Connect
← Return to Chest Pain + Fatigue
Discussion
Comment receiving replies
@jessicamt Your symptoms sound unusual for such a young person. Are you sure they are not caused by anxiety or stress? I had a friend who was very stressed due to school and exams and actually went to the ER thinking he could be having a heart attack but it was diagnosed as stress, and sure enough when exams were over he was fine. Do you find that there is anything going on in your life at the times when these attacks occur? Are you having family stresses? Also, exhaustion is often due to depression, or perhaps it's from SAD (seasonal affective disorder). If that, it should improve now that the days are getting longer.
If not you definitely need to be more insistent about seeing the doctor. Are your parents concerned? Could they advocate for you? Unfortunately, they would probably be taken more seriously than a teen would. I would definitely not want my daughter to be going through this. Please make your parents more aware of just how serious these attacks feel and ask them to help you.
JK
Replies to "@jessicamt Your symptoms sound unusual for such a young person. Are you sure they are not..."
Connect
As much as I hope stress and anxiety is the problem, I would still like to continue pressing the doctors to look at more than my blood test. In every moment I felt like I was having an attack or when my chest started hurting, it was always during a time where I was feeling completely fine and happy with what I was doing, and not once worrying about anything.
I’m sure stress and anxiety could be adding to it, but my fainting spells began over a year ago, the fatigue earlier this fall and chest pain more towards the winter months. I have had a rough time recently in these last two months, as my best friend has recently been diagnosed with cancer, but my symptoms began way before she was diagnosed and have only recently worsened to the point they are at now. Hopefully it is just stress and anxiety, and my worry for my friend could most definitely add to it, but things started far too long ago for me to think that it was caused by her diagnosis.
My parents are concerned for me, and my mother does continue in trying to get me to see the doctor and they’ve put me on a cancellation list, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting in any time soon. I find it difficult to talk about it all with my parents because I think that it scares them or makes them upset. I often feel bad for being so tired, because it definitely doesn’t really make me a pleasure to have at home. I understand it isn’t very fun to live with someone who is always sleeping or in pain. But they do know what is going on, and even though their reactions always seem to be negative and it does make me feel bad about feeling sick, I know they want me to let them know.
It also seems that when people find out my best friend has cancer, they stop taking me seriously. I understand why, and I hope everything has just been increased by the amount of worry I am under, but I don’t like how they shrug me off and stop trying to figure out if there is anything wrong once they hear I could be stressed. I try to tell them it started before her diagnosis, but it’s almost like they don’t listen.
I don’t think I am being taken seriously much at all, and I’m not a doctor so I don’t know what could possibly be wrong or what to ask them to look for. I just wish someone could help me in a time where I am unable to help myself.
Currently I feel better than I did this morning, but my chest is still super tender to touch. I can’t really see anything just looking at it, though it does look a tiny tiny bit red. It isn’t a nice feeling.