Posted 3/5/2015 6:56 PM (GMT 0)
I know these forums gets topics like this pretty frequently, but I read those topics and keep thinking along the lines of "what if my situation's different from this guy's in some way?", so I think that's it's best to just post my own topic just in case. And I'm probably going to be overly specific in telling my experience out of fear of missing an important detail.
So, first of all, I'm a 20 year old male. I have never smoked or drunk alcohol, but I can't say my diet is good at all, which is one cause for my worries.
A few months ago, at the beginning of December, I started having rushes of adrenaline (or something like that) when I was trying to fall asleep. This instantly started worrying me, and continued almost every night for the next month. I also started to develop constant dizziness. However, once I determined that they were both probably anxiety related and stopped worrying about them, they pretty much went away entirely. However, I did have a brief period of arm pain that went unexplained. Shortly after my sleeping troubles stopped, I was reminded of how arm pain is a heart disease symptom, and how I still couldn't explain the arm pain I experienced a few weeks before. Once this concern came up, my arm pain began again almost immediately. As I continued worrying about this, I began to get concerned about if other common heart disease symptoms would come up, such as chest pain. And of course, almost every symptom I worried about would start happening soon after. By now, I have pain in my arms, chest, back, and occasionally in my neck or jaw (but the jaw pain is usually pretty weak).
I have pain in both sides of my chest and in both arms, though I do predictably notice more in the left. The chest pain usually comes and goes within a couple of seconds (this applies to the pain in all areas), and often feels kind of like if you happened to move your body the wrong way, and quickly shifted back. It also feels like it comes with my breath sometimes, but since I'm obviously always breathing, I can't really tell if they're related. The feeling can vary at times, and sometimes I just can't tell if it's affecting my heart in some way, or if that's just me instinctively reacting to the pain. The spot where it hurts is always changing. Sometimes it can be close to where my heart is, while other times the pain is really more in my side or my rib. I wish I could tell if it was heart pain or not. I've read descriptions of what it feels like compared to other kinds of pain, but I just can't tell which descriptions I'm fitting.
The arm pain also varies in location and type of feeling. Sometimes it can be a sharper or tighter pain closer to the upper arm, and other times it can be a blunt pain in my forearm. I also occasionally feel a more faint pain in my hands. It sometimes feels like the pain in my arm is creating a sensation in the chest area, but again, I can't really tell.
The pain in the back is usually in one specific spot, as if I was just punched there, and sometimes it can be in the lower back. As of right now, it's probably the most prominent pain I'm experiencing. Meanwhile, the jaw pain is minor and I don't really have any details for that.
I should add that, more recently, I've also been experiencing a lot of twitching in multiple areas, mostly my left eye. But I can also have them in my legs, feet, upper arms, hands, and even the chest. I'm not sure if this relates, but it's worth adding.
One last thing on this excessive list of details: There is no pattern to this pain. It happens randomly throughout the day, and does not seem to correspond to stress levels, activity (minor activity like walking a long distance), or eating. So I really can't pinpoint anything based on that. The only constant is that I'm fine when I'm sleeping, or at least I think so. I never have pain as I'm waking up, but since it's always the first thing I think about, it usually starts up within a few minutes.
I WANT to believe this could be some kind of anxiety, mainly because these pains coincidentally started becoming consistent problems only right after I started worrying about each of them specifically, but there's some things that just cast doubt on that hope. Firstly, I've been prone to anxiety for most of my life. When I'm not feeling overwhelmed, I usually feel worried and have trouble enjoying myself. However, up until this all started, it almost never caused any pain, or even a panic attack. Secondly, I'm often able to reassure myself for a period of time, but that doesn't make the pain stop entirely. At best, I'll feel fine for a few hours. I know anxiety symptoms can occur even when you don't feel stressed, but since these pains only started when I had my mind fixated on them to begin with, I'm not sure if that logic applies here. Either way, can worrying about pains actually cause them to occur in the first place? I know I'm not imagining the pain. Overall, no explanation seems to make sense. The circumstances of this starting seem too coincidental to be heart problems, but at the same time, it doesn't seem to respond to varying anxiety levels. Since I can't find a solid explanation, my mind naturally leans towards the worst case scenario.
I'm really sorry for the obnoxiously long post. I said this could be lengthy, and yet it's still much longer than I thought it would be. I know I can't expect to get a diagnosis on a forum, but I'm not in a position where I can easily see my doctor in a reasonable time frame, and I'm not one to just jump to the ER unless I think it's absolutely necessary (and even doing that wouldn't be particularly easy to arrange anyway). I'm just looking for some kind of reassurance/advice/condemnation, or imput of SOME kind, since I've been keeping this to myself the whole time.