Could Prolonged Stress Make You Think You Were Having A Heart Attack?

[sandyRoe]

Last Friday night I had a twinge in my neck from below the ear down to the collar bone. Later that night I felt a similar twinge in my groin. Next morning I felt as though my back was being squeezed and also was very hot and felt as though I was going to be sick.
This is all I need, I thought. A effing heart attack.
I got a taxi to the City Hospital only to be told the A+E had closed months ago. Another taxi to the Royal Victoria where they gave me an ECG and took blood samples. I sat about most of the day and in the afternoon had another ECG and more blood taken.
The consultant eventually told me that there was no indication of any problem.
I've been using Niquitine 4mg lozenges as a replacement for cigarettes. The maximum recommended dose per day is 15 but I think I've sometimes been using as many as 40 in a day.
Could a combination of these tablets and the stress have produced the symptoms that made me imagine I was ill?

[aelmpvw]

sorry to hear that sandy, i'm not a medical man so i can't help but overdosing on niquitine lozenges doesn't sound like a good idea

[sandyRoe]

I dumped all the tablets in the bin and am now experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

[yogasun]

Sorry to hear about this sandy. Maybe it was an overdose on Niquitine that caused the symptoms. Sqad might have ideas :-)

[Gavmacp]

I would say yes. Have you considered using the NHS to give up smoking. I had to stop for five days whilst in hospital. That is when I realised how difficult giving up smoking will be for me.

[ladyalex]

The answer to your original question is 'yes' Sandy.
However, taking too much nicotine won't help how you feel generally.
I'm not sure that you should have binned all of the lozenges, though.
Why not retrieve them and take them at the suggested dose, spread out through the day ?
Then , hopefully, you will not be getting the withdrawal symptoms , but neither will you be getting the excess nicotine symptoms .
Good luck to you....kicking the fags is not an easy thing to do.

[sandyRoe]

I haven't smoked for years but I've just changed the method of feeding the addiction from cigarettes to tablets.
Trying to stay within the recommended dose for the tablets might be a sensible first step.

[ladyalex]

In that case, change my last sentence to
Kicking the nicotine is not an easy thing to do....

[Sqad]

/////I've sometimes been using as many as 40 in a day.
Could a combination of these tablets and the stress have produced the symptoms that made me imagine I was ill///

Yes.

[Connemmara]

Hi Sandy - am not a smoker but believe it or am receiving emails from a friend who is a very heavy smoker - I had to laugh however, she tried to buy 10 last night and a pound of dolly mixtures to munch through, - she said she failed and had to go out and buy more cigarettes. It truly must be difficult. What I can't understand Sandy when you have been off the cigarettes for so long what made you submit to tablets -

[ludwig]

Sandy, I was on lozenges for about 3 years. At one point I thought about easing myself off them with cigarettes. It's not good to massively OD like that. Nicotine's basically a poison that affects the nervous system, so it doesn't surprise me you suffered effects.

At some point you have to bite the bullet and go through the withdrawal.

[MadMen]

If you were worrying/stressing about your "symptoms", then this would have increased your anxiety levels. Anxiety/panic attacks often have very similar symptoms to those of a heart attack. Tight or pain in chest, hot flushes, nausea... amongst others.

[sandyRoe]

Connemmara, I stopped the cigarettes by starting on the tablets. While they're probably much less harmful than smoking they still deliver the nicotine.
Thank you all for the comments.
I'd always felt that I had a good heart. It's nice to see ECGs and blood tests confirming that :-)

[anneasquith]

yes. im glad you did seek medical advice, cut down on the tabs :)