I had chest pains my entire life. I also had a heart murmur. Doctors always just gave me an EKG and told me they didn’t see anything wrong. I had the heart murmur fixed, but continue to have chest pains. It took 24 years to realize I had problems with anxiety, and it’s where all of my chest pains were coming from.

As a kid though, I just started to believe everyone had chest pains since doctors kept telling me nothing was wrong. I’d ask my friends, “You know that feeling, like your heart is hanging in your ribcage by a thread, and you lay on the wrong side and that string gets pulled tight, and it kind of hurts in a weird way?”

“No....”

“Okay, but you know when your chest feels really tight like it’s trying to turn itself inside out?”

“No...”

“Okay, but do you know when it aches through your shoulders, neck, and back, and if you move the wrong way, it feels like an electrocution?”

“No...”

“Okay, but do you know when you have to shake your arms because you feel like your chest is going to come apart at the seams if you don’t?”

“No...”

I said this shit to adults, medical professionals, and friends, and nobody figured it out. The only reason I figured it out is because I had a couple episodes of psychosis (which was a new symptom) and got put on an anti-anxiety medication. It was like an awakening. Whenever my anxiety would take a strong hold, or if I did not have the luxury of riding it out, I’d take a dose, and the chest pains would melt away in minutes. The neck pains, the clenched jaw, the nervous, shaky energy, all gone.