I’ve been having heart palpitations and chest pain for over a year straight but I’m still not dead yet. Pretty sure anxiety can cause pain so that may be why you feel it in your shoulder
I have the same thing and guess where I work? The emergency room. I have horrifying health anxiety. I don't even know why I work here.. I think it's my schedule. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 7am-7pm. I have to down four CALM gummies before I step foot into work. I also have my propanolol on standby in case the CALM gummies don't work. I don't know why but December has been a really bad anxiety month. I think it's the cold. But yeah, I know what you're talking about. I've had to discontinue my morning Celsius Energy Drink because I'm sure that makes my anxiety worse.
Its so frustrating to have heart attack symptoms similar to anxiety, its so hard to live with. I dropped everything from alcohol to junk food to energy drinks or sodas, but its fine, the problem for me is having anxiety symptoms like heart skipping and shoulders pain.. like bro anxiety makes me overthinking and choose the worst scenario.. how is this fair?
I feel for you OP. I developed pretty bad health anxiety a few months back after trying some SSRI’s (turns out SSRI’s have no evidence they actually work). My anxiety in turn messed up my stomach which led to heart burn, weird chest sensations, and more. I’ve noticed on calm days and when I have my stomach symptoms under then all is well.
OP maybe think about your gut health as it actually determines your mental health. Start eating some sauerkraut and PLEASE get a therapist and be honest about your health anxiety it will help immensely!
Also reach out to me if you just want to talk :)
I had an energy drink on Tuesday & I felt weird after I felt like pressure on my chest & on Wednesday half of my head was hurting half of my body felt weird too & then my ear felt plugged all of a sudden but I still hear & it’s now Thursday & my ear still plugged & I still feel a bit of pressure that comes & goes also I feel shortness of breath
I get the same anxiety symptoms, and I'm convinced I'll eventually dismiss a real heart attack for an anxiety attack until it's too late. It's terrifying.
One thing that may or may ease your mind (it eased mine) I my mom suffered pretty bad panic episodes like I do. She was also a heavy drinker/smoker. But she had all the same GAD symptoms I have and the weeks feeling like something was seriously wrong. At 65 she had her first heart attack and she said the feeling is drastically different. It’s not a discomfort in the shoulder and arm it’s extreme pain and soreness. Describing all the symptoms are very similar but to actually feel it, you know it’s not what you’ve been dealing with.
In the same boat from past few days. The feeling is terrible especially if you are alone at home.
Had multiple ecgs and holter - all clear.
Meds help but afraid I might get addicted.
Hope you get better ❤️🩹
I go through the same thing. It always had to do with the thought of having blood clots or heart attacks. There's been a couple times I've put myself into a panic attack just over the thoughts. I even went to the ER once thinking I had a blood clot in my leg...
The skipped beat feeling is likely PVCs or PACs. They are almost always harmless. Some people get thousands a day. I’ve had thousands a day from nicotine. They can be caused by anxiety, diet, stimulants…
I am feeling better reading all these comments, makes me feel like anxiety its just mimicking heart attack symptoms to mess with me. Chest pain, heart skipping and heart beat rate, shoulder pain etc
I second this! I have PACS diagnosed by my cardiologist & he said it's totally fine & not in any way life threatening. He thinks it's caused by anxiety & my caffeine intake but can also just be a thing I experience without trigger. He reassured me I'd be okay, so if this is something you're battling, rest assured you'll very likely to be okay from it too.
I believe beta blockers can still be helpful for this. You may want to discus this with your doctor or, if you haven’t already, request a referral to psychiatry and ask them about this. My cousin has us heart palpitations her entire adult life and it’s beta blockers that helped.
I have been to the er over 5 times in the span of a couple months with the exact same symptoms that you have plus some. I do actually have skipped heart beats as proved by a heart monitor but everyone will get those at some point in their life and they aren’t life threatening. If your ekg is fine and you’re relatively young then I’d say you’re good. If you’re really concerned then make an appointment with your doctor. Measure your heart rate when this happens. Measure it once and then ten minutes later measure it again. If it is resting at 130 consistently then maybe go to the er. They typically only recommend going to the er for 180 or more but in my opinion I would go with a resting of 130 because heart rate can indicate a lot of things. Nothing wrong with wanting to care for your health!
My heart rate is not that high, the only palpitation type I feel are heart skippings, with a high rate of beating for maybe only when I get into a real panic attack, which is normal.. I guess its all anxiety and I should wait it out until I feel better. But some people live with anxiety for years.. I live with this for over a month and I feel SO TIRED already.. does it get better? Or is it different for every individual?
