Anxiety Chest Pain: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment

Choking sensation, hyperventilation, paresthesias, loss of control of one's own body... are common symptoms of anxiety attacks. But if there is a symptom that especially generates the fear of dying when we have one of these crises, it is the existence of chest pain.

And it is that chest pain from anxiety is a really annoying symptom, often being taken by those who suffer from it for the first time as indicative of the beginning of the end. Throughout this article we are going to talk about this type of pain, indicating some of its causes and how to treat it.

• Related article: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

Anxiety Chest Pain: Basic Symptoms

When we talk about chest pain due to anxiety, we refer to the perception of pain generated by the somatization of an anxious state that can occur in the context of an anxiety crisis, as a prodrome of it or in the face of the perception of continued stress without having to reach a crisis.

This pain is usually perceived and classified as stabbing, and it is common for it to occur in the form of punctures and it can appear at different points on the torso. This type of pain usually disappears quickly (it can take up to a quarter of an hour, but the most It is usual that they do not last more than a few minutes), in addition to not changing whether or not we make efforts physical.

In addition to the pain itself, it is common for them to appear along with it. symptoms such as hyperventilation, numbness in the extremities and usually a feeling of going crazy, dying or completely losing control over one's body.

Frequent confusion with heart problems

Chest pain is a frequent phenomenon in the somatization of anxiety, but as we mentioned in the introduction, the fact that it is also dealing with a typical symptom of heart problems and especially angina pectoris and myocardial infarctions often causes the two to be confused issues.

The similarities are many but they can be distinguished by the fact that in the case of pain typical of heart disease, the pain is usually more specific to specific points on the chest. and the arm (although it must be borne in mind that the typical heart attack symptoms usually refer to the case of men, being the most general location in the case of women), tend to persist over time and worsen with physical exertion and contrary to anxiety, there is usually neither respiratory alterations nor loss of control.

In any case, it is possible that a heart problem could generate anxiety and it is advisable to go to a medical service as soon as possible to ensure that the problem in question is anxiety and not a medical problem real.

Causes

Bearing in mind that chest pain due to anxiety is not the product of heart disease, it is legitimate to wonder why it appears. The ultimate cause is suffering from a high level of anxiety. However, the reason that the somatization of anxiety appears in the form of pain It is due to many physiological aspects. that can appear as a consequence of the activation produced by it.

First of all, when we are stressed, afraid or anxious, we are generating a high level of adrenaline and cortisol, something that Physiological results in the activation of the sympathetic autonomous nervous system (responsible for activating the body to allow reactions such as fighting or flight). When the anxiety crisis arises, this activation generates high muscle tension in order to prepare the body to respond quickly. This continued tension can generate a certain level of pain in different parts of the body, the chest being one of them.

Likewise, fear and nervousness also tend to generate an increase in lung activity, leading to hyperventilation. Said hyperventilation also implies a high level of movement of the thoracic musculature and the diaphragm, something that together with muscular tension favors pain. In addition, the fact of constantly taking short and superficial inhalations makes the appearance of the sensation of choking, something that in turn will generate more nervous activation and a greater number of inhalations.

Another frequent alteration in moments of anxiety and that participates in chest pain due to anxiety is alteration of gastric motility and dilation of the digestive tract, which can even generate pinching of the nerves in the torso, or the accumulation of gases in the stomach that can rise to the chest and cause pain.

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Treatment

To treat chest pain due to anxiety, you will first have to treat the cause that generates it, that is, the anxiety itself.

At a cognitive level, in the first place, the first thing to assess is why this feeling of anxiety has arisen, being necessary analyze what external or internal factors stir and agitate us internally to such an extent that our body needs to express it through the body.

We must also assess whether we are dealing with something that we can or cannot act on directly. If we can do something to change it, we can try to generate some kind of behavioral modification or develop a strategy to solve the problem in question. In the event that anxiety is due to something uncontrollable and unchangeable, we will have to restructure our way of relating to said situation. It would be about relativizing the problem, reducing its importance and assessing whether this or its possible consequences are really so relevant for the subject himself.

Another aspect that can be of great help is the training and practice of different exercises of relaxation, especially taking into account breathing, although relaxation techniques are also useful muscular. Yoga, meditation or mindfulness are also very useful practices that make it difficult for anxiety to set in and allow anxiety-producing situations to be relativized.

If we are in the middle of an anxiety crisis, the first thing to assess is that anxiety is not going to kill us and that said pain is temporary and the product of our own reaction to it. We must try, as much as possible, to calm down (although it is not easy). In addition we should try to focus on our breathing, avoiding hyperventilation as much as possible and trying to take deep and slow inhalations. The crisis will end.

Bibliographic references:

• Barker, P. (2003). Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing: The Craft of Caring. London: Edward Arnold.
• Seligman, M.E.P.; Walker, E.F.; Rosenhan, D.L. Abnormal psychology (4th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
• Sylvers, Patrick; Lilienfeld, Scott O.; Laprairie, Jamie L. (2011). "Differences between trait fear and trait anxiety: Implications for psychopathology". Clinical Psychology Review. 31 (1): 122 - 37.