Discovering you have a health condition can be daunting. “With sudden events, such as a heart attack, you go from a state of being fine to somebody who may be at the brink of death, and that’s pretty scary,” explains Paul Bennett, Professor of Clinical Health and Psychology at Swansea University.
“And even for those whose diagnosis takes a long time, they tend to have more time to adjust, but at the point of diagnosis it can still be scary.”
Julie Harris, 53, from Manchester, is a nurse who specialises in heart failure. She never imagined she’d become a heart patient herself. But in June 2018 she had a heart attack at the airport, on her way to the Spanish resort of San Sebastián.
Her heart attack was caused by a rare condition called spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), where some of the layers of a heart artery wall get torn apart, causing the heart’s blood supply to become blocked.
“The fact that it all happened out of the blue had a big impact on me,” says Julie. “There’s no time to adjust. You’ve got to just get on with it.”
Learning to cope after a diagnosis
Roughly 20 to 30 per cent of people are diagnosed with anxiety in the year following a heart attack, says Professor Bennett. Around 15 per cent of heart patients develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD – an anxiety disorder caused by very distressing events), much higher than in the normal population.
Roughly 20 to 30 per cent of people are diagnoses with anxiety the year following a heart attack
“After the heart attack, I felt very anxious and didn’t sleep for months,” explains Julie. “Every day brought with it a realisation that this has actually happened. It had a huge psychological effect on me.”
Dealing with her diagnosis was especially difficult because Julie was following a healthy lifestyle to reduce the risk of her suffering the heart problems that affected her parents. She went to the gym five times a week and ate healthily. “I was doing all of the right things. I felt super fit for my age.” So when Julie received her diagnosis, things changed.
“For a couple of months I felt like I was in a bubble. I’d gone from feeling like a strong person, who was holding down a full-time job, running a family and had a good social life, to feeling completely exposed and vulnerable.”
The road to recovery
Professor Bennett offers some tips for those who are struggling with their diagnosis.
“Keep it in perspective,” he says. “Listen to what doctors are saying and remember that most types of heart disease are now usually very manageable.”
It is likely that, after a diagnosis, you will be more aware of internal sensations. Most of the time, these are not symptoms of a more severe problem. Pain or discomfort in the chest, throat or jaw can also be caused by anxiety or panic attacks, but if you have heart problems it can be difficult to tell whether it’s heart problems or anxiety causing the pain.
It is likely that, after a diagnosis, you will be more aware of internal sensations
“You might think your heart’s going a bit fast, so you begin to over-breathe because you’re getting anxious, and that can cause your heart to go a bit quicker. This can end up with people going back into hospital – not with heart problems, but with symptoms of a panic attack,” says Professor Bennett.
Simple techniques to control your breathing can help stop anxiety developing into a panic attack. But if in doubt, always seek medical advice.
For Julie, connecting with others was key to her emotional recovery. “I joined a Facebook group for people with my condition, which has been like a lifeline. It was really useful for me to know there were other people with the same symptoms, which also helped with my anxiety.”
Julie also found that reading about her condition helped. “I now know there’s quite a bit of research going on, part of which has been funded by the BHF,” she says.
Yoga and meditation have helped too, and help to make up for the higher-intensity activities Julie can no longer do.
“I’d go to the gym and look at all the classes I couldn’t do any more, which I felt quite sad about, but I now do yoga and meditation every day, which has really helped me come to terms with everything. I am truly grateful that I found these things, and that I’m still here, living, experiencing and enjoying life.”
In June 2019, a year after her heart attack, Julie and her husband, Wayne, visited San Sebastián to mark the anniversary of the event and celebrate how far she’s come.
