Im a 23 year old male 6'2 and weigh 225 pounds. I smoke less than half a pack a day and drink lightly a few nights a week.
Note: At this point I had no chest pain. Also I would like to overcome this without doctor or chemical medicinal help if possible, but will see a doctor if you guys think this could be life threatening.
about
a week ago I was riding in the passenger seat of a car on the way back to my house, from a friends we were partying with the night before. Slightly hungover but nothing out of the ordinary. all of a sudden I felt this wave come over me, it hit almost instantly, My face and head went numb and it started moving down from there. I was short of breath and felt like I had to either get out of the car or die. I told my friend to pull over instantly and I got out and stood up. My heart was racing what felt like a million miles an hour but after 2 minutes I felt ok and got back in and we went home. The rest of the day I felt miserable, but nothing compared to what happened next.
For the last seven days I've this dull minor pain in my chest, a pain i've felt before but never had it last this long. sometimes its on the left side right under my breast, sometimes its the rightside. The feel like cramps that just wont go away. I've also felt a burning sensation that lasts a while also. This is accompanied by something that I'm going to explain in great detail.
It starts off with me felling the minor chest pain and then soon escalates with multiple symptoms. Its happened randomly as well as being triggered by something specific. It happened once when someone knocked on my window, once when I lit a ciggarette, a few times from rubbing my sore sternum and then I could be sitting there not even thinking about
it and being perfectly fine and happy.
Symptoms: these all last for 1-3 hours. The first symptom and the one I think starts all the others is a rapid rise in heartbeat, like 2x my normal heart beat. Followed by a rush of tingling/numbness in my face chest and sometimes arms/legs. Then the panic sets in. I can't not even describe the fear. My brain is consumed with dark thoughts, thoughts of me about
to die my mind races making a list of what im about
to die from and I can't control it, I can't block these thoughts no matter how hard I try. After this I get the over whelming urge to stand and leave the room, or wherever im at, an urge to instinctively flee. Then I get this lightheaded feeling, almost like I'm drunk. I get an overwhelming headache, my stomach and throat knot up, I get this weird feeling like I'm about
to burp but I never do. I feel like I'm going to defecate and if I do its always loose. I get sensitive feelings to touch/light/sound and even people, I can't be around anyone else when it's happening. This has happened 5 out of the last 7 days and a few of the days it has happened multiple times lasting 1-3 hours. After these symptoms are gone it feels like I just came off of a drug, My head and neck are weak, I feel exhausted but scared to fall asleep/insomnia and just a general feeling of being down or depressed, like it's never going to go away. Finally on average after about
2 hours I feel back around 75% but that small constant ache in the chest is still there. also the breastplate in the center and on both sides are sore to touch, and I can't help but wonder when all this well happen again.
These last few days have been hell, the most miserable of my entire life. I don't know if the anxiety cause the pain and then the pain causes anxiety like a bad circle or what. I just want to be normal again.
My main wonder is can anxiety cause all these symptoms including the chest pain that lingers?(I had no chest pain the very first time this happened).
Reading other peoples posts on here have brought me much comfort and I GREATLY appreciate any help/tips/overcomings that anyone can leave me here.
Post Edited (Xazer) : 3/30/2012 6:26:24 AM (GMT-6)