left arm pain and tightness in chest with weakness (Page 1)

any suggessions???

Hi Rahuldravid,

I too have many of the same symptoms you mention. I've had semi-regular occerences of panic attacks for the past 10 yrs (i'm 29), with increasing frequency during stressful periods. The attacks present themselves in different ways, always health related symptoms. I'll feel chest tightness or sharp but short pains in chest, arms, legs, head. Sometimes I feel like there is a tight band going around the back of my head applying pressure. Lately i've felt as though i'm short of breadth, as though my breath's aren't as deep as they should be.

The symptoms vary so much. After dealing with this for so long, the best way I can describe it is that my nervous system is always on high alert. And when I feel a sensation anywhere in body which is slightly different than "normal", the nervous system sets off the alarm and my body goes into panic and defense mode. I'll take a small benign sensation and think it must be the beginning symptoms of a heart attack or aneurysm or something else.

In the past the symptoms persist for a month or so, unfortunately the most recent spurt has been going steady for about 9 months, and has finally driven me to discuss the problem w/ my doc. Doc prescribed citalopram, which i've just begun to take (no sign of relief yet). Hopefully i won't be on this for long term, shooting for 6-9 months to get me through a somewhat stressful period.

In the past when i've felt like i had the problem under control, i was able to realize what was happening shortly after the attack started and convince myself that it was indeed a panic attack. I'd breathe slow/deep and concentrate on the sensation that was triggering the problem. Then try to rationalize that the sensation was most likely harmless.

This mechanism hasn't been working lately, but hopefully the medicine will help get a handle on it as I'm reluctant to take it. We'll see. In any case, reading about the experiences of others seems to help deal, hope it does the same for you!

Hello Wart,

Thanks for you response, will wait for some more responses.

And also I am just going to doctors is to make sure that this is something not related to heart and its not life threatning. If a doctor says it confidently then we will be the kings of this world. No one can stop us. One more thing no one in my friends circle beleaves that I am 32. They think I am just 25...means wht I wanted to say is that active I will be. When ever as you said that if you feel any slight difference than normal, tht's it. My heart beat will raise like any thing. Now I am in a situation that each and every sec I will be thinking of that only and worried a lot abt that, specially this left arm pain and chest tightness.....will panic or anxiety makes these kind of symptons or its only bcos we like that. And also I am sure that its not related to heart and its only a panic symptoms, and which we have every sec. so I have decided to be happy and not to worry abt any thing.

But XANAX gives relaxation for me, and I don't want to be dependent on medicines.

Because of this I a missing a lot in my life, no parties no out goings nothing, I will be worried a lot, thinking that If I do this activity, I amy get pain or some thing else. But when I am in good mood then I can do it very very easily. One thing to observe here is ... if there is any physical problem then we can't do it, but we are confident to do it one time and not the other means is its psycological problem....and I won't prefer medicines for those...we will try to make the things to be under control..we can do that Wart.

And I am just trying to be cool and active.

Thanks again for ur response...your words have filled some confidence in me. All the best Wart

Cheers
Rahul

Hi Rahuldravid,

First of all, your definitely not alone. Like the previous person who replied, I too am 29 years old and have been going thru almost all of the same things that you have. I can't even begin to recall how many doctors visit's and tests I've had in the past three years.

All of my symptoms started a few years back. I had just quit smoking and was getting ready to change jobs and move to a new state. Looking back now, I can't believe how stressful the whole event was for me. But that started a series of events that eventually snowballed. I would go from one symptom to another, each time I had a test that completely ruled out any problems and then within a day or two that symptom would be gone and replaced with something new. And of course this new symptom required seeing another specialist for more tests.

Every little sensation that I feel I think is the end for me. And its very scary to travel because I feel uncomfortable to be away from my comfort zone. Throughout these past few years I've really begun to understand how powerful stress and anxiety are. I think alot of people don't really understand the magnitude of anxiety and how debilitating it can make you.

My suggestions? Do whatever you can to reduce stress in your life and everyday try to convince yourself that your not dying. My doctor tried prescribe me zoloft, but like you I didn't want to be dependant on a medication forever. Exercise is very important too. For a while I was scared to go the gym, and then one day I just said enough is enough, I'm going to the gym and if I die from it then oh well. Well, I made it through and I felt much more confident afterwards. It was like reinforcement that I'm healthy because I was able to work out.

