Hey all, I've (29M) been lingering around here and r/HealthAnxiety for a while now trying to figure myself out.  Hopefully someone can sympathize with me and what I've been dealing with.  I've found this community to be very helpful lately.

So at the end of November, (right after my gf and I got back from having Thanksgiving with some of her family) I had a massive panic attack.  Came out of nowhere.  I was on the couch just browsing youtube when my heart rate began to spike, shortly followed with a rush of fear and impending doom.  Hands and feet got all tingly, and at the peak it was almost like being in a weird fugue state where no amount of reassurance could reach me and it felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest.  5 hours and a paramedic visit later (they listened to my heart and said i was fine, but that i should probably get some help; i've since made two appointments with both a GP and a Psychiatrist for next week at the time of writing this, so here's hoping!) I had finally come down enough to go to sleep.

I've always had some anxiety as long as i can remember (since puberty at least), but it was always a pretty minor thing that I (thought) I had gotten pretty good at keeping a lid on.  But ever since this episode I feel like a dam has burst, so to speak, and it's all been taken to a new level that I'm struggling to get a lid on.  I haven't had another episode as bad as the first, but what I'm dealing with now is more a lingering sense of dread and just a constant state of feeling amped, like there's always butterflies in my chest and my stomach.  It feels like I'm constantly in the shadow of fear and panic.  I hyperventilate, and hyper-focus on every little pang and twitch in my body.  

"oh, that breath didn't feel as satisfying as it should, you must be having a heart attack." or "what was that spasm?"  or "why are my feet cold all of a sudden."  then queue the cascade of doom, which usually entails elevated heart rate, chills, and sometimes sweating.  I'm learning to use deep breathing techniques (in through the nose for 4 seconds, hold for 2, then out through the mouth for 6 seems to work alright for me.)  But it's exhausting because when I'm in this state it will literally last all day.  And to compound things, I work from home and my job is really slow so i have waaaay too much time to just sit and ruminate.  I've also been experiencing some stomach issues.  I get the occasional knot, but what's most salient is the loss of appetite and uptick in acid reflux (which i've always had to an extent).  There are days where I'll barely break 1000 calories and yet I feel stuffed.  I get bloated and belch too during really bad episodes.  I read a lot about chest pain and tightness on here.  I don't really get that, except at the peak of a really deep chest breath maybe.

My father passed away in 2019 from chemo complications, and one of my grandfathers had heart issues at a very young age (but his son, my uncle, did not; so I often use that to help reassure myself it's not necessarily a genetic pattern), so I tend to hyperfocus on these things and convince myself I'm dying.  I am overweight, but I've always maintained some kind of exercise regimen, don't drink or smoke, and a recent blood test came back fine except for some slightly elevated triglycerides.

I guess what I'm getting after is has anyone been through something similar?  Where you're relatively fine for years, then boom, something just bursts open the floodgates and now you're convinced you're on the brink of death on a daily basis?  Thank you to anyone who reads all this.  You all are an awesome community!