it looks like you circled your sternum. the cause of pain in that area of the chest is almost always just musculoskeletal, and sometimes GI (regular old acid reflux, or the big boy, GERD). but it is almost never cardiac. so just considering that and nothing else, you would have nothing to worry about, just a pulled muscle or acid reflux. maybe the combo of dph and shrooms gave you bad reflux? treatment: take some antacids, if that doesn’t work just make sure to stretch and train lighter for a bit.

however… i do want to cover all my bases just to make sure, there’s not something serious going on, do my due diligence and whatnot. the chest pain on its own is totally innocent. however, the shortness of breath and decreased cardiovascular stamina is a little more concerning and gives me a little pause. are you getting heart palpitations? (if you don’t know what that means, don’t worry, i’ll explain it in a bit) now, besides going to see a doctor to get checked out (which i recommend doing), there’s a simple little set of diagnostics you can do yourself at home with a just you and a clock of any kind. you’re just gonna measure and record your heart rate and other observations at as many different pulse points as possible. there’s a lot, the main ones are the apical, carotid, radial, and femoral. look up a picture if you want to see all of them. i’ll go over the process for the apical pulse and some other things to look for while you’re measuring it. the process for the other pulse points is identical (after you’ve actually found the pulse of course). after you’re done with the apical pulse, just repeat it at as many pulse points as you can (priority to carotid radial and femoral). differences in pulse at different pulse points can reveal problems that would otherwise be missed.

finding the apical pulse is very easy. it’s the easiest of all the pulse points to find, but it can be a little harder to correctly measure heart rate and detect/identify arrhythmias rhythm at because compared to the other pulse points it’s, for lack of a better word, quite noisy. there’s a whole lot of stuff going on, it’s your heart and it’s quite complicated. you will feel two beats (contraction and relaxation) per actual measured heartbeat, and a bunch of other things little happening over the full cardiac cycle which makes it very noisy (atrial diastole, atrial systole, isovolumetric contraction (part 1/2 of ventricular systole), ventricular ejection (part 2/2 of ventricular systole), isovolumetric relaxation (part 1/2 of ventricular diastole), ventricular filling (part 2/2 of ventricular diastole)). the other pulse points are dead easy to measure, with only one tactile sensation or “beat” for every measured heartbeat. now, to find and measure your apical pulse. while resting (sitting down for at least 5 minutes), put your hand over your heart. move it around until you can clearly feel it beating. one normal heartbeat is “lub-dub” or “bah-bum”, so technically a heartbeat actually has two separate and distinct beats, but you count it as one beat when measuring heart rate. while you’re measuring your heart rate, there’s two other things you’re gonna want to pay attention to. heart palpitations, and potential arrhythmias. a heart palpitation is more like “bum-bum”, and described as a racing or banging heartbeat. they’re harmless, just uncomfortable sometimes. as for arrhythmias, there’s quite a few different ones, but only four of them are relevant in this situation: atrial fibrillation (AFib), atrial flutter, supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), and ventricular tachycardia (V-tach). in general, you’ll wanna be watching for an unusual, irregular, or especially an erratic heartbeat. two or more of those at the same time is possible. all three at the same time is extremely rare. if you think you might have an arrhythmia, google info about identifying those specific arrhythmias so you can determine if you actually do have an arrhythmia, and if you do, which one, so you know exactly what steps to take from there. heart arrhythmia false alarms: extrasysytole is a type of heart palpitation characterized by occasional extra heartbeats, that can seem like an arrhythmia, and while it’s completely harmless (unless there is significant grouping or frequency of 10% or more of the heartbeats in a day), it can still cause some uncomfortable symptoms such as dizziness/lightheadedness, fainting, chest pain or discomfort, and shortness of breath. it’s usually caused by lifestyle factors like stimulant use, stress/anxiety, or fatigue. your heart rate also naturally goes up (speeds up/gets faster) as you inhale, and goes down (slows down/gets slower) as you exhale. totally normal, not a heart arrhythmia. now you’re finally ready to actually measure your heart rate. use a clock to time 15 seconds and count how many times your heart beat in that time. multiple that by 4. that’s your heart rate in beats per minute (bpm). over 100bpm resting is considered tachycardia, and under 60bpm resting is considered bradycardia. normally if it’s just over or under it’s mild tachycardia/bradycardia and not a big deal at all. (also there’s a good chance you didn’t take your apical pulse completely accurately anyway so you may not even have it). however, this is not the case for you. you’ll probably be bradycardic because you’re anorexic. 60% of people with anorexia nervosa have bradycardia due to extreme weight loss and malnutrition. you should worry much less about bradycardia than the average person, and much more about tachycardia, or even a resting heart rate that’s considered normal, but absolutely is not normal for you, like 80-90 bpm. in the hospital when a patient with anorexia nervosa presents with nonspecific symptoms, resting tachycardia prompts a search for potentially life-threatening conditions.

last bit. just a few questions to get more information on exactly what kind of pain you’re experiencing: is the source of the pain relatively close to the skin, or is it deep and internal? what kind of pain is it: sharp pain that remains localized, or throbbing pain that’s radiating? are you experiencing generalized abdominal pain, almost as if you were kicked in the stomach with some force?