Hello, im 16 year old male, and around half a year ago i've started to experience chest pains, arm pains ect... the symptoms are getting a bit worse over time... i had ecg done in the past and blood test, i keep going back to my gp, last time i've went telling him about irregular heart rate after excercise, he told me that if i really had irregular rythm i would continue having it after excercise... and that i overthink this... but it feels so real, sometimes when im on my computer i dont get any pains or anything, as soon as i leave the house or start moving around or excercising, drinking alchohol, sometimes eating and thinking about the fat in the food or whatever, or if i take few puffs of a ciggarete (i dont smoke, but i used to from time to time) i get chest pains esspecially from smoking it makes me all weird panicky and worried about heart rate... i cant do this anymore... i think i lost some of my appetite as well... im afraid to leave my house or do stuff that people my age would do... i keep thinking i've got a heart disease that no one pays attention to... the last ecg i had was few months back i think they didnt pick it up because it wasnt as severe... ahh is this really just anxiety... should i go to counselor because my gp said he can refeer me to one... im just confused and scared of death... i've had a lot of experience in the hostipals for pneumonia when i was a child, and i used to have nightmares and walk at night apperantly... i've had a panic attack (i think) before it was when i was walking up the hill after smoking, and i got all panicy i was checking my heart rate and my heart rate went rapid when i was walking up the hill... i've became scared of excercising, smoking, drinking, and overall leaving my house or hang around too many people... so is this really anxiety? can anxiety seem so real? can it really cause such physical symptoms...
Hi Karis, yes anxiety can do all of that. From what you have said you have anxiety and definitely a counsellor can be of help. The body responds physically to the anxious thoughts, because all it responds to is a possible threat. The body prepares for danger, it doesn't care if it's real or not, do it goes into protective mode and if the anxious thoughts keep going do do the physical feelings. Understanding how the body responds to stress/ anxiety is a good start and then getting to the triggers with the help of a therapist is a great step also. It's all based on fear and some of our fears can stem from trauma or other experiences and we then stay on alert for danger, and some circumstances will trigger them off and the anxiety kicks in once again. It's really hard I know but learning to calm yourself during anxiety by telling yourself you are safe will help your body to stop responding to danger and calm it. I know the feelings very well too. Getting knowledge about anxiety and getting therapy is a great step forward.
Hi karis. I had the same thing and still get it from time to time. If the ecg says your well then you are. Anxeity can feel so real that it tells your mind that it is. Try and keep yourself busy. The more you sit there and think about it the more your gonna feel it. You will feel normal again i promise Ino it doesnt feel like it but you will. Hope you start feeling bettee sooon
Thanks for replying! it helps to have someone to reassure me, that im ok... but still can smoking or drinking really trigger it? or even excercise? i think that it probably can as i worry about speed of my heart rate... but i cant be sure with it, it's hard to put my mind in ease when this is happening... ill probably go back to my doctor and ask him to refeer me to a councelor, to get some help in controlling this... again thank's for replying!
Thank's for replying it helps to have someone to reassure me, that im ok. im still a bit scared that smoking or smoke and alchohol cause me to have these pains... it might be because i panic because of my heart rate? i dont know... ill go to my gp to ask him to reefer me to a councelor.
Hey how are you? It's definitely anxiety. I have a lot of the same symptoms. That's why I don't smoke or and rarely drink anymore lol. Every time I have a smoke BAM instant panic. And usually when I drink, the day after as soon as I wake up, I'm crushed with worse anxiety than before. I literally suffer from so many symptoms now it blows my mind, I'm ALWAYS thinking I'm having a heart attack but I have to remind myself that it's all just my anxiety. I've had 2 EKG or whatever they're called since September and both times they said I was fine. The 2nd time I went into the ER because of a really bad panic attack they told me it was just anxiety and that since I have these symptoms every day and have attacks everyday that I have panic disorder. The new symptoms have been catching me off guard. Last week I randomly had weird feelings in my face and today I've had like a tingling feeling in my left cheek and a weird pain in my neck. It's been going on for a lil over an hour but it goes away unless I really start thinking about it. What I'm trying to get at here is just don't be like me and overthink every little thing. It's hard for us with anxiety and panic disorder but when you really try to focus on other things life seems to get better. There's no reason why we should live in fear everyday
Thank you for replying! this seems so complicated, and it seemes to be ruining me and who i am... i feel like i cant do anything without this getting in my way, i feel weak my muslces are aching i feel every move i make is going to end up in me having a heart attack, just now i've been playing and talking to a a game buddy, i was vaping on a e-cig every now and then and didnt really feel much, as soon i stopped playing it and took few drags, i felt my heart palpitating and i keep checking my pulse, even now im thinking about it... it seems like my heart is weak and is going to stop... especially after smoking... or it beats so strong not nessicerely fast but strong... it's making me worried... i really dont want this to controll the way i want to live and do things... but sometimes it seems like i have to stop doing what i want, just so i could not worry about this stuff...
also shortness of breath comes in... and sometimes muscle twitches sometimes it feels like my heart muscle twitches... it's really worrying, and sometimes it seems to come without me being worried at that moment, although i've been talked to about sub-consious mind and how it works, so maybe that's that...
i've been thinking if it could be moving to the other country, three years ago... although i only started to get this around 1 year ago... because i've been back to my country for holiday i didnt feel anything really i rly ignored and kind of forgot about it, as i was hanging around with my good old friends i didnt want to cause drama about me being unwell, i just ignored it... and i was smoking and i didnt feel a thing! where was before everytime i would smoke it would give me chest and arm pains... that was half a year ago or so, i thought it was a coincidence that it went away when i was on holiday... and when i came back here i started feeling bad all overagain and this time it kept getting worse... im sorry for talking about so much stuff at once, i just feel the need to tell this... and thank you again, for your response!
