View Full Version : Breathing bothering me
Hi everyone, new to the site, been reading things here for a while (most of the time stumbling across the site when googling my symptoms trying to reassure myself but inevitably feeling worse :doh::lac:) but never signed up or posted anything, thought I'd get involved to try and help deal with my own anxiety and maybe be of service to help others deal with theirs.
Basically since last week I've had this weird breathing issue, strangely seems to coincide with the fact that I was reading loads of things about shortness of breath being signs of many different serious issues etc etc :unsure:, but it feels too real to be something in my mind :unsure:. Every so often (multiple times daily) when sat down, walking, training at the gym, talking to someone or doing anything I feel like I need to stop and take a deep breath or a big sigh, basically that I can't breathe in deep enough or need to catch my breath. I don't feel "breathless" or that I'm gasping for air when exercising at the gym or doing any of these things (train at the gym 4-5 days a week, did 40 minutes on the treadmill last night, steep-ish incline at a brisk walking pace). Don't know whether I'm overbreathing, breathing too shallow or what it is but worried it's something serious (as always) because it's not when I'm having any other panic symptoms at all and apart from the breathing worry I feel pretty calm, and also the fact it's happening over the entire day and not just when I'm having an overload of panic symptoms is what bothers me.
Any input on this? :)
---------- Post added at 09:22 ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 ----------
Also just a bit of medical history in case that helps... I've had 8 ECG's over the past 10 months (6 of them being withing the past 3-4 months since my panic and anxiety got out of control, 1 of them as recent as last Tuesday), a 24 hour ECG monitor about 5-6 weeks ago, blood tests about 6 months ago and a chest X-Ray about 5-6 weeks ago, all results and things coming back fine and completely normal...
Hi BigOak,
I suffer with this as well and have done for quite a while, I've written a few posts on it if you want to have a read as there are some helpful responses! I too refuse to believe that it is harmless, and my symptoms are very similar to yours. I've had doctors checks on my heart and lungs which have proved clear so there is nothing technically medical causing this (which obviously I still refuse to believe !). Some days it affects me really badly, whereas other days it doesn't bother me too much. I can't seem to find a pattern to it, but usually its worse at the end of the day than the beginning, and if I take a walk to the shop in the evening, sometimes it makes me feel really breathless and I have to keep taking really deep breaths which cause me to yawn, its really strange and quite frightening!
Have you had any medical tests done to put your mind at ease? Hold old are you if I can ask?
Hope you start to feel better x
---------- Post added at 10:25 ---------- Previous post was at 10:23 ----------
Just seen your second post about medical checks, sounds like you're just like me, nothing can be found to explain it! this should give us peace of mind but for me the peace of mind lasts about 24 hours then im back to panicking about it again! do you find it eases when you are distracted?
All of these tests have been because I've had chest pains/discomfort which I was worried was a major issue with my heart, however the chest pains seem to have vanished over the past week or 2 and it's now the breathing that's become my main focus.
Oh and I'm a 25 year old male, if that makes any difference to anything :)
---------- Post added at 09:32 ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 ----------
Thanks for the reply White, yeah it sounds like your issue is pretty much the same as what I've been getting, some days it's worse than others, needing to yawn etc, also seems to get worse in the evening (maybe because we have more time to focus and think about it?), last night I was trying to prove to myself I wasn't breathless/short of breath so I was reading something out loud and after each sentence it was like I had to take a long deep breath...
It sounds really similar to mine! I get what you mean with the reading too, sometimes when i'm talking or telling a story I feel like I have to keep stopping to take a really deep breath, it really scares me
I too went to the doctor because of chest pain and irregular heartbeats freaking me out, all has been put down to anxiety. the thing that baffles me though is that I only seem to be anxious about these physical symptoms, so its more that the symptoms are causing anxiety, not anxiety causing symptoms! I'm a 26 year old female, have been told a number of times that our age is very common for beginning to suffer with these such conditions. do you work and do you find if affects your work? I work in an office job and I find sometimes if I start to get trouble breathing, I can't focus on anything else and as a result it gets worse, worse and worse, and I have to keep walking out of the office to calm myself down as I'm convinced my heart is just going to collapse at any moment!!!
How long has this been going on for you for?
Yeah that's how I feel talking as well but it only seems to be when I'm overly worrying about it and when I forget about it and I'm talking to people I don't have to stop at all and I can keep on going completely normal so I think surely it can't be something serious or it would always happen wouldn't it?
That's exactly the same as how I feel sometimes, that the symptoms cause me to be anxious rather than the other way around which is why I keep going to docs/a&e etc for reassurance about each and every new symptom that I get worried about. But I think it's because we are too aware of how we feel, so it's never just "a good day", it's more like "oh I'm having a good day because I have no chest pain and I can breathe ok today" and that starts the snowball rolling, a little while after thinking that along comes some chest pain/breathing issues/irregular heartbeats etc :mad:
Yeah it definitely affects work, I also have an office job and like you say, any breathing issue/irregular beats or anything that doesn't "feel right" and the cycle begins, my concentration gets worse and worse because I keep focusing on whatever I'm worried about until I either have to walk around and calm down or a few times I've left and drove towards the hospital in case anything is seriously wrong... I'm getting a lot better now but this breathing thing is new to me and is seriously bothering me.
The anxiety started Autumn/Winter last year, then I managed to kick it before it got real bad and then it came back 100 times worse spring this year so probably about 6-7 months
Reading that post it sounds just like I could have written it myself!
