Let’s Talk About Cardiophobia & Anxiety

Before I start rambling away, sharing what I hope will be some comfort and reassurance if you are currently in the thick of extreme heart fears, I just want to take a moment with you, right now. 

I want you to release those tight shoulders, unclench your jaw, give your arms a little shake, do a few gentle neck circles and take at least one deep breath. 

Now instead of breathing out, I want you to sigh it out!

Sigh out all that frustration, all that fear and pent up tension.

Be dramatic about it, because I know you have been carrying around a lot. 

Maybe you have not even admitted to yourself just how heavy your load has been or maybe you have been desperate for acknowledgement from someone, anyone, so here I am, giving that to you. 

I see you. 

I am so sorry that things have felt so heavy, so difficult, and that fear is your constant companion. 

I am sorry that it feels easier to stay in bed rather than get up and get on with the day. 

As someone who has suffered severely with anxiety symptoms, heart fears being one of the big ones, I just want to hug you and let you know that you are not alone. 

I am not going to be delving deep into tips in this article, although I may share a few.

If you’re looking for tips then this is the article for you, as well as episode 7 of my podcast. 

I wanted this to be a casual chat with you, as if we are sitting beside each other in the park, on my favourite bench, and enjoying the feeling of being surrounded by the grounding energy of trees far older than us and a gentle breeze. 

Give yourself permission to relax. 

Do this by continuing to focus on your breathing, make it your priority for the next few minutes as you read my words. 

What is Cardiophobia? 

Cardiophobia is an extreme fear around your heart, to the point it interferes with your daily life.

You obsess endlessly over heart problems, especially heart attacks, although you may fear some hidden heart issue too. 

It doesn’t matter how much reassurance you get, you cannot get your brain to believe that you are okay and that your heart is healthy. 

You find yourself constantly making doctor’s appointments, but when they tell you that you are okay, you find it hard to believe and so you find yourself back at the doctor again shortly after. 

You may be asked to wear a heart monitor at home and just this suggestion has you panicking and asking the doctor if they think something is really wrong. 

I have had many people let me know how they had to wear a heart monitor for a couple days, but it was almost always due to them asking or the doctor doing it as a way to appease them. 

However, this can cause panic and you may find yourself now on hyper-alert, knowing your heart is being monitored. 

I think it’s important to realize that not all doctors are well versed in the intensity of anxiety symptoms and if you have a doctor who is by the book, they are going to do what they feel is necessary based on what you are telling them or based on your high heart rate. 

I have had people tell me that they tried bringing up some of the weirder anxiety symptoms with their doctor, only to have them look at them in confusion and tell them that it doesn’t sound like anxiety, but nothing is wrong regardless. 

Of course this only feeds that little ball of fear inside your belly until you feel quite sick with dread. 

These are some common daily compulsions and characteristics of cardiophobia:

• I think the top one is always checking your pulse. You don’t feel in control unless you know what your heart rate is at all times. You may be attached to your Apple Watch/Fitbit or you may simply find your fingers always inching their way towards your neck so you can feel your pulse and how hard your heart may be beating. It’s a no win situation though, because if it’s pounding we are freaking out, and if it’s beating too slowly or faintly, we are just as scared. 

• Googling heart-related symptoms or browsing forums is common, although it is always a gamble and, more often than not, you end up seeing things you wish you hadn’t. 
• You believe that you now have what you saw and the spiral begins. 
• Constantly making doctor’s appointments.
• Always seeking reassurance from people in your life.

Your whole life revolves around your heart and whether or not you are okay.

It truly feels like a full time job and I know that trying to focus on anything else and actually live a normal life feels almost impossible. 

GAD causes heart-related symptoms

It doesn’t help that GAD causes very real heart and chest symptoms that mimic a heart attack or feels like an actual heart condition. 

• Intense chest pain and pressure
• Jaw and neck pain
• Intense shoulder and arm pain along with tingling
• Nausea
• Shortness of breath
• Lightheadedness

These symptoms on their own can leave you feeling paralyzed in fear, but when they are all together it’s only natural to panic that you are possibly having a heart attack, especially if you Google the signs of a heart attack and see all your gad symptoms listed there. 

