I’m curious to hear from others who deal with cardiac anxiety. What was the moment or situation that triggered it for you?
For me, it didn’t come out of nowhere. I had been under a lot of stress for a long time and was probably already in a burnout state without fully realizing it.
Then something happened at work that kind of planted the seed. A coworker around my age (actually one year older) had a mild heart attac. He recovered fully and was completely fine, but for some reason that stuck with me.
A couple of months later, I had my first panic attack. At the time, I thought “this is it, now it's happening to me too”
That’s when the cardiac anxiety really started.
I became hyper-aware of everything related to my heart. I started constantly checking my pulse, and basically anything that could be related to heart health. Every sensation in my chest suddenly felt significant.
I’d really like to hear if others had a similar "trigger moment" or if yours developed more gradually over time.