I too feel like it doesn't bother me so much when I'm distracted like someone's talking to me, which hopefully does mean that its not serious as it would surely affect us 24/7 if it was. I also feel having a glass of wine tends to ease the symptoms (not a good idea to rely on alcohol I know lol) but this as well somewhat reassures me that it hopefully isn't serious as alcohol wouldn't make it better, perhaps even worse.
Does your breathlessness or chest pain ever wake you up in the night? While I do have trouble sleeping, I have never found that I've been woken by breathlessness or pain, so this reassures me a little too.
I've been suffering for about 2 years now, but like you my individual symptoms have all come at different stages, them some go and others come back, its all a bit of a mad cycle!
When I first started getting the symptoms, I used to have an obsession with being near a hospital, like you said you sometimes drive near the hospital, I used to panic if I had to go anywhere 'in the sticks' that was far from a hospital and I'd feel reassured if I was in the city centre or near a hospital in case I went into cardiac arrest! (sounds crazy when I write it down)
Have you ever had any counselling or therapy for your issues? Do you take any medication?
Haha :roflmao: that's how I felt about your other posts, the things you say/worry about are exactly what I've explained to so many people.
I wake up pretty much every night once or twice, had 2 full nights sleep in the last 6 weeks or more (Thursday and Friday last weekend I was really calm those evenings and literally wasn't worrying about anything), I've put that down to my serious anxiety and also the fact I'm taking beta blockers (propranolol - Bedranol to be exact) which a lot of people say can make you wake at night as it affect the chemicals in the brain that make you sleep. But never wake up with any pain at all or any trouble breathing or gasping for air, most nights I wake up and roll over and I'm asleep again, lately since I've been paranoid about my breathing I've woken up, taken a deep breath and then straight back to sleep.
Yeah it seems to be one symptom, you are reassured that's nothing to worry about and either forget about it or it passes and then it's on to the next, there's something new that you're sure this time is something serious or different, the slightly worrying symptoms seem to go away and not really reappear but the ones that really bother you will go away for a while when you're reassured and then come back at a later date.
Sounds just like me, I'm only just getting over my being near a hospital obsession, still get it some days, problem for me is that my house is completely out in the sticks so it makes me slightly more anxious than I should be even if I'm feeling generally well, relaxed and calm. Yeah being in the city and near hospitals makes me feel better for that reason too (does seem ridiculous but we can't help what makes us feel safe I guess, just need to stop thinking about the "doom" and "catastrophe" scenarios where we will need to rush to the hospital).
I'm currently having some counselling which is going well and I've improved a lot recently but still have my really bad day or 2 every so often, just the beta blockers for meds at the mo.
---------- Post added at 09:49 ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 ----------
Oh and just to add, the doc has prescribed me some citalopram (anti-depressants) to help combat my anxiety, this was a while back, I was still majorly anxious at the time, I took them for 3-4 days and it was making me feel like I was constantly on edge, trembling, shaking, chest pain, anxiety went in to complete overload and I literally couldn't focus on anything other than myself, thinking that maybe I wasn't ready for them, spoke to the doc loads of times since then and he thinks I should try them again as it takes 3-4 weeks for them to kick in properly and it'll most likely get worse before it gets better (as is the case with most things) so I have to go with it. Thinking about starting them again but scared it'll send me backwards...
Also there's always the initial anxiety with meds and anything new that I could have a bad reaction, allergic reaction etc which doesn't help my fears and anxiety at all :roflmao:
ankietyjoe
27-09-15, 20:25
I get this regularly. I told my GP who never seemed concerned.
Last year I was hospitalised with Bronchitis and early signs of pneumonia, I had chest x-rays and blood oxygen tests and all was fine.
I'm suffering from exactly the same breathlessness as I'm typing now, and I usually get chest pains with it too. I've also deduced it seems to happen the same time I have reflux, which also seems to coincide with me coughing up a lot of mucus (nice, I know).
I can sometimes catch a 'full' breath if I'm laying down and relaxing or when I yawn, but the rest of the time it's very frustrating. I never feel breathless or panting, just that I can't 'fill my lungs properly'
It usually lasts a couple of weeks then disappears for a while. Again, I'm pretty sure it's related to my stress levels.
The best thing (and hardest thing) to do is not think about it!
Hi there,
This is the first time I'm using this forum and I signed up because I am basically feeling the same as you all regarding breathing problems. I'm worried because when I'm feeling breathless I take my bp, which is always really low (105/57). My normal bp is around 117/68 (I'm a petite female, 45kg)- not sure if that makes a difference! Had ECG's, lung tests etc, all fine. I'm really scared- what can be causing this?
I am having the same thing. It has been really noticeable in the past few weeks, ever since I found out a good friend's husband (who is my age) was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. I read about (the few) symptoms he had and one thing he said he noticed was that he got winded going up stairs. I don't so much feel winded, more like I need to breathy really deeply. It seems to be more so if I am talking a lot, I also notice it when I read stories to my son. Sometimes I don't notice it at all, and other times I notice it and start worrying about it, and then it makes it worse, etc. I know part of it is anxiety - especially when I think about it and it starts getting worse. But there's still a big part of me that thinks maybe I have lung cancer or some other type of cancer and this is the first symptom showing. It feels like I can't take a deep enough breath. Like I try to breathe in really deeply and I can't quite get enough air. I know I have been stressed & anxious thinking about my friend's husband's diagnosis, but I am not having any of my other usual anxiety symptoms, so why this one? Breathing has never been an issue for me before when I'm anxious, so why all of the sudden is this part of my anxiety? (That last statement is another thing my anxious brain is using to convince me this breathing stuff is cancer and not just anxiety!)
Can anyone offer some reassurance?
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