autistic peoples experiences of heart attacks?
hi all, i wanted to post here and ask if anyone here is autistic and has had heart attacks. i have a lot of health anxiety due to my conditions (hEDS/POTS/EVA/deaf/IBS/asd/adhd/bpd). being autistic, i also have a higher pain tolerance than most people, so its really hard to tell when somethings wrong until its too far gone to fix more easily. ive recently been getting some chest pain that feels different than my POTS issues, and i almost worry it could be a heart attack (i am overweight and have past history of both nicotine/weed, although i dont do them any longer). but i always tell myself that i am overreacting and just try to ignore it. ive made a cardiology appt to get it rechecked just in case, but still thought it was worth asking for any autistic individuals’ experiences with heart attacks and how it felt, so that i can more easily recognize if something is worth visiting a hospital for. it doesnt help that my family has a lot of CVD as well (mom had renal infarct/FMD, grandfather congestive heart failure, grandmother with AFIB/stroke, other grandmother with aortic stenosis), so i know that i am at risk for these things. i thought that having quit nicotine and weed would have helped reduce my risk, but the pain coming back just worries me and i would appreciate any insight into your experiences so i can try to be more aware of sensations and warning signs.
Posted May 5, 2025, 2:00 AM UTC