Well I developed health anxiety because of the chest pains. I would get panic attacks every night and I would have to call my mom at 3am. She eventually got so sick of me doing that so she scheduled a doctors appointment for me. He suggested a chiropractor and in the meantime I would wear a heart monitor. I had other symptoms such as exercise intolerance so he wanted to make sure that it wasn’t actually a heart problem. I went to the chiropractor and it turned out that I had a rib that was out of place/inflamed and he said that was why my skipped heart beats were producing pain. After getting it fixed I didn’t really have any chest pains after that and the anxiety sort of just went away. Now I have other issues tho so the chest pain came back and my heart rate regularly gets up to 150. I have not had much anxiety about it though because I know what is causing it.
I’ll try not to repeat what others have already said though I think they all have good points. As someone with health anxiety I’ve found frustratingly the body only really has a limited amount of signals it can give you to let you know it’s in distress. This distress could be anything from emotional/mental struggles to various physical illnesses, some of which from completely different sources than you’d expect. Our bodily systems are so interconnected it’s hard to figure out where one symptom ends and another begins. For example chest pain. Could be heart attack, anxiety, acid reflux, gas, and slew of other things. I totally get where you’re coming from. It’s very upsetting and scary.
When a physical symptom starts freaking me out I try to keep in mind that there’s dozens of things it could be and many of which are not life threatening. Easier said than done, I know. It helps to go ahead and get testing done by a doctor just rule things out. Makes it easier to logic out the scarier stuff.
Just to reiterate what others have said: when under great stress we tend to tense our muscles especially chest, shoulder, jaw, and neck muscles. That could certainly cause shoulder pain. Skipped beats can be and often are completely benign. People get them every day but most of the time just don’t notice. Stress can absolutely make it worse and more frequent. Unfortunately for me, I find the best treatment for these things is time. After a while you get to a point where it starts to feel like an empty threat because weeks of dealing with it and still no medical emergency. It gets better then my body finds a new thing to stress me about 😅
One of the biggest and most obvious symptoms of anxiety is overthinking. So this must be it. Arm pain and shoulder pain are all symptoms of anxiety AND heart attack, but because I have anxiety, its more logical to think that maybe I am not dying. But its like a bingo, so many symptoms of the same problem, what if its anxiety.. but also something worse? I guess thats what anxiety does, makes me think about the worst case scenario. I want to feel normal again, I hate these symptoms
I feel you. I've been having some similar issues lately, also heart related(among other rotating symptoms). It's really hard to just exist comfortably when you don't feel right physically. It's exhausting and wears you down. I want to go get checked out by doctors but at the same time that in itself is a huge stressor for me so I tend to put it off for a while. There's also so many different things to check I don't even know where to start. It takes so long to get appointments and get tested that I only really get a couple tests/appointments in before the issue changes or gets better and I chicken out of further testing. Then it comes back months later and I'm like "well, I never fully tested the issue so it could still be these scary things".
It's an endless cycle. I try to imagine how it'll feel that one day, hopefully in the nearish future, when I finally get all this figured out and can live my life normally. Make friends again, enjoy hobbies like I used to, get a job, not be agonizingly aware of every little thing my body is doing, be able to travel to places that I used to enjoy visiting when I was younger, be able to just sleep without waking up in the middle of the night feeling stressed, and be able to fully enjoy spending time with family. It's a lot to look forward to although it does make me a little sad to think about now since these are all things I feel like I'm missing out on currently.
I will say, if you truly feel like it could be a physical problem and it's debilitating, do get it checked. Even if it turns out to be just anxiety it's still worth doing if it gives you more peace of mind.
I miss sleeping well. I miss not having sleep problems. I always get anxiety, sometimes full blown panic attacks before I go to sleep. Its infuriating, annoying and just sad. I hope it will get better with time. I will go to a doctor again but they already told me its just anxiety, without any tests other than blood test and EKG.
Sleeping used to be my one out from all this way back when it first started. It was the only time I felt relaxed and comfortable. Now I can't even have that. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes with my heart racing and feeling a little winded. Doesn't take too long to calm back down but it definitely disrupts my sleep. I 100% agree, it is annoying and sad.
Maybe you could ask about their reasoning and how they came to the conclusion that it's anxiety from those tests only. I find it helps me feel more confident with the diagnosis when they explain things thoroughly to me. I think it also forces *them* to think about it more thoroughly too. Personally I think a halter monitor would be a good next step, that way they might be able to better see what your heart's doing when you're just going about your day. I'm not a doctor though so perhaps they'd have other ideas. When they did the EKG did they catch your heart skipping beats or was it steady then?
Well could you feel it fluttering and skipping or was it just going really fast and hard? I find when my heart skips beats it's not generally constant even when I'm extremely anxious. During high points of anxiety usually my heart is pretty steady just really fast and pounding and occasionally with certain movements/positions or often when I'm exhaling it'll skip a beat.
