Can Anxiety Cause Chest Tightness?
Anxiety is a particular condition in which you may feel excess worry and can see symptoms like increased heart rate, nervousness, trembling, sweating, and breathlessness. In this condition, you may feel chest pain and chest tightness. If you have anxiety and notice chest pain, you may wonder whether it could be because of the condition or other illnesses like heart disease.
Anxiety & Chest Pain
If you are wandering and searching does anxiety cause chest pain or chest tightness then the answer is yes!. But every person experiences pain differently and can face different symptoms. Some people face pain just as sudden muscle spasm, stabbing pressure, and pain shoot.
Chest tightness occurs when your body gives response to stress, tightening your muscles in fitness for fight and flight reactions. The fight and flight reaction or your body is the response to protect you from danger or threat. Increased rate of the heart can also accelerate the pain.
If you ever feel chest tightness you might be conscious about the heart attack and that can cause you to become more panicked. So, the more anxiety you feel the more tightness you will feel. If you ever experience frequent attacks your muscles will take more time to recover from stress and tension, and will lead you to excess chest pain.
Here are some signs of chest tightness:
- Shortness of breathing
- Sweating
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Irregular impulse
Conditions That Can Cause Chest Tightness
When you feel severe anxiety or some other medical conditions are responsible for chest tightness, you may face the following conditions:
Heart Attack
A heart attack is a medical emergency condition that can have similar symptoms just as anxiety attacks. In this condition, you may face chest pain, a squeezing sensation in your chest, breathlessness, a feeling of impending doom, and nausea. Although both heart attack and anxiety attack have similar symptoms the manifestation of chest pain is different.
Anxiety Chest Pain vs. Heart Attack Chest Pain
The chest pain in a heart attack radiates in other parts of the body like the jaw and arms. While in anxiety chest pain starts from the center of the chest. In anxiety chest pain occurs after a fear trigger while the heart attaches chest pain comes from physical exertions. A heart attack pain always feels like pressure, an achy sensation, or stabbing pain that can feel like heartburn. An anxiety chest pain will go away shortly but a heart attack chest pain will go to the peak and linger for longer.
GERD
A digestive condition called Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) can also cause chest pain. This condition occurs when acid from the stomach goes back to the oesophagus. Other GERD symptoms include pain after swelling, excess amount of saliva, and sore throat. If you have a GERD problem you may feel the above-mentioned symptoms very frequently such as twice a week.
Pneumonia
In pneumonia, lungs face inflammation or air sacs. If your infection is severe you may face several symptoms like chest pain, fever, coughs, chill, nausea, dirrahea, low body temperature, and shortness of breath. In this condition, you may face many complications that you should always be ready to contact your doctors if you notice any symptoms.
Muscle Strain
Muscle strain is the most common reason for chest pain. It occurs from straining the muscle that connects your ribs and is known as intercostal muscles. You can get muscle strain while engaging in intensive activity just like heavy lifting. While facing chest pain you may also face tenderness, swelling, and breathing difficulties.
Pulmonary Embolism
This condition is usually caused by a blood clot in which the pulmonary artery is blocked. The common symptoms of this condition are coughing, shortness of breath, and chest pain. This medical condition is very dangerous as well as fatal. But you can control and treat this medical condition if you detect it earlier.
Some Other medical conditions that can cause chest pain are asthma, rib cage injury, angina, lung collapse, and pericarditis. Many conditions can cause chest pain or chest tightness. But the suggestion is that you should never ignore this chest pain and tightness. Just immediately call your doctor and have an appointment.
Home Remedies For Anxiety Chest Pain
As you can experience anxiety attacks and chest pain__ because of anxiety anytime so here are some home remedies that will help you.
Breath Deeply
Deep breaths can calm your mind and lower the level of anxiety. Breath deeply and slowly while facing chest pain or chest tightness it will help you to control your breathing and relax anxiety. It is recommended that while inhaling or exhalation of breathing count at nine and continue this slow process.
Take Care Of Your Health
The best solution to any medical problem is to take care of your health. If you are facing an anxiety problem then it is really important that you should be proactive about your health. Adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Practice Relaxation Technique
Some relaxation techniques such as meditations and focusing on beautiful and positive thinking can help you to become more optimistic and calm. You can also encourage yourself while listening to some inspirational songs.
