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Heart disease or hypochondria?

Hero450

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Aug 6, 2014
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Im 19, i have heavily abused amphetamines and mdma heavily and dabbled meth since 16. I have been clean from all uppers for 6 months but ever since then i have chest pain that come every day and the thought of stroke/heart attack is always crossing my mind.
I had probably about 7 episodes where out of nowhere my blood pressure spikes very high to the point where i have came very close to stroking out, felt my blood pressure soar along with exceutiating head pressure following the beginning of feeling those left side stroke symptoms that scared the living shit outta me to make me quit upper forever, and each time ambulance was called. However i attribute most of those episodes to seratonin syndrome as most time these emergency apisodes happened it was sudden and as a psychadelic / mdma was in the process of kicking indoctors did xrays/ ekg and said i was fine but i knew damn well what i felt. All day i have very bad anxiety all in relation to me thinkin i will die from these chest pai i have. I cant take this shit anymore i know what im feeling but since im labeled as a druggie they dont listen. Im scared shitless over here about this. I dont know if relevant but for the past 2 years i have seen my spine have problems where im always in bad back pain and always in pain which is alleviated after cracking the back which will resolve the pain for up to an hour max thanks.
 
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No one on the internet can asses your cardiac health. Were I a world renown cardiologist I wouldn't be able to asses your situation over the internet because the assessment would take an exam. taking a thorough history, running labs, likely an EKG, and possibly some imaging, as well as some things I haven't thought about.

I'm not a cardiologist btw. I think the place to start is with a primary care practitioner like a gp, family medicine, internist, etc You attribute these episodes to certain possible causes, and your anxiety increases. Why not see someone with some expertise, who can refer you to someone with even more expertise if necessary? Worry isn't helping anything. Consulting knowledgeable people is likely to help.
 
I think you better personally meet up with a doctor. Don't wait too long till the situation gets worse.
 
As others have said, this situation sounds serious (or at least could be), so it's hard for us to give accurate advice on here. No matter what you read here, please seek help offline as well?

During times of my life when I was abusing amphetamines heavily I found that the only way to balance it out in my body was to increase my mineral intake, otherwise the jaw clenching and tooth grinding would get insane. Make sure you're getting your daily doses of magnesium, calcium, and zinc from food sources. CoQ10 wouldn't hurt either. Supplement if necessary (take all supplements with food). Your symptom picture of tightness, back pain, blood pressure spikes, and general anxiety could be helped with some solid nutrition, in addition to seeing a doctor.

For the ECG, did they have you wear a 24 hour heart monitor, or did they just do a 10-20 minute ECG test while you were lying down? If it was the lying down version, those are mostly useless, unless your problem is severe. The 24 hour heart monitors are better because you go about your daily business and when you experience heart sensations you write down the time and what you were doing, and a cardiologist can investigate it when they look at your readout. Not to scare you, but in the past year I lost so much blood that I entered heart attack territory due to extremely low hemoglobin. When I went to the hospital, they did a 5 minute ECG on me while I was lying down and determined nothing was wrong. When I saw my family doctor the next day and she felt my pulse, she rushed me back to the hospital in an ambulance to receive blood transfusions, with a note saying telling the fuckers to not send me home. So... the ECG is not really reliable.

If you have spinal curvature around the heart area, then rib mis-alignment can refer to the front, causing back-to-front chest pain. Rib pain feels like a pinching pain in one spot that gets worse when you inhale. X-rays might not find this, you'd need a chiropractor to adjust your spine and see if that helps. True angina (heart pain) radiates everywhere, front to back, shoulders, neck, sometimes even abdomen, and it gets worse on exertion because the vessels which feed the heart are impaired. It can turn into an emergency situation. When the heart is not properly supplied its effects are wide spread. If the heart is weak due to overwork from amphetamines then nutrition is your only long-term solution to replenish what has been lost. Usually for voltage irregularities they'll prescribe beta blockers. Some people having heart attacks have mild symptoms, but this is rare. Most people having true cardiac distress have obvious signs... they don't just sit there typing on a forum about it. (No offense.)

Again, please see a doctor. I'm just giving general advice because I know how frustrating it can be to feel that there's a problem but have modern testing "show nothing wrong". You're not crazy. At the same time, I've met many people who think they're having heart attacks when really their bodies are just super tense and they're always anxious.

Unless you were born with a congenital defect or know of some pre-existing heart problem, it's rare to have angina at your age.
 
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I agree with the previous posts about getting a medical opinion from a Doctor. However, I know from experience that anxiety can manifest in all kinds of physical ways. I too had panic attacks that felt like heart attacks. When I went to the doctor, my heart was fine. It took time, therapy and sober living/exercise to clear the anxiety. Take care.
 
Honestly, it sounds like you're suffering from anxiety and panic disorder set off or escalated by stimulant use. This might be accompanied by a cardiac problem in your case (although most people in this situation think it is, and most of them luckily end up being wrong), but everything you've described can be caused purely by anxiety disorders, as ridiculous as that sounds initially.

