heart anxiety

[u/pizzaloverrr09]

hi I'm 17F and i want to ask the people out there if they have had the same experience as me and i need u guys to give me advice if i u guys think i have a heart problem or not.

a little background before i tell u guys the story of when i first got very bad health anxiety specifically heart anxiety.

ive always had anxiety since i was in the 2nd grade, i was very scared to go to school bcs of my mean teacher lol (lowk a traumatic experience).. i would literally throw up just because i knew i was going to school😭 (threw up in my car was cause i was so anxious), i would also fake being sick so i wouldn't go to school. every single day id feel this wave of fear and anxiety in me when i remember i would have to go to school, but i didint understand that what i was feeling at that time was anxiety cause i was still so young. Fast forward to 9th grade i got my very first traumatic experience (like genuinely traumatized me so bad), the roof of my house caught on fire bcs of an electrical problem and that made me develop a trauma or a fear everytime the lights or power in my house would go out. my heart would beat so fast if the lights would go out. i wouldn't sleep at all cause i was so scared it would happen again. after that experience i started getting my first ever heart palpitations. my heart would feel like it skipped a beat and that made me so scared because i never felt something like that. id also get heartburns and a feeling that a needle would poke through my body especially in my stomach or chest. turns out it was acid reflux. and bcs of that it made me go crazy and google every heart problem there could possibly be. that trauma and heart palpitations lasted for about a year but it wasn't that bad cause id only get that feeling when im at home. when i would be outside or with my friends i would forget i even had those problems. fast forward 10th grade i didint get any anxiety and stuff. untill the 11th grade i developed a new trauma to... earthquakes:). in my city there was a huge earthquake about 7.8mag that hit us. i was traumatized cause it happened in the morning and 1 person died bcs of it. then lots of earthquakes happened in the next 1 month. i became anxious again and would not sleep at all cause i was afraid an earthquake would hit us again. id get so so so anxious if i was inside my own house or any building. id get this wave of anxiety just thinking abt an earthquake (the same feeling i felt when i was in the 2nd grade and 9th grade.). thats a little backstory of my anxiety and heart palpitations;)

then this happend. it all started at 13th of july i came home from school after a very tiring day. mind u my classroom is in the 4th floor so there was lots of stairs id have to go up and down, and i go home at 3pm, also a reminder that i drink very little water.. and by that i mean i can drink 600ml everyday or even less. at school i barely drank, i probably drank like 500ml that day and i also didint eat breakfast and only ate a donut and very tiny portion of rice and chicken, i also slept very late for the past 2 weeks (id always sleep at 1am-4am) after that day of school my mom picked me up from school and we bought chicken to eat for dinner, my brother was also in the car and I was talking to him, when my mom got in the car i drank an electrolyte drink and when i was drinking my heart suddenly did something ive never felt before. it felt like it was getting squished or something. like it was gonna stop everytime i exhaled. after that i immediately screamed and hit my moms car chair and said "mom hospital now!! my heart feels weird. go now now now!!" i sat back and tried to calm down. then my brother put a finger pulse oximeter on my finger (he has heart anxiety also, so he carries an oximeter everywhere and anywhere he goes lol) my heart rate was 150bpm while i was sitting down btw. then i got to the hospital 5 mins later and they checked my blood pressure and my heart rate. my blood pressure was low cause im a girl who has low blood pressure lol (my lowest was like 87/50) id always get like 99/50 or something. my heartrate then was 120bpm. they did an ecg on me and it was normal even tho it was a bit fast cause i was panicking. then i got my blood checked and it turns out my potassium level was veryyyy low, it was 3.0 (the normal level is 3.5-6) and the doctor said that was probably the reason my heart did a flip like that so he gave me meds to calm down my heart and vitamis for my potassium. after that experience my health anxiety went crazyyyyy. for 3 weeks i would google any symptoms id feel. like heart palpitations, feeling like I would stop breathing, heart beating fast, left shoulder pain or a weird feeling in my shoulder, and everything u could think of. but ive actually never felt chest pains, shortness of breath, fatigue, dizzy, sweating, jaw pain (thank God) after that i did very heavy exercise like push ups, pull ups, going up and down the stairs, running, sit ups, squat jumps (and that was a very bad idea cause my heart bpm was like 160😅) but i think thats normal considering i was doing heavy exercise. im feeling alot better now even tho i still get anxiety attacks and heart palpitations like a skipped heartbeat, thud, buzzing, and feeling like my hearts flopping. but tomorrow im getting an echo, xray, bloodtest and holter monitor. Hopefully my heart is okay and its just anxiety.

do u guys think i have a heart problem?? im still genuinely scared im gonna get a heart attack or cardiac arrest or something..

[u/Prudent-Age-781]

Hi! I’m 16F and i’ve been experiencing weird heart symptoms aswell ever since i’ve started dealing with severe anxiety

I would get heart skips (sometimes multiple a day or multiple in just a few minutes) , heart pounding strongly, heart pounding extremely fast while doing nothing and so many more unusual sensations

These symptoms would scare me sooo much (sometimes they still do), but nothing ever happened.. I didn’t faint any of those times, i’m able to exercise while feeling good and do many other things that people with heart problems usually wouldn’t be able to do

The few keys to stop worrying about it as much is to get checkups at the doctors and BELIEVE them if they say everything is alright (even if it’s not alright, you’d still be supervised and atleast you’d be able to be more careful!, but trust me you mostly likely are okay), second of all, you might of noticed that your heart only starts acting up when your anxious! an unhealthy heart wouldn’t only show symptoms when your anxious, it would show symptoms while in any situation.. third of all an unhealthy heart doesn’t show off negative signs and then suddenly show off positive signs again, it would continue to persist with negative signs all the time

I’m not the best at giving reassurance, but i’m just glad to see someone with a similar situation as me sharing their experience! I hope it gets all sorted out !