Good luck, its certainly not easy.

all this just started happening to me now, and its being going on for almost 1 month. I just want it to stop, its really scary and it sucks and im only 17:(

I am a 30 year old male and have many of the same symptoms you have described. Constant tightness in the left chest, and some tingling sensations in the left arm for the past 8 years. I have had a stress test and EKG about 5 years ago, colonoscopy, mid-section MRI, and I am thinking about have some more recent tests done. Nothing has been found, and the doctors always tell me I am ok. I recently had a blood test done, and they found the H pilori bacteria which he said is possibly an ulcer. I have not medicated this yet. Anyway the tightness in the chest is the most bothersome and I typically drink alchohol to medicate it, which i know is not good. I am an occasional smoker for the past ten years. Any suggestions?

WOW!!!! Sorry guys I don't mean that in a bad way I'm just glad I found people who are going through. Well its safe to say im the youngest lol im only 21 and have had these symptoms for about a year now with tonight probably being my worst its happened to me three times to day alone with each one getting worst and worst. I almost started thinking I was having a heart attack or maybe strokes however it doesn't seem to be that was I hope someone can post more helps/cures for this that would be great. I don't drink, and I don't do drugs. I do smoke though is it better if I stop or should I keep going till I get this thing under control as I do want to quit.

Anyways thanks all im glad to see im not going crazy

Hello, wow i also surprised to find you guys on here, i find it odd because im 29 also, and were all in a similar age range. I must admit i feel like a live and lived a more extreme lifestyle, ive partied at raves all over the world , stayed up on drugs for years like meth,coke, special k, weed, and since i gave up on all those party drugs , i started drinking beer and sometimes hard liquor in excess, so im a so called alcoholic now, even tough i don't feel its that bad, i drink beer about 3 or 4 times a week and on the weekends, and usually drink more than a six pack.

I used to be a pro skateboarder and very athletic, but since becoming a dad, i stopped being as active and gained weight and don't know how to get rid of it. After all of this though, according to the doctors ive seen im in good health. I feel i need to go to a new cardiologist. I have slowed down on the drinking and quit smoking more than a year ago.

I have been to the emergency room at least 3 times this year already (2008) and multiple times in the past 3 years with what i think is some kind of heart palpitations and pain, tight clenching in my arm and shortness of breath, its scary stuff. I feel like i am going to have a sudden attack of the heart, but once i get in the hospital bed and calm down and ave a monitor attached to me, i feel at ease and the doctor finds nothing wrong, but anxiety attacks or light palpitations.

I get theese attacks often also, not everyday , but its odd, its usually in a stressful situation, but i wont lie, i also feel these weird chugging on my left arm and tightening hand and chest pains , even when im all alone, just watching t.v. , now that im writing about it, im realizing that i need to make some serious life changes, i love the advice i read on here about just going out and exercising and not caring if you die or not.. thats actually a good way to look at it, because this fear of dying might be advancing the attacks.

I think health is very important, i love to indulge and enjoy my quality beer and great food, but i really just want to control these pains and feeling of heart disease thats non existent.
So if it more psychological than actual heart problems, than we probably could help each other out on this board. I am going to see a new doctor soon , and i will let you guys know the results...

hope theres no biased views on my party lifestyle, i know what ive done was stupid, but people do change. And this problem were having could be more than doctors know right now.

Thanks for listening.. peace. !
charlie.

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btw , i found this topic when i looked it up in google tonight, because i was feeeling the arm pains, and they seem to have gone away for now. !

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to say that I know what most of you are going thru. In the past 6 months I've had 3 EKG's done and I'm perfectly fine according to the doctor's. I've had sharp chest pains, tightness in the chest, my left arm and left shoulder blade aches, sometimes my left arm goes numb, I've felt dizzy and lightheaded almost every day for the past month or so. I'm about 95% sure that it's all due to anxiety. Everytime I've had these episodes I've thought for sure I was having a heart attack. I've had 3extreme panic attacks in the past year and I know the feeling. I mean it pretty much cripples you mentally and physically. I had times that I didn't have the energy to get out of bed or roll up into a ball and die.

I'm 28 years old and I've been married for a year now. I didn't have this problem while I was single. LOL. I blame my wife. No really. I've noticed I get on the edge mostly with work and trying to fit too much into one day when I really don't have enough time. Most people will say to try to slow down but it's hard to do that in such a fast paced world these days. I've taken Lorezapam and it works really well. Only downfall to it, is that it's habit forming. Right now I'm taking Buspirone. It seems to help with the anxiety but my head is splitting wide open and makes me feel tired and dizzy all the time. I figure I'll take the bottle I have and see how it goes.