Sufferers of panic attacks often report a fear of dying or heart attack, flashing vision, faintness or nausea, numbness throughout the body, heavy breathing and hyperventilation, or loss of bodily control. Some people also suffer from tunnel vision, mostly due to blood flow leaving the head to more critical parts of the body in defense. These feelings may provoke a strong urge to escape or flee the place where the attack began (a consequence of the "fight-or-flight response", in which the hormone causing this response is released in significant amounts). This response floods the body with hormones, particularly epinephrine (adrenaline), which aid it in defending against harm.[9]

A panic attack is a response of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). The most common symptoms include trembling, dyspnea (shortness of breath), heart palpitations, chest pain (or chest tightness), hot flashes, cold flashes, burning sensations (particularly in the facial or neck area), sweating, nausea, dizziness (or slight vertigo), light-headedness, hyperventilation, paresthesias (tingling sensations), sensations of choking or smothering, difficulty moving, and derealization. These physical symptoms are interpreted with alarm in people prone to panic attacks. This results in increased anxiety and forms a positive feedback loop.[10]

Often, the onset of shortness of breath and chest pain are the predominant symptoms; the sufferer incorrectly appraises these as signs or symptoms of a heart attack. This can result in the person who is experiencing a panic attack seeking treatment in an emergency room. However, since chest pain and shortness of breath are indeed hallmark symptoms of cardiovascular illnesses, including unstable angina and myocardial infarction (heart attack), especially in a person whose mental health status and heart health status are not known, attributing these pains to simple anxiety and not (also) a physical condition is a diagnosis of exclusion (other conditions must be ruled out first) until an electrocardiogram and a mental health assessment have been carried out.

Panic attacks are distinguished from other forms of anxiety by their intensity and their sudden, episodic nature.[9] They are often experienced in conjunction with anxiety disorders and other psychological conditions, although panic attacks are not necessarily indicative of a mental disorder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_attack

This is not hypochondria, or some kind of paranoia or weakness, it's a legitimate neuro-psychological disorder with causes in the nervous system and the mind.


This is actually a pretty common problem, I've had a lot of trouble with it myself, and it's a huge pain precisely because the symptoms (in addition to being terrifying and immensely unpleasant in themselves) do so closely match those of a heart attack/stroke. It's hard to get around the concept that a psychological problem can cause such intense physical reactions, but it's absolutely possible.

It's true that there could well be an accompanying cardiac problem, I'm not writing that off, and nothing can rule that out except a thorough investigation by a cardiologist (and I think Foreigner gave some great advice about seeking medical attention on that from), but whether or not there is a heart problem, it sounds like there's definitely an anxiety problem.

I'd recommend reading up on anxiety, especially panic attacks and panic disorder, and looking at the symptoms and whether they match your experience. It gets a lot easier once you realize that what you're experiencing is a recognized disorder and that tens of thousands of people experience the same terrifying symptoms.

I don't have much advice to offer on the cardiovascular front except to repeat Foreigner's advice to see a doctor, and until then there's not a lot you can do on that level. But you can address the anxiety side of it, which will help you whether your problem is pure anxiety or a combination of anxiety and a cardiac issue.

CBT and mindfulness training have both demonstrated incredible benefits for anxiety disorders, since they allow you to recognize the symptoms of the anxiety before they spiral out of control, to acknowledge them as what they are before the feedback loop kicks in. Meditation, particularly different breathing techniques, has helped me immensely.

Talk therapy is a good idea also. It's a long term process, but if you're experiencing these kinds of reactions to stimulants then you're possibly pretty highly strung to begin with, and having someone to talk to and figure out what in your life is causing you stress and how to deal with it can make a huge difference. Even just having someone to bitch about your life to without having to hold back can be beneficial.

Lifestyle changes can make a huge difference - cut off any stimulating drugs (including marijuana and psychedelics), ideally stop or cut back on alcohol and tobacco as well. But the drugs in particular have to go, at least for now, if you don't come to terms with that then you'll just keep setting off episodes and worsening the problem.

Look at improving your diet and sleep pattern. Do some light exercise if you feel up to it, once you've been cleared by the cardiologist.

As far as medication goes, I haven't had much luck with SSRI's or similar, but some people apparently do, so it might be worth a shot. If you can find a doctor willing to prescribe benzos and you feel you can avoid abusing or becoming dependent on them (benzo addiction is fucking awful), then having some on hand to head off an episode a couple times a week can be incredibly beneficial. Just knowing that you have the medication on you and can stop the symptoms is often enough to help you stay calm. On the flip side, it's very easy to become addicted if you take them on a daily basis, so be careful with that.

I also found propranolol incredibly beneficial in low doses. 10mg 2 or 3 times a day will keep your blood pressure and heart rate from jumping as high and will bring them down faster when they do, and it doesn't have the addictive potential of benzos or the side effect profile of SSRI's (although don't take it, or any beta blocker, if you still use stimulant drugs, as the combination is dangerous).

Anyway, good luck. I've been more or less right where you are (experiencing severe anxiety around symptoms which feel like cardiac problems after abusing MDMA and meth), and I know how it feels, but you can recover if you're willing to make the changes necessary.
 
Could just be generalized anxiety disorder. I have that, it primarily manifests itself as "hypochondria" (which isn't really a disorder in and of itself as it is a way that anxiety can manifest itself in an individual). Had an episode over the last summer that lasted for weeks in which I was convinced that I had degenerative nerve disease...basically it was like one long, extended panic attack. I've also had stimulant-induced panic attacks and they're intense, usually involving physical pain.
 
Hey Harry, are you back to normal. I've had a similar situation to yours. Almost to the tee. This is scary.. need some insight. Thanks so much Jay :)
 
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