People who suffer from panic attacks often say their acute anxiety feels like a heart attack, as many of the symptoms can seem the same. Both conditions can be accompanied by shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, sweating, a pounding heartbeat, dizziness, and even physical weakness or temporary paralysis.
If you're worried that it's a heart attack, call 911 to get an immediate evaluation." If you're experiencing an episode that is similar to one you've had in the past that turned out to be stress-related, Meurer recommends practicing deep breathing or meditation to see if the symptoms subside.
Anxiety and Underlying Heart Disease
While anxiety or panic attacks can mimic heart attack symptoms, there's also the possibility that chronic anxiety can have a long-term effect on the heart health of those with underlying disease.
Pre-Heart Attack Symptoms – Female
Men may feel pain and numbness in the left arm or the side of the chest. In women, these symptoms may appear on the right side. Women may experience unexplained exhaustion, or feel drained, dizzy or nauseous. Women may feel upper back pain that travels up into their jaw.
The difference is that, when extra heartbeats in the upper and lower chambers are the cause of abnormal rhythm, symptoms may feel like an initial skip or hard thumping beat followed by a racing heart. When anxiety is the trigger, heart rate typically increases steadily rather than suddenly.
“Often, the chest pain with heart attacks is more of a pressure or squeezing, whereas a lot of people describe their chest pain in panic attacks as more of a sharp or shooting pain,” says Dr. Blackburn. “Also, the chest pain in a panic attack will completely go away in a few minutes once the attack passes.
The short answer is yes. According to multiple studies, anxiety increases the risk of developing heart disease and having a heart attack or stroke. Anxiety is a group of mental health disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Heart Palpitations and Anxiety. Heart palpitations due to anxiety feel like your heart is racing, fluttering, pounding or skipping a beat. Your heartbeat can increase in response to specific stressful situations. You may also have palpitations due to an anxiety disorder (excessive or persistent worry).
Chest discomfort or pain (also known as angina) is the most common warning sign of a heart attack. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, aching, numbness, squeezing or fullness in your chest.
Signs of a heart attack include:
- Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach. - Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort. - Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness. (If you're experiencing any of these symptoms, call 9-1-1 immediately.)
Silent heart attacks may not cause pain, but they are still as serious. In fact, people who suffer silent heart attacks are more likely to die of heart disease. "There is a significant mortality associated with silent heart attacks," says Ryan.
A silent heart attack, also called a silent Ischemia, is a heart attack that has either no symptoms, minimal symptoms or unrecognized symptoms. A heart attack is not always as obvious as pain in your chest, shortness of breath and cold sweats.
A silent heart attack occurs without recognizable symptoms. People may not learn that they have had a silent heart attack until months or years later. Possible symptoms include fatigue, a feeling of a muscle spasm in the back or chest, and nausea.
Typical heart attack symptoms
This discomfort or pain can feel like a tight ache, pressure, fullness or squeezing in the chest lasting more than a few minutes. This discomfort may come and go.
The very first symptom of a heart attack listed by the American Heart Association is "uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain in the center of your chest." This discomfort may come in waves lasting more than a few minutes at a time.
Wearable ECGs, such as those found in smartwatches and mobile apps, have recently become popular among patients. These ECGs can be applied to manage patients with anxiety, as they have been used to detect, monitor, and reduce symptoms of anxiety disorders.
If you are a person who frequently has symptoms of chest pain or shortness of breath when under significant stress, you should be evaluated by your doctor.
“The fight-or-flight response speeds up your heart rate, so your body gets more blood flow,” explains Dr. Bibawy. “The increased blood flow gives you a burst of energy to fight or run from danger. That's why many people notice palpitations when they're scared, nervous or anxious — and it's completely normal.
It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, or pain. Discomfort in other upper-body areas, such as one or both arms, the neck, the back, the jaw, or the stomach. Shortness of breath before or during the chest discomfort. Cold sweat.
Warning signs that occur a month beforehand could be chest discomfort, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Every year, around 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack, or myocardial infarction, roughly one heart attack every 40 seconds.
“I understand that heart attacks have beginnings and on occasion, signs of an impending heart attack may include chest discomfort, shortness of breath, shoulder and/or arm pain and weakness. These may occur hours or weeks before the actual heart attack.