I've also been reading this material buy this Charles Linden guy. It's called the Linden Method. He was supposedly suffering from 100's of panic attacks per week and he's still alive and kicking so that give me some hope and some of the things he points out really helps with the anxiety and panic attacks.

Hello,
I am 30 years old and Iv been experiencing panic attacks for 2 years, it is a horrible feeling, I came to canada its been 2 years, very hard to adapt I was working 7 days a week to go marry all pressure, country and culture change, living alone working hard, then I went to the emergency room, for panic attack, after that it has been 2 weeks that I did not sleep well, I had some small panic attacks but what is happeneing with me now is some tighteness in my left hand palm some pain the fingers sometimes in the thumb sometimes in the index of the left hand, some weird sensation in the throat and tightness in the oesophage and when I eat its like they stock in the center of my chest, and every little sensation weird smell throat it would generate an attack and I am confused is it an attack or some serious illness like MS or.. and since than I am not enjoying my time, but i am not letting fear get me I would continue what i do but with the fear, like my work sent me to california best weather best ambiance and I cannot enjoy it because i am oversensitive to my body and I feel great tightness in the center of the chest stomach and oesophage great tightness,
So anyone had the same symptoms ????

hang on there folks after reading this i am releifed,

26 yr male long long time POT smoker and my wife has been wanting me to stop forever now when I smoke I have the exact symptoms as all of you guys....Have you all on here smoked POT for an extended period of time in your life? I am glad I came on here before going to the ER because I'm sure I just saved myself tons of cash. I will still go get an EKG on Monday morning but at least for the weekend I feel good that I am not the only one with this issue. I just had full bloodwork done 2 months ago (before this started) and the doc said everything was all good (except slightly High Cholesterol) so I cut out the BS sleep well my fellow panic attackers at least we know we are not dying...now that calls for a LOL

CMAN

I am having the same issues as a 29 year old male and long time pot smoker I am having the same issues although I have only had one panic attack every over the past few months I have been getting this tightening in my shoulder and chest (left side) and it always seems to become a bit more pronounced when I smoke but I also work full time and go to school online full time so I am constantly stressed so I felt that might be this issue and after reading all of these posts it looks like it might be right. What I have realized is that if you go out and be active taking your mind off of everything but what your doing can give you a reprieve from the tightness also I have come to realize that creating some sort of placebo affect for yourself can also work I had this same issue about 6 months back and was sure it was my infected tooth causing the problem I got the tooth pulled and some antibiotics and everything went away I am now coming to realize that it was stress that brought that feeling on then me worrying about that feeling only cause more stress and made it get worse so if you can convince yourself that it is being caused by a certain issue and take steps to correct that issue you could trick your mind into thinking that that feeling is also fixed.

I quit smoking 7 days ago so I've expected some of this and I've gone through some anxiety before but its been really bad since I quit. I am in constant fear of dieing. Been to the doctor etc. and of course they reassure me that I am not, doesn't matter, I always think they missed something or misdiagnosed me. What's even weirder is I have never been an overly sensitive person to aches, pains etc. In fact, it was rare for me to get even get physicals so after reading all of this I certainly can relate that I must be having anxiety attacks and it seems that smoking must have helped relieve soem of that anxiety. Thank you so much for being willing to post these things on here. What a releif!

I typed in "left side tightness and arm pain" and this panel popped up. I surprised to read other people's experience with this symptom. My symptoms just started. I was recently discharged from the hospital for a virus. While there I was tested for other things according to my symptoms. I went into the hospital complaining of a constant migraine, light & audio sensitivity and nauseousness. Symptoms and testing lead doctors to believe it could be MS (multiple sclerosis), lime disease, etc. Now I'm having left side chest tightness, arm and neck pain. I'm scared of possibly having MS which is why I could possible be having anxiety. Even these new symptoms are scary. Guys, with the symptoms you have been having does anything else coincide with it such as, leg pain, tingling?
Q

Hey everyone im a 25 year old female who have been having anxiety and panic attacks so they say for 5 years now.....i use to be on paxil cr for 3 years and have been off them for 2 years now i had really bad withdrawl from them like stabbing head zaps and felt like everything was so distant. I have been experiencing short of breath sometimes throughout the day but i have been having this left chest arm and neck pain that is CONSTANT and wont go away. Kinda like a burning sensation. I am just afraid its a heart problem. I did have an electrocardiogram a year ago and evrything was normal. i also had ekgs and wore a 24 hour holter monitor. again everything was ok....but this pain wont go away and i was wondering if anyone else has or have this. and if its just anxiety panic related and not my heart. I was reading on angina and thats some signs of it but i dont know....
THANX!

also my doctor just gave me xanex 0.25 mg....im afraid to take them!!!! imalways home alone and i have a 5 year and i dont know how they will make me feel and i dnt want to depend on them either...my doc said i could take them just whenever i needed them not everyday. but still these left area pains are scaring me....