I must stress here that GAD can cause you to experience symptoms all the time, and not just during panic. This is the key difference between GAD and panic disorder. 

It’s not just a racing heart you fear

It’s also this pounding that you can feel in every part of your body or you may feel your heartbeat in your ears or head. 

Your heart may not even race at all yet you still find yourself obsessing and this is completely normal too. Remember that cardiophobia is worrying about anything heart-related. 

The “signs and omens” side of things

All we need is to be feeling okay and then see a story of someone with a heart-related issue and suddenly we are back in a cycle of endless fear and obsession. 

Or, worse, we are already in the spiral and see a story and our brain says, “yep! This is confirmation you have this too!” 

I know how awful it is dealing with this and I talk more about it in my latest blog post. 

How heart fears ruled my life

My heart raced CONSTANTLY during my very worst days with anxiety.

Along with dizziness and head pressure, two of my other 24/7 symptoms, life felt very difficult and I was actually agoraphobic for a good chunk of my twenties. 

I’d spend time Googling “What is a safe resting heart rate?” while I obsessively checked mine every hour. The absolute lowest it would be was 80 bpm (beats per minute) but this was when I was literally not moving and attempting everything to bring it down. 

My heart rate was consistently over 100 bpm and it made doing absolutely anything feel like a major task. 

Showering and getting groceries, two common activities, became a nightmare for me when heart fears ruled my days. 

I’d sit on the shower floor and cry, as my heart galloped in my chest and fluttered wildly and I’d wonder when I’d ever just feel okay. 

I’d walk across the street from my apartment to the grocery store and feel my heart rate climbing with every step, and trust me when I tell you that it already felt too high!

By the time I stepped into the store, I felt like I was going to die (no exaggeration) and the fluorescent lights did nothing to ease the intensity of my symptoms. 

Shopping carts became my safety, thanks to my constant dizziness and racing heart that always made me fear passing out. 

At night, when I was hoping my heart rate would start to come down, it would keep its steady pace as I lay wide awake praying for sleep and then stressing when it didn’t come. 

Lack of sleep would mean my heart rate would go even higher and the palpitations had me constantly panicking. 

It was an endless and vicious cycle that kept me stuck in a loop of fear. 

If you’d like to read more of my story and a specific grocery shop experience, from beginning to end, then I recommend my first book.

I walk you through my entire anxiety journey from when I was young to my teens and twenties, through my very worst days, my meds experience and everything I learned to manage my anxiety holistically. 

I go deep into the major role nutrition played for me in helping me to finally enjoy long-term relief from relentless symptoms. 

Here’s how our community has described heart symptoms, sensations and fears, hope this helps you to feel less alone:

“I feel fluttering then a thud”

“Squeezing sensation in chest that only lasts a second or longer but scares the crap out of me!”

“Heart flutters! Feels like a butterfly in your chest.”

“What if my heart stops beating right now?”

“I won’t even buy myself an Apple Watch because I know I’ll just stare at it all day worrying myself sick.”

 “My heart feels like it is going to burst”

“It feels like there is a weight on my chest”

“How can my heart beat this fast for this long?”

“I wake up every day with my heart racing and beating out of my chest.”

“I get heart palpitations that feel like they’re in my throat, like my throat is spasming.”

“Arm pain/tingles and pains in chest. 

“Minding your business just relaxing and then it skips a beat out of nowhere.”

“Sometimes it feels like it’s not beating at all or it beats slowly.” 

 “High heart rate while laying in bed.”

“Chest pain and heartburn, increased BPM, not being able to get a full breath, shaking = 2 ER visits”

“Feeling like my heart was skipping beats or beating too fast then feeling nauseous.”

“A weird flutter, breath thing up the throat…but from your heart? Hard to explain.” 

“Random feelings like my heart is about to stop.”

“I get like nerve pain in my chest that feels like it’s causing a heart attack. Like little nerve endings.”

“My heart starts racing randomly when I’m minimally exerting myself like when I’m showering.”

Some reassurance and comfort you may need right now

When you’re in that OCD thinking loop, always going over mental checklists in your mind, I know your brain appreciates questions and info that is easy to digest and absorb so I am going to state some points here and ask you a few questions, that will hopefully challenge what fear is telling you and help to bring some logic back. 