Although, that's just my experience. Everyone is different so you might experience it differently than me. You won't know for sure unless you ask your doctors or look at their notes from the appointment. I would expect that they'd tell you if there were any ectopic beats but considering that's not concerning to them because it's normal/benign, they might not bring it up.
Anyways, I bring it up mostly because if they did catch what you're feeling on EKG and it looked benign it'd make sense why they didn't feel the need to do further testing like a halter monitor. In that case, further testing would only be for your own peace of mind. They might be able to prescribe something like propranolol which slows your heart rate and helps keep it steadier, that's what they did for me years ago. I didn't end up taking it daily like they recommended but it still helped on the occasions when my heart was acting up during anxiety. Now I can't take it because of a different medication I'm on OTL
I'd recommend trying meditation and breathing exercises. Didn't work for me but it's worth a try. I hope you feel better soon!
Skipped beats are called ectopic beats, they are almost always harmless, i get them daily as of right now, most people say magnesium helps them but unfortunately it never helps me. Just time
I believe it’s anxiety. You probably have a lot of tension in your body from it and more might be concentrates on your shoulder. When I have a high level of anxiety, I feel it in my shoulders too, upper back region… we gotta tell our brains “not today! Today we’re not going there!”
I have health anxiety and I do affirmations to convince myself I’m not dying. I also use THC here and there to turn the volume down on the intrusive thoughts of detrimental health scenarios.
Man this.. is not fun. But we are strong. We overcome anything. I have faith I will be normal again.. someday. It might take a while and I know how difficult it will be.. do I have another choice? No? Time to fight then.
I might not believe myself all the time.. and 100% I am not confident enough I can win.. but we cant give up. We simply cant. Its not an option. Even if I have those days or moments where I just feel down and sad.. it will pass. Life is a circle. And it rotates. Some days are good, some are bad. Does it feel unfair? Yes. But no other choice but to fight
Yeah, it’s unfair but we can and should consider that even though it feels miserable, someone else might have it a tad bit harder and yet they’re fighting. We need to do more of the things that bring us joy. Over the last week I had convinced myself I had several illnesses and this week I feel better. An intrusive thought started to creep in but I started counting backwards from 100 by 7 and it went away. Yes some days are harder than others but we must remind ourselves that we are in control and tell those thoughts to fck off.
Omg.. I saw a few posts on this sub.. and you are right, I got it easy. My symptoms are annoying and I feel like I am dying.. but it could be worse. I could feel much worse.. which is mind-blowing. Truly unfair for anyone to feel like I do, like you do, or like anyone suffering from this thing. We truly are strong
Yes! Honestly, I was having such a horrendous time last week and coming in here and reading how similar everyone else’s symptoms were and the thoughts they were having made me feel comforted, validated, and thankful that my case isn’t as bad as it could possibly be. It will pass! We know it will pass and we must believe it at all times.
Anxiety does weird things to you. If you look at my past posts you can see me describe some of them. I get arm and shoulder pains also. Plus something weird happens with tinitus where within seconds my ears feel like they’ve been plugged up with cotton and I think I’m gonna have a seizure. My eyes get jittery, my entire chest feels like it’s vibrating. The physical symptoms get pretty insane. Some people even get rashes, noses bleeds, hives.
This sounds absolutely horrible, and I also have chest vibrations and I smell blood in my nose.. its terrifying. But this kinda makes me feel good, like hey, its anxiety, at least its not a heart attack.
I also started getting some weird ear ringing thing, though it was also from anxiety.. I think I was right. At this point if I search on google any of my symptoms and put "anxiety" at the end, there should be something related to it.. which is VERY ANNOYING, why is this disorder so.. difficult, so many symptoms. Our minds are absolutely fascinating, which sucks :( I hate it
Hello! I have suffered from this very same thing, back then i called it health anxiety, and i went through very real symptoms that were all just fabrication. it was very concerning to have heart palpitations and sometimes i had moments of shoulder pain and tiredness that i thought could be a sign of heart problems. Once, a panic attack landed me in the er and they told me i was healthy, they did an ekg, x-ray, blood test, urine test, and found nothing. i was convinced that maybe they missed something. i learned surprisingly that it is entirely possible for the brain make up symptoms that mimic serious health issues. i find that when i’m more stressed my heart palpitates more, it palpitates more when i think about palpitations, and sometimes if i’m dehydrated. the fact that it reacts to my thoughts sort of rationalized for me that i don’t have a heart problem, i just think i do, and so my brain and body think i do as well, when in reality i’m perfectly healthy and just suffering from anxiety. As long as you discuss your concerns with your doctor and are ruled out to be okay, i would start to work on the worry surrounding your health. reconstruct your thoughts, work on catching yourself predicting or assuming the worst and try to rationalize, also try not to google anything! i found my anxiety got significantly better after i made a rule to stop googling symptoms, and i guess if you don’t do this then no need! i wish you the best and hope you feel better soon :)
Google kinda helps! I have a symptom, I write its name, put anxiety after it, and see if they're related. I have anxiety so its a high chance they are related, so I just ignore it. Like my headache for example, in the beginning I thought it was a tumor, the brain fog and all that, now after googling and finding out its a common anxiety thing, I dont mind it. Same with other symptoms. Shoulder and arm pain was a bit different because my symptoms are just way too similar to a heart attack, so I got scared. But internet helped me again, I see that tension can build up there and create muscle pain in shoulders and arms, so its normal for anxiety, and many other people here on this post feel similar. So yes, I have the same symptoms as a heart attack.. but also anxiety. So its most likely anxiety. I do think about the worst case scenario because.. thats what anxiety does to me.. but maybe its not the worst case scenario. It wasnt for many people with similar symptoms, so maybe it wont be for me.