Hi there people,

I am a 30 year old male and have been experiencing alot of the symptoms that you guys are as well. This has been going on now for 3-4 years. Have been to the doctors and hospital on many many occasions. Have had umpteen ECG's etc and still there seems to be no problems!! I often get pains in my left arm, these pains are not just situated in one area, sometimes these are in my bicep area, sometimes in my forearm, they are like small pin pricks and whenever they occur which is sometimes 3-4 times a day I still worry...I also get a strange feeling in the left side of my chest, I feel like sometimes I am wearing a tight t-shirt. Still can't get a proper diagnosis from the doctors, they suggest anxiety but for my piece of mind I would like a firm answer. I am a smoker and I know I should stop and I am trying, I have used soft and hard drugs before on a regular basis, although in the last few years I have cut back a lot. I get scared about partaking in physical activity due to me thinking I may suffer a heart attack!! Crazy I know but sometimes the fear of having a heart problem just won't go away...Would love for someone to wave a magic wand and for this to disappear, it really does have a big effect on my life, it would be nice to get through a day without one thing or another rearing its head!!!

hi my name is cora , i too was feeling these sensations went to every er clinics an my own doctors begging my doctor to listen he did many of his own tests ... with many blood test an x-rays an nothing i was given an antibiotic didnt work... so i decided to do some of my own research before an after i went to doctors knowing that there was something not right i was told anxiety , phibimalja an a few others well i thought after all the reading i had done it had to be a Bactria infection as i waited for my doctor to get back to me three days later i had been in bed for weeks suffering with this pain guess what i had a bactria infection this test was found tho a paps but im sure the infection ran though my body errrr so im trying this med called metronidazole(mrsa ) iv only taken it three times now keep fingers crossed .... but i do seem to feel a change thank you for giving me a chance to share good luck to all of you in pain i know how much it stinks hugs to all Cora

I'm 24 yrs old and have had all these symptoms for about 4/5 yrs. I'm glad I have found this page and I feel alot better knowing there are others.. I have had the extreme anexiety attacks. Feeling like you can't breathe and your face feels all buzzy and you can barely move your lips to talk.. I have never taken meds for this nor will I. All I can say for those of you who are having these crippling attacks is really try hard to take over your body... Me personaly when I feel one coming on I try to relax and think of something else.. Reading a news paper article or even going to the can and just sit on the toilet has helped me pass the experience... It's been over a year since I have had an extreme attack. I still feel anxetiy from time to time but have learned to control the magnitude of the attack.. Thanks, for all the posts it has helped me grately.
Just think we're all young and healthy with great lives too lead, don't let this take controlf of you!!!

Great board, I'm 43 and have just started getting some pressure on my right side with it running out to my cheek and a little down my neck. I have also noticed some strange pressure in my right arm, but no real weakness. I think this can we caused by stress. Even though I'm busy througout the day when I start to worry about this stuff being some muscle disease it just escalates. Does any of this sound familiar?

thanks

Eddie

Hi.
I'm now 25 and been having these attacks since I was 19. I've experienced a lot of stress and trauma in my life.I just assume that would be my cause. I am also a type 1 diabetic. Reading everyone's stories just helped me get through a rly bad attack. It came out of nowhere, as usual and it always seems to happen at night when I go to sleep. I hate that by having this disorder I have to deal with trying to rationalize things within myself. It makes me feel crazy. Other people don't get it either. They roll their eyes sometimes when I'm in the middle of an attack and am not strong enough to pretend I'm ok. This only makes me feel more alone and crazy.
I'm crying while writting this btw.
I wish I could give everone hope and say that you can beat and overcome this. I always believed that when I was younger and would refuse medication. I beat it for a little while but just over a year later....they came back. It's an upward battle but i can truly say reading all your stories makes me feel less alone. I can now use them as ammo when I have another attack. I will simply remember this blog and tell myself " I'm not alone and this will be over soon." Thank you guys for being my strength

I can understand all these symptoms, racing heart, sweaty hands, pins and needles feeling, warm pressure on top of your head, looking at other people and wondering what happened to me.... do yourself a huge favor and Get a copy of book
"Hope And Help For Your Nerves By Claire Weekes"

You can enjoy your life again, dont let this crap take control over you which has no medical existence.