Hi Hunny,

It happens to me when I am overly stressed...and with no apparent reason at times too. I get them at church as well, and think that the reason is it is just stressful for me being at church when and where I don't have access to water like I want and so the feelings are worse there.

I am finding it happens to me at home more lately as well, because I am going through some rather intense stuff and it's a stress induced pain. I sometimes, not all the time but frequently enough, panic sets in and then I get the pain in the jaw and in my shoulder/arm. I know it isn't a heart attack because the water--it has to be cold water for me--does help stop the spasms. There have been times when I have had to take a muscle relaxer to get the spasms to go away, but that is rare.

I'm glad your doctor said not to worry. With panic disorders we have enough stress for many people all the time...and if the stress is greater on one day or another the pains will be there too...when I was driving school bus the pains got really bad...had them every day for many minutes each day...and now that I am not driving, it is indeed better, but not as good as it could be.

I also get the impending doom thing. I think that is natural for those with panic/anxiety disorders. I know a lot of people who have that fear on a regular basis. It is no fun, and it too goes along with the pains in the chest. Most of my pain is on the right side of the chest, and jaw and shoulder. It hurts like H*** when it does come...thankfully it doesn't last but a few minutes. It's just that those minutes feel like hours to me.

I hope you get to the bottom of things. Now that I take Xanax for my panic/anxiety, I don't have them as often. So the Xanax helps me. It doesn't help everyone though. Some people get worse with it, and have higher blood pressure with it, and some just have an allergic reaction to it. I am glad that the water works for you. The colder it is for me, the better off I get. Warm water seems to worsen instead of help, but I haven't talked to others who have this particular symptom to know if they are helped with cold or warm water.

Hope this helps.

Yahna