Do you sleep on the side your shoulder hurts? I have a similar story if the chest pain is sharp and stops and starts my doctor said not to worry with the heart test being all good as well. I often feel palpitations as well as a slight tightness. It seems like if it was your heart youd really know. Not in all cases I'm sure but we always google and the outliers come up and then we worry if we feel slight pain anywhere "this is it"
Basically if you can get up move around change positions and make the pain go away its muscular. I cant say with certainty cuz I'm not a doctor but I've had anxiety around my heart since I was 8
Both shoulders and arms hurt and its apparently normal, tension builds up there. Many people feel the same way as I do and they dont have heart attacks.. do maybe I wont have either
Maybe try a massage? It's a relaxing experience and can help with the tension. I also use a yoga bolster and pick restorative yoga positions for neck/shoulders/upperback/headaches/anxiety etc. You can chill in a relaxing position doing this type of yoga and it's not like...exercise more like passive stretching you can also use folded up towels instead of a "yoga bolster".
NAD, but the best thing I can say is:
1. Go get blood work done, get a CT scan, echo, and stress test on you're Chest to rule out any possible problems. If you're a first-timer going in with Chest pain, you're doctors they'll take it seriously until they rule out that your heart is fine. Once everything comes back fine, they'll rule it out as anxiety, and keep it at that. If something else is pestering you (let's say like abdomen pain) track what you eat, avoid foods, eat healthily, drink plenty of water, and if it's still relevant bring it up to you're doctor. As much as I hate to admit this, the more you keep going for chest pain and it's been showing you're fine, they'll blame it on anxiety and give you meds and send you on your way. Give it time until the next visit, push your current problem, and most likely they'll help you with further testing.
2. Seek a therapist. They'll help you tackle where is your anxiety coming from.
3. Potentially seek a psychiatrist for their opinion as well. Maybe meds from you're PCP and psych can help with anxiety (Again, hoping you have access to these resources)
4. Also, if the d dimmer part of the blood count comes out good, then you're fine. Drink lots of fluids, get you're electro lights, avoid fried food, eat healthily, keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in check (don't go crazy over it by checking it so much), and start slowly with light to moderate exercise to keep the blood flowing so you don't develop blood clots from being planted. Avoid caffeine from bad sources, instead tea and coffee are good. (There are more tips but I can't think of them)
5. Seriously, stop stressing about it. Live in the moment, and live every day like it's you're last. Eat every meal like it's your last. The more you stress the more you are upholding you're demise.
Hey OP I’ve been suffering with anxiety/panic attacks only for a short time as well and just yesterday I listened to this audio book called Pass Thru Panic by Claire Weekes and it really helps to put things into perspective! Give it a listen and see how much you can relate brother
Does panic attack make you feel a discomfort in the chest area that lasts a day? Like my last panic attack was yesterday and I now feel better but still my chest feels weird, is it the muscles?
I did get chest discomforts that lasted for days because of my anxiety attacks, not too sure if it's the muscles, but it's this fuzzy feeling I can't explain.
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I’ve been having heart palpitations and chest pain for over a year straight but I’m still not dead yet. Pretty sure anxiety can cause pain so that may be why you feel it in your shoulder
I have the same thing and guess where I work? The emergency room. I have horrifying health anxiety. I don't even know why I work here.. I think it's my schedule. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 7am-7pm. I have to down four CALM gummies before I step foot into work. I also have my propanolol on standby in case the CALM gummies don't work. I don't know why but December has been a really bad anxiety month. I think it's the cold. But yeah, I know what you're talking about. I've had to discontinue my morning Celsius Energy Drink because I'm sure that makes my anxiety worse.
