Amy Robach Thought Her Arm Pain Was a Heart Issue, Says Anxiety Causes ‘Vicious Cycles of Fear’ – PEOPLE

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Amy Robach is detailing the scary moment she believed she was suffering from a heart issue after going on a run with T.J. Holmes.

During the June 10 episode of their podcast Amy & T.J., the former GMA3 cohosts shared that the “serious moment” happened just hours before coming into work. Robach, 51, said her anxiety has been “elevated” recently, which is one of the reasons she thought she was having a health scare.

“We had just gone on a run and I was perfectly fine. And about 30 minutes later my arm just started burning and there was numbness and it was actually painful and it felt like a surge and I had not ever felt that before,” she explained. “It lasted for several minutes and I had to kind of take deep breaths.” 

“Ever since then, I’ve had anxiety because my head’s gone into a spiral,” she added. 

Robach said she got nervous because she hasn’t had any heart problems since she was 38 and underwent surgery to address a “dangerous arrhythmia.” 

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“I just started to freak out like ‘Oh no, what if I’m having a heart issue?’ And I just haven’t been able to shake the anxiety,” she said, joking that she has “self-imposed heart palpitations.”

Both Robach and Holmes agreed that anyone who’s had some sort of health scare or battle tends to overreact.

“You go to worst case scenario because it happened once when you didn’t think it could,” she said. “Something that I normally would just laugh off, all of a sudden I’m thinking, ‘Now I feel a little lightheaded, maybe I have a brain tumor.’ You go into these vicious cycles of fear and then you eventually kind of have to talk yourself off the ledge, breathe it out.”

Holmes then admitted that although Robach’s feeling better now, he was really scared during the entire ordeal.

“I had to be cool but I was in an absolute panic,” he said as Robach said she had no clue in the moment. “I was taking off my running clothes and getting prepared to go to the hospital.”

“We’re laughing about it now, but it was serious,” Holmes added.