I should also mention that I have heart palpitations..sometimes i feel my heart beat and it will stop for a second, like boom-boom-boom---boom..I also chest pain, numbness in my legs, and odd sensations where my heart is

I've dealt with just about everything you have in this post
except the excessive use of drugs

the worst I've done was E once
and I've smoked pot since I was little, so roughly about 10 years I been smoking, but quit earlier this year

the only difference is several of my panic attacks have led to seizures, but no the typical kind
I'm fully conscious and able to speak short sentences
but still convulsing uncontrollably

I too have heart palpitations and chest pains
I just blamed them on my touching an electric fence meant to hold back large horses about 5 years ago
so I honestly don't know what else to tell you other than you're not alone
I've gone to the ER having seizures on several occasions and they tell me nothing is wrong with me

and now I'm 4 months pregnant and just a little worried about it happening again
considering I was rushed to the ER last week for a panic attack that forced me to fall down in front of a restaurant
if you find out what is up, let me know too

I've also had strange sensations where my heart is, like it does one big hard pump and stops and then goes back to beating
and sometimes when I'm laying down, resting, it will suddenly begin to race

I hope this helps
I had a few panic attacks when I was younger and believe I have always had Conn's Syndrome but never knew it until I was in my late 30's because it never affected my heartbeat until that time. I have a physical problem that caused my panic attacks and this may not apply to you but when I was 19 I had a particularly bad one in which I couldn't breath, fell to the floor and lost control of my motor functions, could barely talk for a few minutes ... had a few over the years.. mostly a funny feeling in the chest, problems breathing an thinking I was going to die. I have ALWAYS been "juiced up". I talk fast, I am always in a hurry, as long as I can remember my life has always been highs or lows with my energy levels. Now I know why.


I started suffering Major PANIC attacks 2 years ago associated with occasional chest pain and "fluttering" heart rhythms and feeling dizzy especially after riding in an elevator... This would cause what I thought was a mentally induced "Panic Attack" or Anxiety Attack in which I would tense up, twist my hair, run my hands through my hair, and generally want to lay down and hope it would go away. I would find myself gripping the steering wheel when driving, always anxious, and if I had a chest pain or flutter I thought I was going to die.... would pull at my shirt collar and freak out.

Well, after being hospitalized twice for "Low Potassium" and an 18 month ordeal of various tests I now know what is wrong and the treatment has now worked for about 4 months now... no more panic attacks / anxiety attacks.

I have Conn's Syndrome which is a trouble in the Adrenal Glands in which my adrenals overproduce hormones such as adrenaline and aldosterone which caused loss of potassium (abnormal fluttery feeling in chest occasionally, feeling of falling and quick stop in the chest, muscle twitches / spasms) and causes hightented blood pressure and anxiety (which just started in the last couple of years).

I am now on low dose spironolactone and I have completely turned around (in about 2 weeks after starting) and no longer have any of these symptoms... no more chest issues, no more anxiety attacks.

I had ALL of these symptoms (previously posted)
* racing or pounding heartbeat (palpitations);
* chest pains;
* stomach upset;
* dizziness, lightheaded
* difficulty breathing, a sense of feeling smothered;
* tingling or numbness in the hands;
* hot flashes or chills;
* dreamlike sensations or perceptual distortions;
* terror: a sense that something unimaginably horrible is about to occur and one is powerless to prevent it;
* a need to escape;
* fear of losing control and doing something embarrassing; and
* fear of dying.

Just a thought since I have seen some posts that describe some of these exact symptoms... Easy Blood test to see if your aldosterone / renin levels are OK and if your potassium is at or below 3.5 on the scale. If you have low or zero renin, high normal to high aldosterone and borderline to low potassium you MAY have a physical issue similar to mine.

Also, the doctors originally didn't want to listen. After a couple EKG's and them trying to prescribe high blood pressure meds (I was 140/90 then) and some anxiety medicine that I was afraid to take and didn't. I actually had to look up my symptoms and find the cause and make them test me! After the tests I had to do a 24 hour in a bottle test to see how much potassium I was loosing.. and after that they sent me to a specialist. Conn's syndrome is usually caused by a tumor but luckily (i think i am lucky) mine is not an is just my adrenals going crazy.

Just a thought, this is just a possibility. I have only had 2 major medical problems in my life ... this and a funky milk allergy I suddenly acquired at age 38 that caused me to think I was having a stroke! (That caused some major anxiety)

But no more anxiety, breathing/heart problems, or vascular spasm headaches for me anymore! I thought I would come back here and post / reply to a few and try to help others though my condition is quite rare I have heard.