Obsessed with fear that I am dying or going to die

Okay, I have never been one to be afraid of death. I accepted it as inevitable for as long as I can remember. But about a year ago, I think I had a panic attack. It was out of nowhere for no reason and it seemed like I was having a heart attack. It stopped and I was okay but it scared me so I saw my doctor. I told him what happened (hard to breath, heart palpitations, vomiting) and he checked me out and said I had a sinus problem that caused trouble breathing which caused palpitations and the nausea was from drippage in my throat. Sounded reasonable to me so I took some medicine and that was that. Until about two days later when I was utterly convinced I was dying from heart problems. I kept it to myself and managed to get over it and banish the obsessive thoughts after about two weeks. Recently (right after I quit smoking) it happened again but on a much larger scale. The same symptoms, and again I didn't know it was a panic attack, I thought my heart was exploding. My sister who is an RN checked my BP and said it was okay and I probably just had an axiety attack. My first thought was no way, I have nothing be anxious about. Then she said it didn't matter, it just happens sometimes. And for the past month I have become absolutley engulfed in my obsessive thoughts that I am dying from natural causes (cancer, heart trouble, brain tumor, etc.) The attacks have happened a few times and I even went to the ER because my symptoms were so severe. They ran tests and did an EKG and everything was fine. Even after that I am convinced I am dying. I have moved and it's taken over a month and I still have about 2 weeks to go until I can see a doctor to get it straightened out. I don't get why this happened out of the blue. It stresses me out which causes a whole host of symptoms which I of course take as I'm gravely ill. Randomly I'll have moments of clarity where I know I'm being irrational. And when the thoughts come I try to push them away but I honestly can't do it. I think all my symptoms (headaches, chills, numbness, palpitations, nausea, etc.) are all stress related but I still don't know. I am living in fear of something that probably isn't true and my will is getting weaker every day. I have always been kind of a worrier, like if my dad was 20 minutes late getting home and didn't answer the phone I would worry but I knew he was okay type of thing. But never like this, especially over something I had a grip on from age 10. Has anyone else had this problem? Is it OCD? Because I don't have any compulsive habits that I know of. I try and keep it to myself because no one understands why I can't just calm down. If anyone has any pointers or anything like that I'd love to hear them. Sorry this was so long and thanks for reading. PEACE!

Hello there, sorry I can't offer you any advice myself, although I've known 2 people who have suffered panic attacks, and have described how horrible they are.

On the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Forum, there is another forum listed called Panic Disorders - have a look on there, it might help - I hope so. Good luck.