Please read! 3 Ecgs 1 chest X-ray and Bloods!

Mental health
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I've been obsessing with my heart and my breathing after my 2 panic attacks last April, I've been suffering for months with this anyway after these panic attacks in April I feel like I notice my breathing a lot is this normal and I have been left with nearly every physical Symtoms under the sun my 3 main ones are.

Shortness of breath 24/7

Derealiazation 24/7

Heart flutters 24/7

Anyway I have had 3 ecgs and they have came out all normal and a chest X-ray which I am waiting on my results from my go which in presuming is going to be fine and presuming my bloods are go

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Go

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i pressures post and didn't meen to there guys sorry my phone went abit mental.

Anyway my do you think I should accept my anxiety and believe it as anxiety if my chest X-ray comes back normal and my bloods do? This chest pressure is unbelievable at times and also there is like this pulling sensation in the middle of my chest that makes me want to catch my breath all the time it's sort of like a itch that needs scratching and won't go away feels like my whole breathing pattern has changed I don't know what normal breathing is anymore, thanks for your reply in advance guys and sorry for the 3 posts my phone went mad!

I'm curtly having CBT therapy to and on meds, Plus is it normal to have all hear physical Symtoms after 2 full blown panic attacks I've felt like this since April last year I feel like I'm never going to get better.

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I get these constantly. Youre fine. Think about it, you wouldve been dead already if the pains were real.. We all would. Tell yourself the flutters are anxiety. Youll stop being scared of them, and youll notice they magically go away eventually.

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It just worrying that I feel as if my doctor had missed something as they are so strong sometimes along with the shortness of breath 24/7 to its all jus so worrying😞

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I know.. Youre just hyperventilating, so just remember that even though it seems like you cant breath, your body is getting enough oxygen. Its actually getting too much, which is why you feel like that. Taking the deep breaths isnt good, it actually makes it worse. Just take slow breath, hold for about 4 seconds and slowly breathe out for about 7 seconds.

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Thanks for your advice I will practise these exercises, will this pulling feeling in the middle of my chest go within time just that's the feeling that makes me want to take a deep breath and when i can't catch it i panic more, Like I say I can only describe it as a annoying itch that needs scarring but never goes away,Thanks for your advice!

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Scratching*

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Someone else was complaining of that on here a while back. Im assuming since its just an anxiety symptom that itll most likely go away once you stop paying attwntion to it.

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Luke

If you have had all the tests, you need to trust your test results, You seem to anticipate the results. 

Accept you are as fit as a Lop and move on with life

BOB

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Thanks for your advice bob as always, good to hear abit of reassurance🙂 I'm sure if there was something seriously wrong my X-ray and ECG would of picked it up right?

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It's hard not to pay attention to all my physical Symtoms I hate them I just wish there would go away there isn't a day goes by were I don't notice them😞

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Ah, Luke... The issue isn't your heart, my dear.

This issue is that after a series of extensive a tests which all came back clear, you continue to think that something has been missed.

Bob said to you:

"You need to trust your test results."

To which you immediately respond with: "if something was wrong they would have picked it up, right?"

This above is your entire issue... Read it and see...your problem is sat in the above paragraph as clear as day:

*Doubt

*Reassurance

*Doubt.

That is the cycle and I say this to all, severe anxiety sufferers on this forum: When people say to you that, yes - there is a problem. But it is not with your heart (or whatever your health concern is,) what they are describing is the above.

I have no doubt that you will read this and most likely ask me whether or not I think your tests were accurate - because this is your fixation and all you can see.

Until you accept that your behaviour continues to generate your doubt and fears, you will continue to doubt every test and continue to believe you have an illness.

health anxiety is a form of OCD. obsessively and compulsively fixating upon an illness: fixating on symptoms, constantly checking for lumps, bumps or any other changes in your body is no different to checking light switches, doors and ovens 100 times a day.

Believing that you have an illness but are the only person in the world who does is no different to believing that you can change the outcome of things by repeating a movement, having items placed in certain order or clapping your hands a certain amount of times.

If left, it will begin to govern your every waking minute. OCD consumes.

CBT, therapy (or both,) is what you need to be pursuing. Not doctors. you need help to beat this...tests are not cutting it. If they did - you would be okay now.

So... You old methods aren't working for you - try a NEW one.

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Thanks for your reply sillymop.

All of what you have said is true I do do a lot of reassurance seeking but I can't help it with all my Symtoms going on i find it hard to believe that anxiety can cause all this I was normal before I had these 2 full blown panic attacks last year and I took it all for granted I don't know what normal is anymore, my breathing isn't normal I feel I'm fixated on it because i have shortness of breath 24/7 I wake up in a day dream with this derealization I wake up in the morning like in seeing the world through a Camera lense and my first thought in the morning is "can I still feel my anxiety has it eased up is it still there". Not to mention these heart flutters I get feels like there is a butterfly in my chest.

