I’ve been really stressed lately, and I have noticed that my chest has started to hurt when I breathe deeply or laugh heartily, which isn’t like me at all because I don’t usually get chest pains no matter how much stress I’m under. Have you ever had this happen to you? If so, do you think that anxiety could cause chest pain? This article explores the causes of chest pain and whether anxiety could be one of them.
Anxiety as a Possible Cause
Anxiety can cause chest pains for a few reasons. First, anxiety itself is sometimes considered a symptom of an underlying heart condition, such as coronary artery disease. When you’re anxious and stressed, your body releases adrenaline and other hormones that make your heart beat faster and harder to get more oxygen-rich blood throughout your body.
This can cause chest pains. Anxiety can also worsen other existing conditions that do not involve your heart: things like acid reflux or endometriosis; its symptoms are mistaken for being caused by anxiety or stress rather than something else entirely.
Lastly, anxiety may also be caused by something completely unrelated to your health at all—like a reaction to environmental allergens or chemicals in household cleaners or foods you eat every day.
Anxiety Chest Pain
What Causes Anxiety to Cause Chest Pains? While anxiety itself is not known to cause chest pains, there are some factors that can increase anxiety and/or make chest pain worse. Stress is a major factor. The more stress you experience in your life, the more likely you are to experience anxiety. When you’re stressed out, your body releases adrenaline into your bloodstream.
Adrenaline increases heart rate and blood pressure, which may worsen chest pain symptoms. Anxiety also causes muscle tension throughout your body, including your chest muscles. When these muscles tense up as part of an anxiety attack, they can put pressure on surrounding organs like your heart or lungs.
This increased pressure can cause additional chest pain or discomfort during an anxiety attack. Additionally, anxiety disorders often co-occur with other medical conditions such as depression, substance abuse disorders, and chronic pain conditions.
These conditions can contribute to anxiety and chest pain by causing additional physical symptoms such as nausea or headaches. If you have anxiety disorder along with another condition like chronic back pain, it’s important to treat both problems simultaneously so that neither condition worsens over time.
Treating Chest Pain from Anxiety
Anxiety can cause chest pains, but that doesn’t mean you should use it as an excuse to self-diagnose yourself with heart disease. If you’re experiencing anxiety symptoms, it’s best to go see your doctor and let him or her evaluate your case.
Here are some things to know about anxiety and chest pain Chest pain is a common symptom of anxiety. Anxiety can make us feel like we have tightness in our chest—like something is pressing down on us—and these feelings often come with other anxiety symptoms like shortness of breath, nausea, sweating, and dizziness.
For some people who experience anxiety attacks, chest pain is actually one of their main physical symptoms. The good news is that anxiety causes chest pain for most people and will not lead to serious health problems, so if you do experience anxiety symptoms and chest pain, don’t assume it means there’s something wrong with your heart.
Anxiety isn’t dangerous: Anxiety may be uncomfortable, but it isn’t dangerous. Anxiety won’t give you a heart attack or put too much stress on your body. Anxiety does increase your risk of having panic attacks, which can cause chest pains (see below), but anxiety itself won’t harm your body unless you have another underlying condition that makes anxiety more dangerous for you (e.g., high blood pressure).
Anxiety causes chest pain by tightening up muscles: Anxiety causes chest pain because it increases muscle tension throughout our bodies, including in our chests.
Conclusion
Anxiety can trigger chest pain and heart attacks. Understanding why anxiety causes chest pain can help you cope with these attacks. Anxiety chest pain is caused by our fight-or-flight response. Our brain triggers a reaction that tells our body to release hormones that make us sweat, break out in a cold sweat, or get chills. It also increases blood pressure and heart rate, which cause our muscles to tense up—including those in our chest.
