Yes. Fear after a cardiac arrest is one of the most common experiences survivors report, and it is entirely understandable. Your heart stopped without warning, without any of the signals we associate with serious illness. The body you had trusted without thinking turned out to be capable of failing you completely and without notice.
The anxiety that follows is not a sign of weakness or of something going wrong in your recovery. It is a normal psychological response to an abnormal and genuinely life-threatening event. Clinicians recognise this as post-traumatic stress, cardiac anxiety, or hypervigilance, and it is well documented in the research on cardiac arrest survivorship.
If you are experiencing fear, anxiety, or distrust of your own body after a cardiac arrest, you are not alone. SCA UK’s community of over 4,000 survivors includes many people who have been through exactly this, and peer support can make a significant difference. You can also read more about anxiety after cardiac arrest in the SCA UK information section.