GERD/Anxiety?

Hey guys, I'm new here and just seeing if you all can give me some advice.

I'm 19 years old and recently suffering from GERD as of the past few weeks. My doctor put me on 40 mg Nexium once a day and 1g of carafate 4 times a day. I've had a lot of weird problems occur, such as a racing heartbeat, to the point I can feel the blood rushing to my head. I'm guessing those are panic attacks, but I've heard that and GERD can be related. Also, I'll occasionally get an extreme shortness of breath. The heart hasn't bothered me as much lately, I've had 4 EKG's and had to wear a holter monitor. They say it functions properly, just quickly at points. The main thing that's worrying me is the chest pain, it's not so much as a heart burn feeling, but an annoying pain the goes straight down my breast bone. When it gets worse, I can feel it in my back, behind my shoulder blade. I almost always have a constant pain in the left side of my chest. My symptoms seems to get horrible at night, as my stomach, or possibly the end of my esophagus (it's the point immediately after my rib cage ends in the middle of my chest), seems to swell and ache. It's like that throughout the day, just not to that degree.
If anyone could give me some advice, or suggest something to ease this pain, please let me know. I feel like I'm way too young to be having these problems. Just a few weeks ago I was out and about all the time, but now I haven't been to work in weeks and barely left the house.

Thanks a lot, Zach.

I went through a really rough period like that just last year when I diagnosed with Eosinophillic Esophagitis and possible GERD at 26 years old. I developed a really bad case of anxiety that sent me to the ER about 5 times in 6 weeks due to chest pain and swallowing difficulty. It resided after 7 weeks. I don't know if you have tried it, but when you get chest pain and or back pain, take some antacids. I found being on anxiety medication for a while to be very helpful in managing my panic attacks. I initially started with klonopin for immediate effect, but its very addictive and should only be used short term. I'm currently on prilosec and citalopram which helps a lot.

Let us know how you are doing. Try deep breathing or writing in a journal to manage the anxiety. A low dose anti depressant may also help. I was stupid at 22 and did not change my diet enough as I should have. I just lived with the pain. After a bad flare up recently, I committed myself to making the changes. It is hard but it can be done. We all know how you feel.

I second ericapeace's suggestion for breathing exercises. Regular moderately intensive exercise helps a lot too. Good job on the quitting drinking and cigarettes, those will really mess you up in the medium to long term. As for the worries, not crazy, just need something else to do. I started worrying a lot myself because I went from perfectly healthy to suddenly having some severe problems, so I started worrying about everything too. I just got busy again, took citalopram, at least walked most nights and have felt much better since. Good luck with the changes and remember you'll be alright, no matter what you have to do.

Six month ago I was in a bad place, stressed, anxious, sleep deprived, financially stressed, new baby, had difficulty swallowing, couldn't eat much, were ending up in the ED every week unable to breathe or burp with reflux symptoms.  ED dept put it down to stress and panic attacks.  Went to 3 different GP's to follow up and was diagnosed with GERD, prescribed nexium and somac and they made me feel crap.  Getting no where with doctors wanting to put me on somac for life.  Eventually referred to Gastrologist who undertook various tests and advises the GP's diagnosis was wrong and what I was experiencing was pannick attacks due to exteme stress and anxiety (related to a family member).  He told me to sort the stress in my life and the physical symptoms I was experiencing should go away.  The best advise in the world coming from a specialist.  With anxiety and stress your chest cavity tightens and causes havoc with digestion, hence the reflux feeling, panic attack and unable to breathe.

I visited a natropath and got my health and fitness back on track, my marriage and my life back on track. I have also returned to work and have not looked back.  I intend to run in the Melbourne marathon in October as well.

My suggestion would be to perhaps try and different approach and look at your overall health and well being - throw away the drugs!  Here is what I have done - visit your health food store and find a good natropath, visit your chiropractor once a month (they can help with things like getting your digestive system back on track, improved posture which helps digestion and lots more), get fit and get moving, do a relaxation class of yoga or body balance at least once a week as well as cardio workouts, have a massage, and sort the stress in your life out.  Overhaul your diet and avoid acidic foods.   I am young and there is no way I was going to take medication for the rest of my life.  I was pleasantly surprised with the results and have a new found faith in natural and alternative remedies.  I would say give it a shot before surrendering your life to somac or nexium.

Hey everyone, sorry for the sudden post, I'd love if someone could reply quickly. I just checked my blood pressure and it's 153/93. Is that normal with anxiety? I'm kinda freaked out right now, and have a numb, slightly painful feeling going down the center of my chest, Any help would be great, thanks.

Oh yeah lol
I got on here to ask if anyone had any tips on symptoms of feeling like you've got like a pill stuck down in your throat. just today starting with when I woke up I've had that feeling -just a slight pain all day at the bottom of my breastbone. I'm just hoping so much that it doesn't try to get to me at night again and give me another panic attack. Not fun. Doc hasn't really said what I've got and I haven't been to GI specialist yet. Hoping I won't have to go that far.
Thanks!

