Why I think my stress-induced heart attack at 34 was directly related to my autism

I’m level 1 autistic and I had a heart attack when I was 34.

Well, technically, it was stress-induced cardiomyopathy, but the medical field considers it similar to a heart attack and as dangerous as one if not addressed.

And I want to talk about why I think my autism caused it.

Now to be very clear, I’m not suggesting that every autistic person will have this experience. I do, however believe that every autistic person who doesn't get their needs met is potentially at risk for something like this. You'll see why I'm saying this by the end of this thread.

I recently talked about a type of anxiety specific to autism that researchers are referring to as distinct anxiety.

The researchers believe there are anxiety reactions that autistic people experience that can’t be explained by any other existing anxiety disorder or condition.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with anxiety tied to our autistic brain wiring.

So, when I think back to my heart event and all the things that led up to it, one of the main things I think about is the intense sensory overload I was experiencing at the time.

It wasn't one specific instance of sensory overload, but rather, sensory overload that continued for a PROLONGED period of time.

Let me explain.

At that time, I was living in a split-family house. I lived on one side with my family, and another family lived on the other side. And my office shared a wall with them.

Now back then, I was working from home full-time. So, during business hours I was at my desk working…

And one of the family members next door was a musician.

Now, to be clear, I don’t think this person did anything wrong. But she did play her musical instrument at all times during the day. And this often coincided with my working hours.

So, when I was working and she was playing her instrument, my anxiety would spike.

When this would happen, my first reaction was to leave my office. But since I had work obligations that required me to be at my desk, I often didn’t have that flexibility.

And so over the course of at least several months, I would experience huge spikes in my anxiety on a regular basis.

Until one day, when I think, my body just couldn’t handle the stress anymore.

I remember going through my day as normal, but feeling short of breath, tightness in my chest, and then pain down my left arm towards the end of the day. The pain was strange because you hear about it being a symptom of a heart attack in older men… not 34-year-old women.

So, that night after I had put my kids to bed, I remember lying in bed short of breath, pain down my left arm, thinking to myself… something is NOT right.

My husband got home shortly after and immediately took me to the ER.

After running some tests, they told me there were irregularities in the results and that there was an issue with my heart. They wanted to check to see if there were any blockages causing the irregularities.

The next day, they did an invasive procedure to check for blockages and ultimately discovered that there weren’t any. That’s when they diagnosed me with stress-induced cardiomyopathy… because after ruling out all other possible causes, they determined it had to be due to stress.

Now… if you think back to the distinct anxiety description, which is anxiety tied to autistic brain wiring… and then you think about how sensory sensitivities are one of the main criteria of an autism diagnosis…

And then you think about how my needs weren’t met as an autistic person with sensory sensitivities over the course of a significant period of time… which ultimately led to a stress-induced heart event…

It makes perfect sense that it was my autism that led to this heart event. That it was because of unaddressed distinct anxiety related to my autistic brain wiring.

Now I’m not going to lie… there were a LOT of other things going back then that contributed as well. But I do firmly believe that distinct anxiety was a significant factor in me having this stress-induced heart event.

All of this to say that distinct anxiety is real.

The research is still ongoing, and what's been published so far did have several limitations, so there’s more work to be done.

But my personal experience does align with what they're calling distinct anxiety.

So that’s my story.

I hope some of you found it interesting / helpful / somewhat informative.

I’m not claiming to be an expert, I am just autistic... so take this all for what it’s worth. 😅

And let me know if you have any questions... I’ll do my best to answer them!