Hi Alexis,
Thanks for your reply and your good wishes!
No, I'm pretty sure I don't have a heart disease. I've been having anxiety and panic attacks for 21 years and so far nobobdy ever found anything wrong with my heart. My panic attacks started a few months after my father had his first heart attack, and just hearing about heart problems on TV or reading about it makes me feel sick with fear.
I do have a funny stomach though and have had ulcers, which can cause chest pain. My problem is that although part of me knows there probably isn't much wrong with me I still get the panic every time I have a pain in my chest, and every time I go out of my comfort zone I keep thinking 'what if I get a pain now?', 'what if the pain doesn't go away this time?', 'what if this time it is something serious?'.
I'm currently working on keeping the pain and the panic apart, i.e. acknowledging that the cold sweat and restricted breath etc is the panic reaction and nothing to do with my heart. I also try not to catastrophise, I keep telling myself that it may hurt but it's unlikely it will kill me. I'm also working on exposure. This year I have managed an increasing radius for day trips and have even stayed away over night twice and been on a flight!
So I'm working on it, and I'm nowhere near as bad as I have been. Things do get better.
Marianne
