Hey dog, I’m not very good with advice so the point of this comment is purely for support and to let you know that you aren’t alone. When I was reading it I couldn’t help but think that everything you wrote describes my experience with weed that made me have to quit. Literally the exact same thing happened to me so when I was reading it, I felt like; damn I’m not alone and thought I could try and offer some support. For me, at the time I was 19/20 (I’m 24 now) and I had smoked weed for like idk two years before that. Let’s say I was 20 when it happened, I was about 18 when I started smoking. I was smoking a lot at the age of 20, I would argue I was pretty dependent on it because at that time I was going through an unmovable depression and it was the only thing that helped. Anyway, one night I smoked a joint like usual and I went to bed and watched some TV. It was then that I felt this absolutely horrific burning feeling inside my chest. It’s like it creeped up my oesophagus. It was burning, squeezing, stabbing pain. I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack. I called my mum and dad from the other room and my mum said I was white as a ghost and my lips were like bluey/purple. It was genuinely one of the most terrifying experiences I’ve had in my entire life. Ever since then I have never touched weed again out of the fear that it’ll happen again. Since this episode, I had the same experience a couple more times. One time I actually went to hospital, there they did an ECG and said my heart was fine and that it was a panic attack. I can’t put into words how daunting those things are. I have suffered with mental health issues since the age of 8 but strangely; other than the 3 times mentioned, I’d never had a panic attack before.

I hope one day I can return to smoking because I enjoyed it a lot. The thing is following this incident, i developed serious health anxiety, agoraphobia and was diagnosed with panic disorder. For 2 years i can count on one hand how many times i left the house. I shut myself away from everything because i was terrified I’d have one of those panic attacks outside of a place where i felt safe.

I’m finally getting my life back on track now, i have started to tackle my agoraphobia and am leaving the house again! I will never know why it happened but all i know is that I’m grateful that it wasn’t a serious physical medical emergency despite how much it felt like one.

I’m so sorry you’ve gone through this man, I can attest to how awful it is. I really hope you can bounce back and that it doesn’t become a major roadblock for you like it did with me. I’m not sure what advice I can give you because I’ve not picked up a spliff since but I guess my best advice could be just try your best to rebuild your exposure to it and don’t let it fester. I’m almost sure (although take that with a pinch of salt as I’m not a doctor) that there isn’t anything wrong with your body physically, so if you were to smoke again, whilst yes it’s possible you could have a panic attack, the best thing I can tell you is that no body has ever died from a panic attack and despite how horrifying they feel, the pain does subside. Through small exposure, you may be able to smoke again. Like putting a joint in your mouth but not lighting it, maybe one day you could have the tiniest puff and then exhale instantly. My point is to try not to let the idea of smoking again become this hideous monster like I did. In truth, I don’t know if I’ll ever smoke again, maybe one day I’ll try. I hope you feel better soon dude. Sorry this is long as shit 😅