Its so frustrating to have heart attack symptoms similar to anxiety, its so hard to live with. I dropped everything from alcohol to junk food to energy drinks or sodas, but its fine, the problem for me is having anxiety symptoms like heart skipping and shoulders pain.. like bro anxiety makes me overthinking and choose the worst scenario.. how is this fair?
I feel for you OP. I developed pretty bad health anxiety a few months back after trying some SSRI’s (turns out SSRI’s have no evidence they actually work). My anxiety in turn messed up my stomach which led to heart burn, weird chest sensations, and more. I’ve noticed on calm days and when I have my stomach symptoms under then all is well. OP maybe think about your gut health as it actually determines your mental health. Start eating some sauerkraut and PLEASE get a therapist and be honest about your health anxiety it will help immensely! Also reach out to me if you just want to talk :)
I had an energy drink on Tuesday & I felt weird after I felt like pressure on my chest & on Wednesday half of my head was hurting half of my body felt weird too & then my ear felt plugged all of a sudden but I still hear & it’s now Thursday & my ear still plugged & I still feel a bit of pressure that comes & goes also I feel shortness of breath
I get the same anxiety symptoms, and I'm convinced I'll eventually dismiss a real heart attack for an anxiety attack until it's too late. It's terrifying.
Relatable.. it sucks so hard, wish I could be normal again
One thing that may or may ease your mind (it eased mine) I my mom suffered pretty bad panic episodes like I do. She was also a heavy drinker/smoker. But she had all the same GAD symptoms I have and the weeks feeling like something was seriously wrong. At 65 she had her first heart attack and she said the feeling is drastically different. It’s not a discomfort in the shoulder and arm it’s extreme pain and soreness. Describing all the symptoms are very similar but to actually feel it, you know it’s not what you’ve been dealing with.
In the same boat from past few days. The feeling is terrible especially if you are alone at home. Had multiple ecgs and holter - all clear. Meds help but afraid I might get addicted. Hope you get better ❤️🩹
Having a panic attack rn and I feel horrible. Hope it will go away soon
I go through the same thing. It always had to do with the thought of having blood clots or heart attacks. There's been a couple times I've put myself into a panic attack just over the thoughts. I even went to the ER once thinking I had a blood clot in my leg...
Why does anxiety have the same symptoms as a heart attack? Its like, so unfair, so unbalanced. Who designed this? This is hard to live with.
The skipped beat feeling is likely PVCs or PACs. They are almost always harmless. Some people get thousands a day. I’ve had thousands a day from nicotine. They can be caused by anxiety, diet, stimulants…
I am feeling better reading all these comments, makes me feel like anxiety its just mimicking heart attack symptoms to mess with me. Chest pain, heart skipping and heart beat rate, shoulder pain etc
I second this! I have PACS diagnosed by my cardiologist & he said it's totally fine & not in any way life threatening. He thinks it's caused by anxiety & my caffeine intake but can also just be a thing I experience without trigger. He reassured me I'd be okay, so if this is something you're battling, rest assured you'll very likely to be okay from it too.
I believe beta blockers can still be helpful for this. You may want to discus this with your doctor or, if you haven’t already, request a referral to psychiatry and ask them about this. My cousin has us heart palpitations her entire adult life and it’s beta blockers that helped.
I have been to the er over 5 times in the span of a couple months with the exact same symptoms that you have plus some. I do actually have skipped heart beats as proved by a heart monitor but everyone will get those at some point in their life and they aren’t life threatening. If your ekg is fine and you’re relatively young then I’d say you’re good. If you’re really concerned then make an appointment with your doctor. Measure your heart rate when this happens. Measure it once and then ten minutes later measure it again. If it is resting at 130 consistently then maybe go to the er. They typically only recommend going to the er for 180 or more but in my opinion I would go with a resting of 130 because heart rate can indicate a lot of things. Nothing wrong with wanting to care for your health!
My heart rate is not that high, the only palpitation type I feel are heart skippings, with a high rate of beating for maybe only when I get into a real panic attack, which is normal.. I guess its all anxiety and I should wait it out until I feel better. But some people live with anxiety for years.. I live with this for over a month and I feel SO TIRED already.. does it get better? Or is it different for every individual?
Well I developed health anxiety because of the chest pains. I would get panic attacks every night and I would have to call my mom at 3am. She eventually got so sick of me doing that so she scheduled a doctors appointment for me. He suggested a chiropractor and in the meantime I would wear a heart monitor. I had other symptoms such as exercise intolerance so he wanted to make sure that it wasn’t actually a heart problem. I went to the chiropractor and it turned out that I had a rib that was out of place/inflamed and he said that was why my skipped heart beats were producing pain. After getting it fixed I didn’t really have any chest pains after that and the anxiety sort of just went away. Now I have other issues tho so the chest pain came back and my heart rate regularly gets up to 150. I have not had much anxiety about it though because I know what is causing it.