Man, here I am again this very same night even shortly after posting. My wife and I drove up to TJ Maxx to find somd clothes for a funeral (maybe that's the stress?) but while she's trying on clothes, I'm walking around trying to stave off a panic attack sheesh. I had my prilosec an hour before dinner as recommended. My dinner was admitedly super cheap but nothing spicy or too greasy. I've already taken two gaviscon. It's amazing to have to try so hard to get your mind off such a seemingly silly little pain but here I am even focusing on breathing and trying to look nonchalant lol
Well you are in my thoughts, Zach, and just reading and writing in here does help. Another thing that seemed to help is happy music was playing a moment ago. Just don't want to fear gping to bed tonight.
Take care.

I hate that I come here worrying so much, but I just needed to get this off my chest. My symptoms have not gone away, my heart has been pounding for three days and now a vein near my temple feels huge. I really don't know if I'm just worrying too much or if I'm actually in danger...

Man am I glad I found this site. I'm undiagnosed but unofficially for the last 4-5 months it's been brutal. At first I noticed an odd feeling from the middle of my stomach to about the middle of my throat, I'd never had heart burn and enjoyed spicy food so I took it as wow is something going on with my heart? Needless to say the symptoms were terrible (odd tingle feeling in chest/stomach/throat, and some dizziness, in the mornings and within 15-20 minutes of laying down at night I would have a full on panic attack where I'd develop a hitch in my breathing, dwell on it and it would just build up for an hour and after peaking I would be too tired to worry about it anymore and then sleep. Only to wash/rinse/repeat it nearly every day on and off, up until the last 4-5 weeks where it's really been happening daily. But I started by eliminated caffeine thinking it was triggering just a panic attack, then I took out dairy products since it seemed to be triggering digestive issues peaking during the panic attacks. Nothing seemed to help so yesterday I went all day just drinking water and burped and tasted a hefty dose of stomach acid after fasting for 18ish hours.

I've always had an attachment to diet colas and consumed about half a gallon of milk per day while training, but after moving every night time meal has had either red pepper/cayenne pepper, and if none of that it would have tomatoes/onions/garlic in it. Long story short I popped some pepto tabs last night before bed, and when I woke up this morning I felt GREAT, the pesky acidic taste is still in the back of my throat so I'm going to go really easy on it these next few weeks, does anyone recommend something I can take over the counter to speed up my recovery?

Yes I will be changing my diet to adjust for this, and no I've never had any anxiety/panic issues prior to this, it even led me to have a cardiologist do a stress test/ekg on me to rule out any heart issues. If anyone feels like this can't be debilitating I'm 6'5 220 and was running 25-30 miles a week, lifting/playing basketball 3-4 days a week. If I went to the gym or running within 10-15 minutes I would just feel sick to my stomach and like I was going to pass out.

I can last awhile doing free weights but anything cardio it seems like within 30 minutes I feel ill now. Going to give it a few days before testing out the gym this is day two and I have only had some oatmeal a few popsicles and plain water (bland is disqusting) but if I can stop the burning sensation with some over the counter medicine and eating like I have the flu for a few days then that's a small price to pay to not have the anxiety issues.

On a side note, prior to any of these symptoms I was able to drink milk products multiple times a day, if I touch anything at all with dairy in it now I'm guaranteed a trip to the bathroom within 8 hours. Has anyone else developed some kind of reaction to foods you normally used to be able to eat because of reflux? And after treatment were you able to go back to eating them?

I haven't heard of gaviscon, I'm going to try tums tonight before bed and see if that will alleviate the chest/throat tingle that sets in once I lay flat.

Oh and yeah, gerdathlete, I used to eat spicy stuff all the time, never had any problem and it all just hit me one night and I've been cursed with this horrible anxiety ever since haha. Good luck to ya man

That's exactly how mine started out man, I noted my triggers, changed my diet, and I've only had water for the past month. I was getting better for awhile, I actually went out and did things, I could keep it under control. But I noticed my heart kept pounding more and more in the mornings, until eventually it lasted longer and longer. I'll sit and be calm, do all the things that would normally bring my attacks under control, with no success. Now I've been going through this solidly for about a week, with no avail. I just pray that it doesn't get worse than this. And yeah, I can't stand anything prescription. I avoided the Paxil for the few weeks I was feeling well enough, but I broke after it started getting worse. Now I'm scared to death of trying this heart medication, I read the side effects, and it could potentially make it worse and really make me have a heart attack. I seriously don't know what to do anymore. I've had like 2 hours of sleep each night for the past week. Thanks for your support though, I still have hope that it'll get better, maybe it's just a drawn out attack.