my chest feels funny and my heart starts fluttering which then sends me into an overall panic that Im about to die and trying to sleep during this is next to impossible because Im terrified to be alone. Im wondering if anyone else has had bouts of panic that couldve been brought on by daily stress after not feeling anxiety for a long time. I had severe anxiety when I was younger and this seems to have just come out of nowhere and is making me worry that it wont go away, should I see a therapist? Also, what does your heart and chest feel like during an attack? Ive had no pain whatsoever, just the fluttering and palpitations which are still scary. Ive heard of relapses happening to people, could this be whats happening to me? Its been a pretty rough year for me and Im wondering if maybe this anxiety is my minds way of forcing me to deal with it. Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated, thank you.
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Glad your feeling a little better today. I understand how you feel. I never had anxiety until this August. My chest felt like there were electric wiring gone haywire and a sense of pressure on by upper chest near my throat. I was put back on Prozac 40mg daily with Xanax .25mg to help during the 4-6 weeks till Prozac starts working. Those 4 weeks were horrible, I can totally relate. I didn\'t sleep more than 2-3 hours for weeks. I finally got to feeling normal (with medication) then BAM out of nowhere I had another attack of anxiety, no worries in my life but just constant pressure on my chest and feeling my heart kind of pounding (but not racing). It will pass, keep that in mind. Prayers for you and wish you the best.
I know exactly wat ur going thru. Been there done that. You are right it is a funny feeling …tightness in chest , rapid heart beat. Going to numerous of Doctors and they say ur fine. They say it\'s all in ur mind , But we think differently. Once u start to get the palpitations we really go into a panic , when this happens i try to put my mind in a better place and calm down. It\'s our negative way of thinking is wat we need to change which sometimes can be impossible to do.
Hi. Boy, do I have empathy for you! Your story kind of sounds like mine. My anxiety/ panic disorder started when I was around 12. It went away for many years then started appearing again with panic attacks, maybe once a month and now, I have been suffering with high anxiety for the past month or so. I have about 1 good panic attack every other day. The feeling I hate the most is the feeling of not getting enough air. The other day I went for a walk and by the end of it I was so worked up my heart was pounding and I nearly passed out. I have been under immense stress lately and from all of the information I have ever had on this, I do believe this to be the cause. As some I suppose label this as \”relapse\”…I dont know, but I believe that is what I am experiencing.As maybe you are too. I just try to keep in mind that this will pass as it always had before. As of right now, I am trying not to make a useless er trip, just to be told its my anxiety.
Hi OddGabbs. I had a hideous year of stress, which sucked me back into relapse after 11 years of freedom. I never thot Id relapse like this again. Been going on for 4 months. Got a better doc, raised my dose, now more waiting game.
The book The Anxiety Disease by David Sheehan is indipensible. If you havent read it do, even tho its old, its still spot on.
Anyway, the book says that some of us, mostly women, are born with this predisposition and it comes out in our late teens or 20\'s. You will always have to be aware of that. I ma 56 and this is my 2nd relapse in my life. Had this bad in my twenties and kept it to myself.
I have tightness in chest and stomach, I feel like my heart is in my throat, fear, anxiety in my stomach and diarhhea when it hits hard.
I keep telling myself this is physiological, I need a med and boy when you find one that works great, it is life saving. The bad part is it can take awhile for meds to work. A talk type therapist will not eliminate these attacks. These are in our bodies. Read that book. Oh, I also feel like my heart flips over in my chest.
Write again. Donna
I can\'t thank you all enough for the replies, it does a great deal in relieving the stress and obsessive thoughts. These past few nights have actually been okay, I\'ve been able to sleep and when I can\'t sleep I\'m busy researching natural and herbal supplements that might help since I\'m deathly afraid of medication. I started taking 5-HTP a few weeks ago and it seems to help with the general everyday anxiety and keeps me in a mellow mood without any side effects, and a plus is that you can get it at Walgreens and other similar stores. I\'ve also read that St Johns Wort and Valerian Root are known to ease the tension and nervousness, but this is something I\'ve just begun reading about. Has anyone tried natural supplements? What was your experience? The last doctor I spoke to told me that my recent stomach issues are probably also from the accumulated stress, which makes sense. It blows my mind what thinking about what the mind can do to the body, but its true. He gave me something to ease the stomach discomfort as welm, thankfully. And after a few days of soul searching it does make a lot of sense that all the bad things that happened to me this year are maybe just catching up to me, even though I thought I was dealing well. It\'s certainly been a rough year and but with work and staying busy all the time its hard to find the time to properly process things without them getting in the way of living.
Another strange thing I noticed is that this relapse and general awfulness started very shortly after I started taking Beyaz birth control, and I thought maybe it could\'ve been messing up my hormones or maybe the pills were just a dosage that I couldn\'t handle. I asked several doctors and they said that birth control never contributes to heart palpitations and fluttering, but its made me paranoid to try taking them again since this all started again when I started taking them. Or maybe its just coincidence that all of this began at the same time. Any of you ladies ever experience something similar to this?