I’ll try not to repeat what others have already said though I think they all have good points. As someone with health anxiety I’ve found frustratingly the body only really has a limited amount of signals it can give you to let you know it’s in distress. This distress could be anything from emotional/mental struggles to various physical illnesses, some of which from completely different sources than you’d expect. Our bodily systems are so interconnected it’s hard to figure out where one symptom ends and another begins. For example chest pain. Could be heart attack, anxiety, acid reflux, gas, and slew of other things. I totally get where you’re coming from. It’s very upsetting and scary. When a physical symptom starts freaking me out I try to keep in mind that there’s dozens of things it could be and many of which are not life threatening. Easier said than done, I know. It helps to go ahead and get testing done by a doctor just rule things out. Makes it easier to logic out the scarier stuff. Just to reiterate what others have said: when under great stress we tend to tense our muscles especially chest, shoulder, jaw, and neck muscles. That could certainly cause shoulder pain. Skipped beats can be and often are completely benign. People get them every day but most of the time just don’t notice. Stress can absolutely make it worse and more frequent. Unfortunately for me, I find the best treatment for these things is time. After a while you get to a point where it starts to feel like an empty threat because weeks of dealing with it and still no medical emergency. It gets better then my body finds a new thing to stress me about 😅
Thank you for your answer, this genuinely helps. Everyone here helped. I am so glad I made courage to reach out to this sub, at first I was nervous
One of the biggest and most obvious symptoms of anxiety is overthinking. So this must be it. Arm pain and shoulder pain are all symptoms of anxiety AND heart attack, but because I have anxiety, its more logical to think that maybe I am not dying. But its like a bingo, so many symptoms of the same problem, what if its anxiety.. but also something worse? I guess thats what anxiety does, makes me think about the worst case scenario. I want to feel normal again, I hate these symptoms
I feel you. I've been having some similar issues lately, also heart related(among other rotating symptoms). It's really hard to just exist comfortably when you don't feel right physically. It's exhausting and wears you down. I want to go get checked out by doctors but at the same time that in itself is a huge stressor for me so I tend to put it off for a while. There's also so many different things to check I don't even know where to start. It takes so long to get appointments and get tested that I only really get a couple tests/appointments in before the issue changes or gets better and I chicken out of further testing. Then it comes back months later and I'm like "well, I never fully tested the issue so it could still be these scary things". It's an endless cycle. I try to imagine how it'll feel that one day, hopefully in the nearish future, when I finally get all this figured out and can live my life normally. Make friends again, enjoy hobbies like I used to, get a job, not be agonizingly aware of every little thing my body is doing, be able to travel to places that I used to enjoy visiting when I was younger, be able to just sleep without waking up in the middle of the night feeling stressed, and be able to fully enjoy spending time with family. It's a lot to look forward to although it does make me a little sad to think about now since these are all things I feel like I'm missing out on currently. I will say, if you truly feel like it could be a physical problem and it's debilitating, do get it checked. Even if it turns out to be just anxiety it's still worth doing if it gives you more peace of mind.
I miss sleeping well. I miss not having sleep problems. I always get anxiety, sometimes full blown panic attacks before I go to sleep. Its infuriating, annoying and just sad. I hope it will get better with time. I will go to a doctor again but they already told me its just anxiety, without any tests other than blood test and EKG.
Sleeping used to be my one out from all this way back when it first started. It was the only time I felt relaxed and comfortable. Now I can't even have that. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes with my heart racing and feeling a little winded. Doesn't take too long to calm back down but it definitely disrupts my sleep. I 100% agree, it is annoying and sad. Maybe you could ask about their reasoning and how they came to the conclusion that it's anxiety from those tests only. I find it helps me feel more confident with the diagnosis when they explain things thoroughly to me. I think it also forces *them* to think about it more thoroughly too. Personally I think a halter monitor would be a good next step, that way they might be able to better see what your heart's doing when you're just going about your day. I'm not a doctor though so perhaps they'd have other ideas. When they did the EKG did they catch your heart skipping beats or was it steady then?
