new to the website

[kbb34]

Hi Everyone:

I am new to this site and have been reading through the posts and cannot believe how similar I feel to what has been said.  I am 27 years old and have probably had some form of health anxiety since I was 16.  My mom kept e-mails from when I was a freshman in college when I was so sure that I had ovarian cancer.  I also have been certain that I had a brain tumor and have had cat scans and MRI and the doctor just decided it was migrane headaches.

That being said I am going through some HA right now and just wanted to get it out in the open.  My family and fiance are very sick of me asking "does this happen to you?" "Is this normal?" "Do you think I am going to be ok?" etc. Just some background. Both of my grandfather's died last year within a week of each other, one with a heart attack and another with ALS, my other only living grandmother had triple bypass within 3 months of all of this.  Honestly, I felt like I was dealing with it ok and don't really feel anxious.  After a nice week at the beach I came home and became basically obsessed with taking my pulse.  One morning I woke up and my heart rate was over 100 and each day after that the same thing happened.  I decided to go to the doctor who did an EKG and said that my heart was indeed fast and put me on beta blockers.  I have been waiting to go to the cardiologist for almost 3 weeks and my heart seems to be acting "normal" That being said I read that heart racing can be a sign of lung problems and I also occassionally have a difficult time breathing or catching my breath, but it goes away very quickly.  I am worried that it might be lung cancer and not actually my heart at all because I have had severe back pain on my left side for over a year.  I am exposed to chemicals at school as a chemistry teacher (but don't sniff them or anything ) and don't smoke nor have I ever.  I weigh 115lbs and walk 45 minutes a night for exercise.  I feel like this is really messing up my life. 

Sorry for the huge story, but this all makes me so nervous and I am trying to overcome it.  Thanks for reading!

[sixpack]

Hi kbb

I understand why you have health anxiety.  It is frightening when loved ones get ill, especially with very 'hypo oriented diseases'  It is truly understandable.  BUT, and a BIG BUT, that doesn't mean it is going to happen to you.  Oh eventually we are all going to die. We can't get around that.  But we can't live day to day waiting for death to come knocking.  I mean, really, how is that living?   

On the bright side everything you describe is easily attributed to anxiety.  Many here have fast pulses.  Was it truly from an issue with your heart OR was it the anxiety causing it?  We have back pains, shortness of breath, catching our breath.....  I was doing that yesterday.  There really is no reason to believe you have lung cancer, really right?  My husband is a chemist.  He is a PH.d working with all kinds of weird stuff for many years.  He hasn't had any health ailments as a result of his occupation.  Health Anxiety feeds off of our faulty, overthinking.  Overthinking is our BEAST.  It just nipicks at stuff until it finds a nice soft spot---where you are good and vulnerable.  Then it has you.  don't underestimate the BEASTY.  It knows what you fear.  And it can produce just about any ache/pain that you can easily be attributable to the disease you fear.  Just think back to all of the horrible diseases you thought you had in the past...................how many did you actually have?

[AruroGotti]

Welcome, it feels good to get things off your chest every once and a while and communicate with people who have HA and understand the struggle

You sound very healthy though, great weight, aerobic exercise every night, dont smoke, etc. Your at the very least putting your heart in a healthy environment. Sinus tachs a common and benign occurance for a good number of people

Im curious, did you wear a 24 hour holter monitor that warranted the beta blocker prescription?

[kbb34]

Thank you for the kind responses...

I actually am still waiting to go to the cardiologist.  I never wore a heart monitor I figure that might happen when I get there.  My heart was beating sort of fast at the regular doctor and then once they started hooking up the EKG it really started pounding.  I tried to explain to the nurse that it was going waaay faster than it had at my house (i always get really nervous at the Dr.) and also to the doctor I was seeing.  He ran some blood work (thyroid, vitamins, anemia) and called back and said all of that looked good but he wanted me to get checked out regardless.  I asked if he thought it was anxiety and he said it was too fast to be anxiety...so that's why im a bit nervous. 

[AnxiousMatt]

Too fast to be anxiety?!

HAHA I guess this doctor has never seen some of us before...people can get really worked up from anxiety and a heart rate of way over 120 would be common if your in an anxious and stressed out state of mind

I sometimes wake up with my heart pounding at 100 bpm, but its because im anxious, and I can literally feel the andrenaline pumping right above my stomach and below my rib cage

[AruroGotti]

Thank you for the kind responses...

I actually am still waiting to go to the cardiologist.  I never wore a heart monitor I figure that might happen when I get there.  My heart was beating sort of fast at the regular doctor and then once they started hooking up the EKG it really started pounding.  I tried to explain to the nurse that it was going waaay faster than it had at my house (i always get really nervous at the Dr.) and also to the doctor I was seeing.  He ran some blood work (thyroid, vitamins, anemia) and called back and said all of that looked good but he wanted me to get checked out regardless.  I asked if he thought it was anxiety and he said it was too fast to be anxiety...so that's why im a bit nervous. 

I see, yea Im not going to question an MD I just find it a little odd he would prescribe a b-blocker based on a rapid 2min EKG read. I have had 2 12 lead EKG's in my life and like you I was extremely anxious and I dont believe I dipped below 130bpm either time, but my 24 hour holter showed a resting rate in the 50s.

anyhow good luck and keep us posted, im sure everything will work out in time

[monkey]

my HA started to pick up after i experienced some family health issues and deaths. my dad had a heart attack 5 years ago and he is still here! well i asked my dr about my heart and she said they wouldnt have to start really watching it until i am 40. thats 17 years away! hopefully i forget about it so i dont have to worry about it for that long.