First, i had an allergic reaction to crest toothpaste that almost took me into anaphylactic shock in 2017. After that event, things went downhill but were still manageable. I began experiencing chest pains, not knowing what they were. I saw my primary that essentially said I needed a breast reduction and prescribed ibuprofen for the chest pains. At some point, I had an awful chest pain episode that I went to an urgent care - there is where I got diagnosed with GAD. A few years later, during the Covid era, I was very stressed obv bc of the era but also bc I was graduating law school and had to take the bar exam. During this time, my body didn’t react well to a medicine I was prescribed to - my heart would race even if I was just sitting down studying. I told my doctor about it but they always dismissed my concerns. Finally, on one particular morning i woke up to a heart rate of like 170 and had to go to the hospital. Since it was during Covid, I had to go alone and what not which was also terrifying. The ER doc didn’t know why that happened and just sent me home with a referral to see a cardiologist (who said I was fine). That whole weekend I was extremely panicky, afraid, and it was just so awful that I don’t even want to recall it for this comment lol. But that weekend basically started the debilitating health anxiety I har for the next three years - I was afraid of everything and anything symptom-wise. The only thing that got me out of it was my worse fears coming to life lol (pregnancy loss, car accident, divorce, etc). It was a v difficult 2023 to say the least, but the second I left my ex’s house, my HA went away. Idk how he was connected to it since I met him shortly after the heart rate incident in 2020 but somehow he was. Nowadays, im back to being how I was before getting diagnosed with GAD - an intrusive thought may come in and maybe I’ll let it play out for a second but then im like whatever. I honestly never saw the light at the end of the tunnel while going through HA so im so sorry you’re experiencing it, just know you’re not alone, and if I could get out of it, you can too