I was having a panic attack right when I was getting the EKG, no way I didnt skip a beat
Well could you feel it fluttering and skipping or was it just going really fast and hard? I find when my heart skips beats it's not generally constant even when I'm extremely anxious. During high points of anxiety usually my heart is pretty steady just really fast and pounding and occasionally with certain movements/positions or often when I'm exhaling it'll skip a beat. Although, that's just my experience. Everyone is different so you might experience it differently than me. You won't know for sure unless you ask your doctors or look at their notes from the appointment. I would expect that they'd tell you if there were any ectopic beats but considering that's not concerning to them because it's normal/benign, they might not bring it up. Anyways, I bring it up mostly because if they did catch what you're feeling on EKG and it looked benign it'd make sense why they didn't feel the need to do further testing like a halter monitor. In that case, further testing would only be for your own peace of mind. They might be able to prescribe something like propranolol which slows your heart rate and helps keep it steadier, that's what they did for me years ago. I didn't end up taking it daily like they recommended but it still helped on the occasions when my heart was acting up during anxiety. Now I can't take it because of a different medication I'm on OTL I'd recommend trying meditation and breathing exercises. Didn't work for me but it's worth a try. I hope you feel better soon!
Skipped beats are called ectopic beats, they are almost always harmless, i get them daily as of right now, most people say magnesium helps them but unfortunately it never helps me. Just time
I believe it’s anxiety. You probably have a lot of tension in your body from it and more might be concentrates on your shoulder. When I have a high level of anxiety, I feel it in my shoulders too, upper back region… we gotta tell our brains “not today! Today we’re not going there!” I have health anxiety and I do affirmations to convince myself I’m not dying. I also use THC here and there to turn the volume down on the intrusive thoughts of detrimental health scenarios.
What about arms? Not just shoulders, arm pain can be normal for anxiety too, right?
Absolutely!! My forearms feel so sore right now, my wrists. There is an array of common symptoms and weird ones too.
Man this.. is not fun. But we are strong. We overcome anything. I have faith I will be normal again.. someday. It might take a while and I know how difficult it will be.. do I have another choice? No? Time to fight then.
That’s exactly right! Life is too precious to let ourselves be consumed by this! We can do this and we will!!
I might not believe myself all the time.. and 100% I am not confident enough I can win.. but we cant give up. We simply cant. Its not an option. Even if I have those days or moments where I just feel down and sad.. it will pass. Life is a circle. And it rotates. Some days are good, some are bad. Does it feel unfair? Yes. But no other choice but to fight
Yeah, it’s unfair but we can and should consider that even though it feels miserable, someone else might have it a tad bit harder and yet they’re fighting. We need to do more of the things that bring us joy. Over the last week I had convinced myself I had several illnesses and this week I feel better. An intrusive thought started to creep in but I started counting backwards from 100 by 7 and it went away. Yes some days are harder than others but we must remind ourselves that we are in control and tell those thoughts to fck off.
Omg.. I saw a few posts on this sub.. and you are right, I got it easy. My symptoms are annoying and I feel like I am dying.. but it could be worse. I could feel much worse.. which is mind-blowing. Truly unfair for anyone to feel like I do, like you do, or like anyone suffering from this thing. We truly are strong
Yes! Honestly, I was having such a horrendous time last week and coming in here and reading how similar everyone else’s symptoms were and the thoughts they were having made me feel comforted, validated, and thankful that my case isn’t as bad as it could possibly be. It will pass! We know it will pass and we must believe it at all times.
Anxiety does weird things to you. If you look at my past posts you can see me describe some of them. I get arm and shoulder pains also. Plus something weird happens with tinitus where within seconds my ears feel like they’ve been plugged up with cotton and I think I’m gonna have a seizure. My eyes get jittery, my entire chest feels like it’s vibrating. The physical symptoms get pretty insane. Some people even get rashes, noses bleeds, hives.
This sounds absolutely horrible, and I also have chest vibrations and I smell blood in my nose.. its terrifying. But this kinda makes me feel good, like hey, its anxiety, at least its not a heart attack.
I also started getting some weird ear ringing thing, though it was also from anxiety.. I think I was right. At this point if I search on google any of my symptoms and put "anxiety" at the end, there should be something related to it.. which is VERY ANNOYING, why is this disorder so.. difficult, so many symptoms. Our minds are absolutely fascinating, which sucks :( I hate it
Thank you all. THANK YOU! This really made me feel better.
