the past couple days i am like hyper aware of my chest and my heartbeat and i don’t know why. i don’t think anything specific triggered it. but i keep making myself think my heart isn’t beating right when i’m almost positive it’s fine and it’s just my anxiety. can something have triggered it without me even realizing it? like something i saw on social media or a tv show? does this happen to anyone else?
It happens to me and can happen out of no where. Since November 2021, my thoughts like this mentioned above have returned after losing a family member. However, I can assure you that it also tends to arrive for me when I’m stressed or it can just arrive when everything is fine. How I respond to it determines how well or fast I overcome the feeling. Checking and reassurance makes it worsen.
@AcceptUncertainty thank you for commenting. hopefully it will pass soon
@camilleshae No problem! Try to sit with the feelings and name them as anxiety symptoms rather than being sick.
It could be a new health concern OCD
Thank you for sharing what you are experiencing. Health anxiety is one of the OCD themes I have. Sometimes it comes up for me when I hear about something that somebody else has, but sometimes it just comes up out of the blue. It can be very overwhelming. Sometimes it helps me to redirect my attention and concentrate on getting something done for just the next 10 minutes. Not a big task that is too overwhelming, but something tangible. Also, taking some time for self-care can help; maybe listening to music or getting some fresh air.
I’ve experienced this hyper awareness of physical sensations, too! Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason to the content of our obsessions, but regardless you are definitely not alone. It may be helpful to identify the underlying “core” fear that comes with the concern about your heartbeat — for example, is it that you might have a health issue, is it a fear of sudden death, or a feeling that you won’t be able to stop thinking about it? Depending on the core fear you can develop exposures and non-engagement responses that directly address your anxieties!
Hi all. Just wondering, I guess it's anxiety, who of you have experienced just a sudden feeling of fear for no apparent reason, like this uneasy feeling like you're scared but there's no reason and then your mind starts racing and searches for why you feel like this and all kind of bizzare stuff pops up. ?
Don’t mind me just riding out a massive anxiety attack after a few rough weeks of actual health issues. I have major health anxiety and I’ve had 2 awful asthma attacks recently due to wildfire smoke coming into our area. I hate having asthma because I didn’t know I had it for so long. And I never really know if my shortness of breath is anxiety or asthma 😭😩 It freaks me out whenever I have to get treatment for it because they always run an EKG to make sure my heart is fine. After having COVID last year (then getting the vaccination) one of my new anxieties is developing random blood clots despite being physically healthy. I go on Twitter for the memes then the next second I’ll see someone’s personal story about how someone they knew dropped dead randomly from the shot. It freaks me out so bad. Like what?? I don’t want to stop using Twitter either because I like it and don’t want to avoid any triggers. Back to health, they took an X-ray of my lungs the other day as a part of protocol because I couldn’t breathe that well (because I was having an asthma attack 😩) and it freaked me out so bad. Everything came back clear but my discharge papers said to get my heart checked out just in case. My resting heart rate is generally higher because of anxiety anywhere from 75-85. I hate having health anxiety on top of actual health problems. My doctors tell me I’m healthy despite asthma and allergies. Every day is a battle with health anxiety. Sometimes I can’t even workout because I’m so focused on my heart rate or breathing. Like I’m genuinely convinced I’ll die of a random disease I don’t know I have. AnywAY, health anxiety OCD is something I’ve had since I had my first panic attack. As most of you know that anxiety can manifest itself in so many ways it’s horrifying sometimes. Hopefully I feel better again soon bc this ain’t it chief!! 🥺
I went to the hospital Sunday night because I had a racing/pounding heart.. it woke me up from a dead sleep. I thought I was having a heart attack. My partner put their hand over my chest and could feel how fast it was pounding and they got up from a dead sleep to take me to the hospital. I was so confused when they tests came back normal. I think I just had another episode. I got this intense fear that I was going to act out or harm myself. I then felt derealization and an intense anxiety. I almost called 911 on myself. I’ve had small episodes like this before but these last 2 have been super intense. Anyone else experience this?
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
