I’ve had many different intrusive thoughts over the years, but I can’t seem to shake this obsession with my heart. I continually think it’s going to just stop or that it can’t handle being elevated. I don’t even have family history of heart disease or heart attack or anything of the sort. I keep myself healthy between exercise and diet. I’ve reassured myself a million ways from Sunday. I saw a cardiologist once, years ago, who reassured me that my heart palpitations were nothing to be afraid of. I try to look at every workout as an exposure, pushing myself to trust my heart and ignore the thoughts. But sometimes I just want to relax and enjoy dinner with my boyfriend or being out with my friends without ruminating over what would happen if I had a heart attack in the restaurant, the bar, where’s the nearest hospital, can I trust the people I’m with to know what to do, etc. It’s exhausting.

I know from personal experience with my own OCD and intrusive thoughts that reassuring yourself and trying to “ignore” the thoughts only make them worse. I would encourage you to face your fears and seek ERP treatment to help you know that you don’t have to live in fear of your worries ❤️ You are strong, stop running away and face it girl! Good luck

Viewing workouts as an exposure is such a good idea, BUT you have to do it while accepting the uncertainty. "Its possible my heart could stop while i do this but im doing it anyway" as opposed to using the workouts to prove to yourself that it wont happen, thats kind of a compulsion. A really good piece of advice i got once from Chrissie hodges was that you have to say "maybe this is true" but you dont have to believe it. Its not about convincing yourself either way, its about accepting that possibility even if the chance is 0.0001%.

I understand what you are going through, i battled this a few times throughout my life, the palpitations, the panic anxiety, EKG and stress tests, blood tests all normal, just like you. I run, weight train, eat healthy, etc. Stress triggers the palpitations, once I had them nonstop on a 4 hour flight home, the worse experience ever, that night I came home and ran 5 miles thinking if there was something wrong it’d show up there. My ocd manifests itself via intrusive thoughts about my health, my heart, colon cancer, the latest is my eyes, I have floaters (I’ve had them for years) so tomorrow of course I’ll have a detached retina or spiderwebs all over my vision, etc, etc EVEN THOUGH 2 different doctors have told me my eyes are fine and I got scolded by one for taking up an appointment slot. Find people you trust to talk about it, try to manage your triggers, admitting that it’s OCD has been liberating , it’s a pattern that I recognize. I’m going to get help, I thank the Lord I found this app.

You can do this, you will be ok. Be strong.