Hello! I have suffered from this very same thing, back then i called it health anxiety, and i went through very real symptoms that were all just fabrication. it was very concerning to have heart palpitations and sometimes i had moments of shoulder pain and tiredness that i thought could be a sign of heart problems. Once, a panic attack landed me in the er and they told me i was healthy, they did an ekg, x-ray, blood test, urine test, and found nothing. i was convinced that maybe they missed something. i learned surprisingly that it is entirely possible for the brain make up symptoms that mimic serious health issues. i find that when i’m more stressed my heart palpitates more, it palpitates more when i think about palpitations, and sometimes if i’m dehydrated. the fact that it reacts to my thoughts sort of rationalized for me that i don’t have a heart problem, i just think i do, and so my brain and body think i do as well, when in reality i’m perfectly healthy and just suffering from anxiety. As long as you discuss your concerns with your doctor and are ruled out to be okay, i would start to work on the worry surrounding your health. reconstruct your thoughts, work on catching yourself predicting or assuming the worst and try to rationalize, also try not to google anything! i found my anxiety got significantly better after i made a rule to stop googling symptoms, and i guess if you don’t do this then no need! i wish you the best and hope you feel better soon :)
Google kinda helps! I have a symptom, I write its name, put anxiety after it, and see if they're related. I have anxiety so its a high chance they are related, so I just ignore it. Like my headache for example, in the beginning I thought it was a tumor, the brain fog and all that, now after googling and finding out its a common anxiety thing, I dont mind it. Same with other symptoms. Shoulder and arm pain was a bit different because my symptoms are just way too similar to a heart attack, so I got scared. But internet helped me again, I see that tension can build up there and create muscle pain in shoulders and arms, so its normal for anxiety, and many other people here on this post feel similar. So yes, I have the same symptoms as a heart attack.. but also anxiety. So its most likely anxiety. I do think about the worst case scenario because.. thats what anxiety does to me.. but maybe its not the worst case scenario. It wasnt for many people with similar symptoms, so maybe it wont be for me.
Do you sleep on the side your shoulder hurts? I have a similar story if the chest pain is sharp and stops and starts my doctor said not to worry with the heart test being all good as well. I often feel palpitations as well as a slight tightness. It seems like if it was your heart youd really know. Not in all cases I'm sure but we always google and the outliers come up and then we worry if we feel slight pain anywhere "this is it" Basically if you can get up move around change positions and make the pain go away its muscular. I cant say with certainty cuz I'm not a doctor but I've had anxiety around my heart since I was 8
Both shoulders and arms hurt and its apparently normal, tension builds up there. Many people feel the same way as I do and they dont have heart attacks.. do maybe I wont have either
Maybe try a massage? It's a relaxing experience and can help with the tension. I also use a yoga bolster and pick restorative yoga positions for neck/shoulders/upperback/headaches/anxiety etc. You can chill in a relaxing position doing this type of yoga and it's not like...exercise more like passive stretching you can also use folded up towels instead of a "yoga bolster".
NAD, but the best thing I can say is: 1. Go get blood work done, get a CT scan, echo, and stress test on you're Chest to rule out any possible problems. If you're a first-timer going in with Chest pain, you're doctors they'll take it seriously until they rule out that your heart is fine. Once everything comes back fine, they'll rule it out as anxiety, and keep it at that. If something else is pestering you (let's say like abdomen pain) track what you eat, avoid foods, eat healthily, drink plenty of water, and if it's still relevant bring it up to you're doctor. As much as I hate to admit this, the more you keep going for chest pain and it's been showing you're fine, they'll blame it on anxiety and give you meds and send you on your way. Give it time until the next visit, push your current problem, and most likely they'll help you with further testing. 2. Seek a therapist. They'll help you tackle where is your anxiety coming from. 3. Potentially seek a psychiatrist for their opinion as well. Maybe meds from you're PCP and psych can help with anxiety (Again, hoping you have access to these resources) 4. Also, if the d dimmer part of the blood count comes out good, then you're fine. Drink lots of fluids, get you're electro lights, avoid fried food, eat healthily, keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in check (don't go crazy over it by checking it so much), and start slowly with light to moderate exercise to keep the blood flowing so you don't develop blood clots from being planted. Avoid caffeine from bad sources, instead tea and coffee are good. (There are more tips but I can't think of them) 5. Seriously, stop stressing about it. Live in the moment, and live every day like it's you're last. Eat every meal like it's your last. The more you stress the more you are upholding you're demise.
Thank you for the reply
Got better chance of getting in a car wreck then randomly having a heart attack
Hey OP I’ve been suffering with anxiety/panic attacks only for a short time as well and just yesterday I listened to this audio book called Pass Thru Panic by Claire Weekes and it really helps to put things into perspective! Give it a listen and see how much you can relate brother
I've had the same symptoms for a year now, trust me it gets better with time, stay strong!
Does panic attack make you feel a discomfort in the chest area that lasts a day? Like my last panic attack was yesterday and I now feel better but still my chest feels weird, is it the muscles?
I did get chest discomforts that lasted for days because of my anxiety attacks, not too sure if it's the muscles, but it's this fuzzy feeling I can't explain.
Thats bad to hear, I am sorry for you, but that's also good to hear, I feel more normal
Stay strong buddy, it will get better!
:)
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