How at risk for a heart attack is a late 20’s person after drug and alcohol abuse?

Published May 16, 2010

I am in my late 20’s and have been suffering from anxiety attacks. But these “new” anxiety attacks are much different than anxiety attacks I had in my early 20’s and teens. I have frequent episodes of shortness of breath at random, and pain in my chest / back almost daily now. The reason I am concerned is because:
1. I was an overweight child / teenager
2. I suffered from anorexia for a few years around age 20 which took me down to 100lbs (I’m 5’5).
3. Following my recovery from anorexia I abused cocaine and crack cocaine in extreme amounts
4. After I quit doing drugs, I took diet pills for a long time. Phentermine and one other pill they added after a few months to make it a “combo” of 2 diet pills.
5. During the time I started taking the diet pills, I began to binge drink. I eventually quit the diet pills but continued to binge drink for 6 or 7 years (up until a few months ago). I binge drank to the point of blacking out an average of 4 times a week, give or take. I quit drinking because my anxiety was becoming so extreme with the hangovers that I could not socialize or go out in public, and sometimes my head would begin to shake for no reason.
6. I have smoked on and off since age 12. Most heavily in my mid teens and early 20’s, about a pack – pack and a half a day.I quit for good 6 months ago because I was having trouble breathing and I noticed my lower legs would swell, and that didn’t happen until I started smoking again that particular time.

I no longer drink other than a drink or two every few weeks, and no longer smoke and haven’t abused drugs in at least 5 years. But I get weak / dizzy / breathless spells. One thing I tried to express to my doctor was that my anxiety attacks used to cause racing heart rate, but now it’s chest pains / shortness of breath that cause my anxiety attacks, if that makes sense. I have these “episodes” that are not always accompanied by racing heart, and I try to keep my anxiety at bay when I’m not feeling well.

The pain in my chest is in the center, and squeezes out to the sides, and the pain in my back is as if someone were standing behind me, poking me with a finger (very, very sore though). I also have pain in my left shoulder and inside of my left arm. Sometimes I feel this discomfort up the left side of my neck / jaw. Not extreme, but discomfort none the less.

Any advice is helpful, I have not disclosed my complete history to my doctor, because my insurance would most likely not have covered me at all. Sad country we live in about that. I am just tired of hearing that it’s digestion / anxiety. My anxiety has never manifested like this before. I get heart palpitations so bad now that they sometimes make me feel like I’m going to vomit or pass out. I’ve been to urgent care, but my episode had passed by then, and my ekg was normal. I know an older woman that suffered anxiety attacks and always had normal ekg’s, but ended up with a pacemaker once they eventually “caught” the problem. Whats anyone’s thoughts?

For the record, I have a pretty healthy lifestyle now. Comical as it seems, I always ate pretty healthy and got exercise, lol.

How at risk for a heart attack is a late 20’s person after drug and alcohol abuse?

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