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Horrible lump feeling (Read 15788 times)
beadbabe
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Horrible lump feeling
Feb 07th, 2007, 1:43am
 
Hi there
I have been having problems with irregular heart beat, racing heart and ectopic heart beat (often several in a minute) for several months. Now I have a horrible lump far down in my throat. It is there most of the time and seems to be increasing in its intensity - over the last three weeks. It now wakes me up because my body goes into a panic (I think) because it feels like choking or some weird feeling. Is this related to the heart?

All doctors think I have anxiety - and I have been having panic attacks too, but mentally I don't feel that anxious. Well, let's say I didn't until I started having all these odd symptoms.

Will the lump go away? Is it possible to have muscle spasms in your throat really low down??? I could probably understand that because well maybe I am tense??

Oh yes - I am late 30s female - I don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, don't drink tea or coffee, although haven't managed to cut out chocolate completely (is eating chocolate a high risk activity?), so any suggestions on where to go from here very welcome... This whole health thing is spoiling my enjoyment of life.

Help! Shocked
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saab
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Re: Horrible lump feeling
Reply #1 - Feb 7th, 2007, 2:49am
 
I've never had this feeling myself, but the lump in the throat seems to be a common symptom of anxiety. I am assuming that you cannot feel any lump on the outside and it is not swollen glands caused by infection or a cold. RLR is a doctor who often posts on this forum - this was his response to a similar question to yours:

"The sensation of being choked is a phenomenon known as "Globus" and is caused by the same reactivity the results in benign palpitations. The Vagus nerve is largely responsible for the phenomenon and hyperventilation is often encountered as a consequence of fear and shallow breathing, which expulses too much CO2. The brain is extremely sensitive to blood-gas changes and its not difficult at all for some people with anxiety to quickly threshold to a panic attack.  

Regardless, the symptom is physically harmless and although quite alarming will never cause an event.  

Panic thresholds can be quickly reduced by re-breathing into a bag, often hearalded in movies and the like, but actually can reduce symptoms by helping restore equilibrium. It only requires a minute or so and longer exposure will not help. A cool drink or cool rag on the forehead and eyes can quickly help to reduce symptoms by inducing the "dive reflex" which will reduce heart rate and bring a calming effect. "

There is lots of advice on here and I often go back through other posts to be reassured by RLR's comments. My anxiety about my heart has certainly spoilt my life over the last two years, but I am much better than I was - it is a slow process of regaining your logic and seeing the reality of your condition, not the catastrophic outcome that you are prone to imagining. I hope you feel better soon.
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RLR
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Re: Horrible lump feeling
Reply #2 - Feb 7th, 2007, 5:02am
 
Indeed, your symptoms of a "lump" in your throat and feeling choked is the consequence of Vagal nerve sensitivity. It is a phenomenon known as "Globus" and will not actually harm you in any way whatsoever. The fear of suffocating is entirely sensory. The actual opening at your esophagus remains intact, although fear can induce heightened anxiety and exacerbate the sensation to the extent that it feels as though your throat is closing off. The typical reaction is hyperventilation and panic threshold, together with racing thoughts and other sensory disturbances, which all typically subsides after several minutes.

While these symptoms will never actually cause you any harm, it's important to seek professional assistance with the underlying cause for your panic disorder. It's extremely important for you to realize that many, if not most, patients claim that they "don't feel anxious." The reason that you don't feel the symptoms is because the anxiety has elevated to the point of becoming somatic. These phases come to pass often at a very slow and insidious rate and are hard to define as discrete points in time with events that caused symptoms of anxiety to develop. High levels of anxiety to the extent of panic disorder do not simply appear as "butterflies in the tummy" and other simple signs of everyday anxiety that most people sense with any degree of anticipation. Very often, enough time has passed between the original point where the conflict arose to cause the anxiety and its contemporary point in time where panic symptoms are present, that patients are at a loss to articulate the underlying cause.

It should be stated here that many, many things can create the circumstances for panic disorder to occur, but among the list are divorce, loss of a loved one, worries about infidelity of a spouse, loss of a job, fear of financial instability or actual financial injuries, hypochondrial fears, phobias and a long host of other life circumstances that all impose a sense of insecurity and emotional instability. These events and/or others have a constant pressure upon the individual to the extent that it induces a physical response in the way of a "fight or flight" phenomenon. This is a vey basic and innate response system in all humans and animals designed to protect from physical attack or harm. It's important to realize that the mind has no way of really determining what constitutes a threat of a nature necessary to induce the response, so if an individual perceives the event to be fearful enough, the body will respond. The consequence is a physiological level of activity usually reserved for imminent fear of death or harm, but has been deployed in the absence of such actual threat. Patients feel disoriented and frightened by all that is happening and conclude that something dreadful is about to occur, but can't identify it. Hence, a sensation of impending doom is established, hyperventilation is often present and, together with changes in neurochemistry on a very subtle level, cause panic threshold to occur. Retreat to safety in either a particular environment or with a certain person usually causes symptoms to subside more quickly, but in all cases symptoms dissipate after a short period of time. Patients usually feel "washed out" afterwards and this is entirely normal because so much adrenaline has been introduced that fatigue and need for rest or sleep is required.

So what I'm telling you here is that all of your symptoms are entirely normal physiology, but being expressed at an entirely inappropriate time. Had these same symptoms appeared during a time of imminent need to protect yourself, you would have thought nothing of them in terms of being dangerous to your health or that they represented some type of physical illness. In fact, patients do regard the symptoms as a mere part of a fear response and have oftentimes described such events as "making their heart skip a beat" or " ran a chill up my spine" or "scared me blind" and a host of other descriptors that in reality, are all very descriptive of physiological events associated with the fight or flight response. When it occurs in the appropriate context, it is regarded as normal, but when it occurs outside this context, it produces unbridled fear, usually that something physical is about to go amuk because we don't detect anything "external" that could be responsible. The only other conclusion is that it's something internal, a common misperception.

The short response here is that you're going to be just fine. Seek professional help to guide you in discovering the underlying circumstances which may have helped produce the anxiety and present level of difficulty you are now experiencing. Short-term medication is also an option, but only when combined with counseling to help you beyond the timeframe medications are not advisable.

Best regards and Good Health
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Best Regards and Good Health
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