Panic disorder are more severe then anxiety. All need therapy and learning about it and techniques. Its too difficult to to know all this and self do it. So you get a therapist and take it drom there. Panic attacks cause intense symptoms.very intense. The bidy is in fight ir flight and terrified at times thats the way it works. Primitive instinct and triggers stress hirmines and adrenaline, so its a lot to manage and learn about. You will over time. And yes you will change and yes you need too. Your lifestyle of drinking or a oking even caffiene will be done, it heaightems it and brings it on so you wont want that. Silly chatter iver nonsense will annoy you. Especially when anxious, but theres tons just like you and youll find them and fun will take on a different meaning, what does hapoen is anxiety rules. Massive lies you put in olace to avoid panic attacks. Only they dint make sense and will imprison you. Thats the opposite of what to do. Thats why therapy is really important now and if needed meds. You need to be calm enough to absorb all you learn to manage the actual thoughts and fake beliefs. Its a journey. Its a committment and a lot of awareness amd mindfulness amd self acceptance. Also adrenaline rushes of anykind will trick you. Because oanic attacks include adrenaline rushes it cinnects as a bad thing. A cruddy memory thing connected to anxiety so yes steing exertion and such which triggers a rush, even a scary movie rush the bidy thinks its the oanic amd reacts that way. So when you learn skills amd techniques you would immediately incorporate this and dismantle that. Like all of sudden you have to manually self calm yourself. Something haooens to all of us where its nit automatic reset self calm. Its weird. And unfair and hard but it is what it is amd you have to figure what works for you. And you will. No ine wants this, ni ine and no ine just immeditely believes this is a thing but it is. Very intnse symptoms accomoany a oanic attack. Overtime youll have a way better idea about that. I think a journal is excellent. Wrote down all of it every time. The thiughts, the symptoms, the beliefs and then the after experience. You do this enough you have just made yourself a handbook to yourself and how it is for you. Very helpful. Because in the calmer moments and in therapy you can dismantle all this into clear rationale. Then over time you use thise dismantled rationale to guide you thru it. Its cbt, dbt and grounding working together. And then add on proper be
ly nreathing and mindful exercises but thise come later in the process because acceptance has to occur first. Theres a ton of books, audio books, podcasts, pinterest, you tube so much out there to ecolain and help. Id say get an anxiety and phibis workbook a dbt workbook and use those two. Thats a good start and a good guide. Its like the. basics 101. Most therapist follow those guides as well.
Best advice i can give is Don't attatch any outcomes to anything. This is a terrible idea. Reason is your current way of thinking will attach negative outcomes. And the mind and body feed off each ither and wont kniw the difference between fake and reality. So then when you go or do whatever you already attatched an outcome too it wont oan out well. Like brainwashing yourself. Theres a lot of memory storage in you. A ton. So everytime you oanic its saved. And the mind rememebers and the body. Little short cuts and connectors happen. So understand this takes a lot of time to get it managed enough to function "normally" again. And it changes you. How could it not. All you can do is be kind to yourself and patient and so your best with all this. Thats it. Domt expect others to be your savior or baby you or be all that compassionate. It doesnt happen. The only people who can relate to this are people who have experienced it. Some dont get it at all and view it as irrational. Thats on them. You will learn not to care anout that. It will hurt your feelings but youll come to adjust to that. You need you. Thats the most imprtant person to concern yourself with. And you need you to be compassionate and patient amd cheer you in no matter what. That helps a lot in this. Its the old cliche you have to be your own best friend. Unconditionally. You will find people you can absolutely relate to by the way so dont worry about that. Theres a lot out there similiar situation. Its 1 out of 4 actually but some stay in denial, some hide it, some medicate it and that works for them, some are filled with self hate and some accept it and live their lives. Big mix.
Check your messages. Some helpful links and such.
So many typos..sorry
Thanks! dont worry it's not that long! :D but this helps, this whole thing started with me feeling like my memory is shi* tbh... i've read somewhere that anxiety causes your short term or long term memory to be affected, i dont know if it's true... also i get some nausea in the morning... althought i think im just dehydrated.. all these symptoms with chest pains shortness of breath... ect... add up and make it really hard to believe it's just anxiety and me panicing... but yeah i try to make myself calm, i found a while a go that music helps, although im not a fan to listen to music if im panicing i feel like i dont have the time for it or it will make it even worse :D well i dont know, i always make sure i have a phone on me incase something does happen... i guess this is realy a sign of bad anxiety and panic... but yeah thanks for your reply and taking time to help me ill try to power through this, and if the symptoms start ill keep this in my mind, and i will probably go to a councelor or therapist, to see what's up... although i had a councelor in school once, it did help at the time, but it seemed like everytime i would leave the coucelor ir would be back to the symptoms again... again thanks for reply!