Arghhh I'm just so frustrated and I want it all to go away I didn't have the best of lifestyle before all this but now I'm making a real go for it to go away I'm exercising doing a 30 min jog a day im doing mindfullness breathing and other breathing exercises but I don't feel in getting anywhere with it to be fair I just feel the same and notice my anxiety and Symtoms 24/7.

You mentioned CBT ive been having it for the last 3 months because I have been that bad and I'm on propanolol and Mitrazpine.

Sorry for rambling I'm just at my wits end with it as you can tell I feel like I'm going to be stuck like this for ever and feeling like this forever no matter how hard I try.

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Hello,I went through the same thing;on several occasions I thought

I was having a heart attack. It took nearly a year for me to realize

It was coming from stress. Shortness of breath,derealiazation,heart

flutter,palpitations,night sweats,clammy hands and irritability. I'm currently

on meds and feeling much better. I hope this helps!!!☺

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after reading some of these comments Luke I 100% sympathise with you I'm having same symtops and worries I called an ambulance as I was alone just me and my 2 year old son and I generally thought I was having a heart attack although I had a ecg and chest x ray and everything was fine but sometimes we doubt our test result as we listen to our bodies and heads which sometimes can make us think irrationally. So 100% get where your coming from. They say take deep breaths and stuff but when your full swing of a panic attack, it's hard to think and not worry are you currently on any medication? Maybe a visit to your gp to get some would help smile I'm off down to doctors in the morning to sort something as I can't keep calling an ambulance and loosing sleep thinking I'm dying of a heart attack lol. 👍🏻 But I hope that things get better for you. Don't let the anxiety win! 

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Luke, it is great news to hear that you are undergoing CBT. It is not always an instant process and can take a while. I suffer from OCD myself and I found that, after completing a course of CBT, it was combining this with talking therapy where I really noticed things began to click in.

This I would recommend whole heartedly to you.

I can tell by the wording g that you use that you are still currently gripped by it and still reluctant to let go. OCD is often born from a fear of losing control. In your case, you fear of being out of control of your body. This is a learned behaviour that you have adopted since your panick attack.

You disbelieve that your mental state could physically effect you to the extent that it has...and so you choose to believe it is physical.

I am not being mean when I say that you choose and it actually isn't your usual form of choice.

You in no way say "I am going to choose to believe I am ill because it suits me."

However... The entire health anxiety cycle is a type of behaviour which is entirely linked with your anxiety and I think this is what you need help with. A good counsellor can help you.

I really feel for you because I can tell you are in a terrible state. But you have to accept the severity of your anxiety and how it effects you physically. Then you can learn coping strategies and recognise the signs of your anxiety in the first place. Chasing the belief you are ill gives into the anxiety, perpetuates it and allows you to spiral.

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I feel like tye CBT helps and I feel like it dosnt if you get me It just really annoys me how something you feel mentally can turn in to something physical hense all these physical Symtoms I even question if I'm alive sometimes my derealization is that bad it feels as if my head is goin to pop with the pressure of it at times.

Yea I am definatly still gripped by it so you think if I just accept it as anxiety and let it be and just have a thinking of "it won't hurt me" then it will fade? It even go away?

Don't worry sillymop I know you're not been meen you're been truthful and I respect that I would rather someone be truthful and beat around the bush.

I fell like once i get these results back of my chest X-ray and my bloods I will be able to accept it as anxiety and get my head round it just I have felt like this after my first panic attacks is it normal to spiral into anxiety after a full blown attack and have all these Symtoms?

Yea I'm currently learning about health anxiety with my CBT therapist and I am learning coping strategies to she believes that I should just let go and accept it as anxiety and stop looking for physical reason because like you say there she says I am just adding fuel to the fire.

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It's truely awful to live with everyday isn't it Charlotte it has affected everything in my life I used to be really sociable now I coudnt look at going out with my mates, I see that as a really challenge where as before I would of just got ready and went straight out the door now I just overthink things all the time.

I felt like I'm having a heart attack loads of times the heart pressure I get is unbelievable feels like there is a elephant sat right on it and i can't get a full breath but I've never called an ambulance just went to my doctors and he ordered me a chest X-ray and ECG I've had 3 ecgs which were all fine and waiting for the results of my X-ray which I also think I is going to be fine to.

I wish I was normal again I don't know what normal is anymore me!

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Hi proud Mary

I think if we're were having a heart attack all of us woudnt be here would we but what we feel at that present moment it feels so real and awful doesn't it I woudnt wish all this on my worst enemy.

I've got all the Symtoms you mentioned above derealization shortness of breath and heart flutters and the palpitations, all of them I have 24/7 I just wish they would all go.

Yeah in already on medication I'm on propanolol and mitrazpine I've been on these for a fair few months the propanolol helps calm me but that's it really.

It's the heart flutters that scare me the most and the shortness of breath because you put them both together and you think heart problem.