Cardiophobia- Worst ever

[blink1147]

I've been having at least four anxiety attacks a night because I'm so terrified of my heart. I have OCD, so I have quite a few obsessions, but this is the most intense thing I've ever experienced. It's been going on now for about 7 months, and I've been to the hospital over it. I don't know if it skips beats or not, I'm to scared to hold my hand over my heart long enough to find out.
When I feel my heart beat, I'm so terrified it'll stop that I have to move around until I can't feel it anymore. But then I just go crazy that I can't feel it anymore. I have severe insomnia over it now (that's why I'm on here at 6:42 am, I haven't slept yet).
I'm not a doctor, But I'm pretty sure I have severe cardiophobia. I have visions that just pop into my head of me dying on the floor too fast for anyone to help me, and I have stress related chest pains, but somehow I always seem to forget that when I have them and I go into a panic.
It's wrecking my life, and I'm constantly in fear, so if ANYONE knows ANYTHING about getting over it without therapy (too poor) could you please send it to my profile? Or a VERY cheap insurance, maybe? That way I could just get help. Thanx

[johnnyeire]

nice comment......it seems about right

[johnnyeire]

i wil be fine and next of all when i am in class it starts......it will then last all through a 3hr class until at least 8hours later. i cant seem to get my focus of it...its like a sick game..... forget the actual feelings of it..... i csant sem to wake up and live without this. i dont know if theres a point in describing the feelings but mine have to do with worryignabout my heart...checking pulse.... very tight chest that constricts my breathing.....this can send me into overbreathing and panic. i have been of clonozapan for 2 years and have tried to naturally assist myself also ive included helpful reading. anyway most sensations for me are with breathing and chest area. hmmmmm, one more throat clearing and sniffling all the damn time seem also to accompany me. lol.

[TonySuprano]

Blink i have this too it's horrible, i get to a point im scared to even exert exercise for fear of HA, in the shower other morning i had chest pains. Ran out shampoo and all....sat on bed...Damn scary that fear!!!...... Cardiophobia explains it well.  I also seen my Dad in the ICU hooked up after a bypass 4months ago and i think this has triggered it.

[MartaBCN]

Hi guys!!

I am Marta from Barcelona, Spain. I am so glad to see I am not alone. There are not many webs with info in Spanish, but luckily I can also speak English :-) I have been suffering from cardiophobia and panic attacks for a long time now. I think it all has more to do with our own inner insecurities (about how fragile is life and our fear to lose the ones we love or the life we live) than with anything wrong in our hearts. Stop worrying about your hearts and be assured you will live a long life, because you will. A hug to every one of you!

M

[postnasalzulu]

You need to relax, if there WAS anything wrong with your heart, seriously wrong, it would have manifested itself by now. You are fine. You need to stop symptom checking and to start being rational about this. Its obviously dictating your  life

[little_blue_jay]

Thank you so much for your comments KirstinMc! I actually just printed them out!

This all sounds just like me, I have heart fears real bad, I had the Holter monitor when I was a teenager, when my anxiety and panic attacks started, at the time I had a great family doctor (moved from that city since) and he sent me to a cardiologist who hooked me up for 24h, I remember having to keep the journal of my day's activities and I kept writing every 15 minutes "Watching TV - palpitations", "Washing Dishes - palpitations", etc etc I thought for sure something was seriously wrong with my poor heart, and it took I think a good couple weeks to get the results back, I was so worried I would drop dead before that! And then the results came back - everything normal, they saw no evidence of palpitations!!!! It was all me, the anxiety to do with my heart, making me feel things that weren't there!

Skip forward to now - I was at the ER couple days ago, with bad dizziness and heart skipping beats, she didn't do an EKG but she listened to my heart and said it sounded fine, anyway I asked the doctor about the Holter again, cuz it's been like 16 years since the first one, I keep thinking that my heart's changed since then, my anxiety is getting so much worse lately, she mentioned that she is going to arrange for me to have it again, I should get a call about it soon, I just want to have it done once more to set my mind at ease (ha!) But all these comments from everyone sure do help, years ago I thought I was going crazy always worrying about my heart, with the first Holter test I thought to myself "the cardiologist must think I'm insane, me writing Palpitations Palpitations Palpitations on the journal every 15 minutes, so embarrassing etc" But it helps so much to read about others who have the exact same fears about their heart, thank you to all who post here, we're all in this together (kinda! you know what I mean!)