Anxiety of undiagnosed illness particularly in the heart

[Tommymc18]

Hey guys first time poster and I'm currently an 18yo and was been mentally great for the first part of the year and that was until three events turned that right round. Firstly uni exams got me into a state of sever anxiety to the point where I would no exercise and not being able to do the things I loved, secondly during exams my grandad had a second heart attack but was ok and up until my third event I was improving mentally and physically. That was until I had a blood pressure test and I registered at 160 which I was shocked and also freaked the hell out of me as my dad has also had high blood pressure however I put this down to the fact that I wasn't relaxed nor was I ready and thus very nervous and anxious.

My problems have really began in the last week since that test and have been obsessing over my heart and how it beats so fast sometimes. Of course I research on the Internet and all I find is links to heart issues and as I research more and more (stupidly) I come across a series of stories where people my age have undiagnosed heart conditions and drop dead out of the blue without warning. When I see this, I go into complete panic and my anxiety and stress levels become uncontrollable. Odd thing is I've never had a serious illness in my life and the history of any heart issues in my family are almost non existent with most of my grandparents and great grand parents living until late 80's and 90's. Every hour of the day I'm consumed that there is something wrong with me but haven't been able to diagnose it and thus I'm anxious about anything I do now.

Any advice for me would be greatly appreciated as I'm certainly in a tough period at the moment.

[Tommymc18]

I plan on going to a therapist tomorrow and getting doctors appointment in a couple of days to make sure everything is 100%. I'm one of those people that get worked up and padantic about something real quick. I mean I've never had a health scare ever and when I saw the 160, it honestly scared the **** out of me and good old dr Google made it even worse unfortunately.

[Paxiled]

Just to show how weird anxiety is, I once had my BP tested during a bad anxiety attack and it was my usual lower than most people BP.  And the thing with Google is, if you have a diagnosis or you're receiving treatment and you don't think everything's going the way you think it should, Google is great or that, but if you don't have a diagnosis of anything just Googling symptoms is death and destruction -- every symptom can be tied to some disorder somewhere.

[Paxiled]

First of all, everyone dies sometime, so if you drop dead and die quickly, well, there's no better way to go.  But that isn't going to happen to you.  Anxious people way too often believe they're having heart problems when they aren't, though it's not a bad idea for someone with actual symptoms to get them checked out.  If you look at the archives on this forum you'll see a ton of people, mostly young people with very low probabilities of having heart problems, believing they have them.  What you need to do is, given you're having a problem adapting to stress, and life will always be stressful if you focus on the stress, is look into seeing a therapist who specializes in anxiety treatment and learn how you're thinking and how to change it and some relaxation techniques.  And don't stop the exercise.