Athsma or not?!?! Help

[laurenn]

Basically I have been told I have anxiety several time but loads of different people but I have a job believing it, my chest gets tight and I find it hard to breathe normal, I also get nausea, weakness, shakyness and a little dizzy. Its become more intense recently. I went to the doctors earlier and she checked my blood pressure, oxygen levels, pulse and chest and said everything is okay. But these feelings don't go? I have also seen another doctor before and a hospital nurse. When I breath it gets tight when I exhale. I have been feeling this way for a few months but it feels worse:( is this athsma or anxiety?

[Anxiety A]

I suffer from anxiety and asthma - i know they both suck! i only found out recently that when in used to have bad asthma attacks at hospitals a couple of years ago they said it could be due to anxiety which i was suffering with at the time. Anxiety can have similar symptoms to asthma sometimes - are you under a lot of stress lately or are your stress levels at 0% because the symptoms you are saying could be due to both asthma and anxiety however the shaking etc. aren't usually caused by asthma but i know some asthma medication can cause shaking hands, are you on any medication as they could be side-effects?

Hope you feel better soon.

- Anxiety Anonymous :)

[MyNameIsTerry]

Testing for asthma is quite easy. Did they do this when you had the appointments? Did they test your peak flow for instance?

I've had asthma for over 20 years and GAD for the last 8 and they can aggravate each other so that sometimes you are not sure which it is.

Anxiety can cause similiar breathing problems to asthma at a symptom level, but returns to normal breathing capacity as it fades, whereas asthma doesn't.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Ive been like that for a while now, also had a cough for just under 3 months now, still quite bad. It could be asthma but then again, it could be stress!Drag yourself to the doctors to check, going next week himself for my x-ray results (not me being paranoid but a cough for that long warrants an x-ray :P)

They wouldn't need an x-ray to determine asthma, as far as I know, but it could be fluid on the lungs which causes coughing like that as well as reduced breathing capacity.

My mum had this for months and she was sent for an x-ray which showed this. It turned out to be a side effect of blood pressure and water tablets she was on.

[neowallace]

Basically I have been told I have anxiety several time but loads of different people but I have a job believing it, my chest gets tight and I find it hard to breathe normal, I also get nausea, weakness, shakyness and a little dizzy. Its become more intense recently. I went to the doctors earlier and she checked my blood pressure, oxygen levels, pulse and chest and said everything is okay. But these feelings don't go? I have also seen another doctor before and a hospital nurse. When I breath it gets tight when I exhale. I have been feeling this way for a few months but it feels worse:( is this athsma or anxiety?

Hi Laurenn, when it comes to a tight chest I find anxiety and asthma can pretty much feel the same. I've had Asthma since being a boy and diagnosed GAD for the last 10 years. I have just discovered that if you check your peak flow and it is okay then it might not be your Asthma but could be physical anxiety symptoms although don't rule out your Asthma get it checked out at the Doctor's. I had a tight chest a few days ago and normally just out of habit I would take my blue inhaler instead I thought I would check to see if it was physical anxiety symptoms. I took 2mg of Diazepam and did a muscle relaxation exercise and it went away. However after running up at the gym today I had a similar tight chest and checked my peak flow and it was down about a 100 so I took a puff of my blue inhaler and it cleared it up. This is just my experience Laurenn please make sure you get checked out by your G.P....I wish you all the best......:) Steven