Heart Concerns, Heart Symptom Worries

Treatment

When other factors cause or aggravate this anxiety symptom, addressing the specific cause can reduce and eliminate this symptom.

When an active stress response causes this symptom, ending the active stress response will cause this acute anxiety symptom to subside.

Keep in mind that it can take up to 20 minutes or more for the body to recover from a major stress response. But this is normal and needn’t be a cause for concern.

When hyperstimulation (chronic stress) causes heart concerns, eliminating hyperstimulation will end this anxiety symptom.

You can eliminate hyperstimulation by:

• Reducing stress.
• Containing anxious behavior (since anxiety creates stress).
• Regular deep relaxation.
• Avoiding stimulants.
• Regular light to moderate exercise.
• Eating a healthy diet of whole and natural foods.
• Passively accepting your symptoms until they subside.
• Being patient as your body recovers.

Visit our “60 Natural Ways To Reduce Stress” article for more ways to reduce stress.

Recovery Support members can view chapters 5, 6, 7, 14 and more for more detailed information about recovering from hyperstimulation and anxiety disorder.

As the body recovers from hyperstimulation, it stops sending symptoms, including this one.

Symptoms of chronic stress subside as the body regains its normal, non-hyperstimulated health.

However, eliminating hyperstimulation can take much longer than most people think, causing symptoms to linger longer than expected.

As long as the body is even slightly hyperstimulated, it can present symptoms of any type, number, intensity, duration, frequency, and at any time, including symptoms that involve the heart, causing concern about the heart.

Since worrying and becoming upset about anxiety symptoms stress the body, these behaviors can interfere with recovery.

Passively accepting your symptoms – allowing them to persist without reacting to, resisting, worrying about, or fighting them – while doing your recovery work will cause their cessation in time.

Acceptance, practice, and patience are key to recovery.

Keep in mind that it can take a long time for the body to recover from hyperstimulation. It's best to faithfully work at your recovery despite the lack of apparent progress.

However, if you persevere with your recovery work, you will succeed.

You also have to do your recovery work FIRST before your body can recover. The cumulative effects of your recovery work will produce results down the road. And the body's stimulation has to diminish before symptoms can subside.

• Reducing stress.
• Increasing rest.
• Faithfully practicing your recovery strategies.
• Passively accepting your symptoms.
• Containing anxious behavior.
• Being patient.

These will bring results in time.

When you do the right work, the body has to recover!

Short-term strategies

Even though eliminating hyperstimulation will eliminate chronic anxiety symptoms, including heart related symptoms, some people have found the following strategies helpful.

However, keep in mind that each person can have a unique symptom experience since each person is somewhat physically, chemically, psychologically, and emotionally unique. What might work for one person might not for another.

• Taking a warm bath – can relax the body and nervous system, which can help reduce muscle tension-related symptoms.
• Have a massage – can help the body and nervous system relax, which can help muscles release and relax, as well as help the nervous system become less reactive.
• Listening to soothing music – can help the mind, body, nervous system, and muscles relax.
• Going for a leisure walk - can help the body, nervous system, and muscles relax.
• Going for a leisure swim - can help the body, nervous system, and muscles relax.
• Floating on a water device – lying down on an inflatable water raft can be soothing and relaxing, and so can leisurely floating in a boat. Some people find the gentle rocking of the waves enjoyable and relaxing.
• Not reacting to this symptom – can help the nervous system disengage and relax, which can help tight and spasming muscles relax.
• Muscle relaxants – can help spasming muscles release and relax.
• Pain management – if the pain has become great, which can further stress the body and aggravate pain, over-the-counter pain medication can be helpful.
• Tens machine – if you have a specific muscle or muscle group causing persistent pain or pressure, using a Tens machine can help reduce muscle-related pain and pressure. It can also help diffuse the pain and pressure, so the nervous system stops engaging them.
• Any type of stress reduction strategy – can reduce nervous system reactivity and muscle-related symptoms.
• Talk with your doctor – if the shooting pains and pressures become too painful, talk with your doctor about a prescription pain reliever or muscle relaxant to help ease these types of symptoms when they are strong or greatly debilitating.

I (Jim Folk) had numerous chest-related symptoms, too, during my struggle with anxiety disorder. I also initially became overly concerned about my heart.

However, as I eliminated hyperstimulation, they completely subsided. I’ve not had the same number, intensity, and frequency of this symptom since.

Containment:

Once you have the medical evidence that proves your heart is healthy, you will need to develop the skill of containing your irrational fears about your chest and heart.

Learning to contain may take some work initially since most anxious people are notorious worriers, which demonstrates their inability to contain.

But developing the skill of containing will set you free from continually worrying about your chest and heart (containing will also set you free from needless worry). This is why containing is one of the Seven Principles to Overcoming Anxiety Disorder (in Chapter 7 in the Recovery Support area).

Remember, it’s our uncontained worry habit that undermines our health. Recovery, as well as lasting success, requires that we LEARN TO CONTAIN OUR FEARS RATHER THAN FUEL THEM.

Therapy

Unidentified and unaddressed underlying factors cause issues with anxiety. As such, they are the primary reason why anxiety symptoms persist.

Addressing your underlying factors (Level Two recovery) is most important if you want lasting success.

Addressing Level Two recovery can help you:

• Contain anxious behavior.
• Become unafraid of anxiety symptoms and the strong feelings of anxiety.
• End anxiety symptoms.
• Successfully address the underlying factors that so often cause issues with anxiety.
• End what can feel like out-of-control worry.

All our recommended anxiety therapists have had anxiety disorder and overcame it. Their personal experience with anxiety disorder and their Master's Degree and above professional training give them insight other therapists don't have.

If you want to achieve lasting success over anxiety disorder, any one of our recommended therapists would be a good choice.

Working with an experienced anxiety disorder therapist is the most effective way to treat anxiety disorder, especially if you have persistent symptoms and difficulty containing anxious behavior, such as worry [7][8][9].

In many cases, working with an experienced therapist is the only way to overcome stubborn anxiety.

Research has shown that therapy is the most effective treatment for anxiety disorder, and distance therapy (via phone or the Internet) is equally, if not more effective, than face-to-face in-person therapy [10][11][12].