breathing problems

[stars22]

i started to have breathing problems last year and my heart would race uncontrollably blood pressure woukd spike i was in hospital having a attack on a machine and told anxiety ! i had a heart echo apparently im healthy so i started to learn to accept this after a long battle of me believeing i would die any minute ...i have a cold a mild cold i feel well but i know im unwell sneezing blocked nose waking in sweats but every time i climb the stairs im gasping for air i feel like im hyperventilating but i also feel tiered and nausea asif my body will give up after this and also my heart races when walking the stairs and i can hear the heartbeat all over in my head ect i sit down to recover to only find i still feel short of breathe just not gasping and i also still feel nausea and out of it does anybody else get this i have accepted i have breathing anxiety as i went to doctors i felt i couldn't breathe he put the thing on my finger i had 100% so i could and was breathing just fine i felt i wasnt i left doctors went shopping to still feel i wasnt able to breathe so then i started telling myself its all in my head it went away for about 5 months but now has come back very bad again any suggestions other then deep breathing i have tried this and it makes me feel more nausea and causes me to feel im ober breathing

[catsandnaps]

Hi stars22, I'm glad you posted this! My symptoms are a little different, and I don't always focus on my breathing, but I get stuck with other things, especially my heart rate. At the end, you mentioned that deep breathing doesn't seem to work, and I understand this. The more I focus on myself and *forcing* myself to relax, the more aware I become of how uncomfortable I am. It's like in my mind, I'm yelling at myself, "RELAX already!" and it is not relaxing at all!! The same for yoga and meditation and stuff like that. It's helpful for me when I'm feeling pretty decent, but when I'm in panic mode, it's tough for me to do anything relaxing.
What helps me is to do something unrelated to my symptoms -- I do less to stop the symptoms and try to almost let them happen, if that makes sense. If I'm having a panic attack, I shift my mind off myself. I think of someone else, I make lists of things in my mind, I look at a funny story in the news.. anything that isn't about ME. This isn't an instant fix, and sometimes it works slowly for me, but it gets me in the habit of not focusing on my misery, and it actually helps the panic lift faster.
It's some awful stuff you're dealing with. The good thing is you got some clearance from your doctor, so you know you will be safe through these episodes, even though they are really disturbing.
I hope this helps a little, I'm sending lots of good vibes your way!

[icingsugar]

Hi. I have also had bouts of this unfortunately. Pretty much the same as you and also been to the hospital and 3 different GPs in the last year, not really had any answers but the tests have all come back clear. The strange thing is when I'm going through good weeks where I have almost no symptoms I can do heavy excersise like jump on the spot 100 times etc without feeling bad. I think for me there is a difference between the usual out of breath from doing excerise and this particular kind of laboured breathing...the former doesn't scare me but the latter does, especially when I get out of breath doing nothing or just walking up stairs when I'm in a panic-y state. For me I've noticed the evening after drinking alcohol (for example if I drink alcohol Monday night...I'll be fine Tuesday morning but Tuesday evening will be terrible) I experience a lot of panic symptoms more.