I encourage you to read it as often as you need, but at least once a day and definitely when fear starts clouding logic. 

• GAD does cause a drastic spike in heart rate and it’s common for it to be well over 100 bpm (beats per minute) every day. 

• Our heart is stronger than we give it credit for and our heart rate really can spike quite dramatically due to anxiety, but it  won’t just stop beating. 

• It’s normal to experience a racing heart 24/7 when you have gad (not just during panic) and it’s normal for it to be higher first thing in the morning, when cortisol levels are highest for most people. However, for some people, they experience the opposite, with cortisol spiking at night. For me it was an all day and night kinda thing. 

• The sensations always feel far scarier than the reality. For example, when your heart is pounding out of your chest, it may feel like you are for sure going to pass out or drop dead, but in reality you are safe, you just feel absolutely awful. Your feelings are not a prediction for the outcome your brain is telling you, if that makes sense. 

• Caffeine can increase heart rate and contribute to palpitations so try to cut back and see how you feel. And please, avoid energy drinks completely. 

• Where are you currently in your monthly cycle? Ovulation can increase heart related symptoms, and there is also a cortisol spike before your period. Palpitations would be severe for me during ovulation and my period. 

• Have you been very stressed recently? It can help to calm us down if we can link our anxiety to something, because once it makes sense, our brain will stop reaching for random answers, usually worst case scenarios. Finding ways to reduce stress in your life, simply by taking more breaks and prioritizing more personal time, can make a tremendous difference. Your mental health truly matters. 

• How has your diet been lately? Too much sugar and processed foods can increase inflammation in the body, and increased inflammation can intensify every symptom and cause a spike in heart rate. Try to eat as well as you can at least 80% of the time (it’s all about balance, after all) and stay hydrated, this is super important. 

Use this as a guide, write them down somewhere if you’d like, and answer them or add your own points/questions. When that fear rises up and that compulsion to Google feels too strong, open your notebook and read through this instead. 

Start taking magnesium glycinate

This supplement changed my life and I still take it every single day. 

I have had people let me know what a difference it made for them and I always get so excited when someone else hops on the magnesium train!

I won’t go on too much, you’ll find all you need in the article I linked, but I will say that magnesium helped to lower my heart rate and eased my palpitations. It’s also great for heart health overall so this fact can put your mind at ease too. 

3 Quick tips for instant relief

🚿 Cold water⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣Cold showers can help to boost circulation and release endorphins, feel-good chemicals that may help with anxiety. I’ll be honest, this isn’t something I really do, I like my showers steamy!⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣Instead, I simply hold my pulse points under cold running water which does help slow down my heart rate after a few minutes. Swimmers often do this before diving into pools to allow their heart rate to slow down and avoid getting a shock when they hit the water. ⁣⁣

👃 Alternate nostril breathing⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣I have spoken about this a few times because it’s my favorite breathing technique to slow down the heart rate and bring about a sense of calm. ⁣ 

🎧Music⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣Certain music can help slow down your heart rate, and during my worst days I learned of a song called “Weightless” by Marconi that was actually specifically designed to slow down the heart rate and reduce stress. ⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣I gave it a test run one day when I had to go out and was feeling anxious and it did seem to help a bit! If anything, it was a soothing distraction from my racing thoughts!

If you tend to panic every time you leave your house, experiencing heightened symptoms, such as dizziness, a racing heart, shortness of breath etc then take me with you next time! I created an audio where I talk you through your next outing and I hope it will feel like I am right beside you <3⁣⁣⁣

I wrote my Anxiety A to Z book to keep you off Google, as Google will keep you stuck in the fear cycle. 

I share every anxiety symptom, as well as calming methods, coping skills, underlying triggers, nutrition and supplement recs and everything in between. It’s over 600 pages of information to help you move forward and I will never trigger you like Google does. 

You can learn more about Anxiety A to Z by clicking right here.

I used to dream of the day I wouldn’t spend all day obsessing and sometimes I have to take a moment to be truly grateful for how far I have come. 

I know it seems impossible you’re in the midst of it, in the eye of the hurricane, so to speak. 

You’re trying to just survive another day, which is why it’s so important to take things slowly and to be really gentle with yourself. 

I am sending you so much love and please know that I believe in you.