How to keep calm about shortness of breath?

[Ditapage]

I occasionally get this sensation of being short of breath but I can breathe easy from my diaphragm and I can talk. But one of the more alarming sensations is I start to feel either lightheaded or sleepy and my chest feels heavy. Now, when I googled those symptoms it's classified as a medical emergency! My question is does anyone else feel this way (without having an actual panic attack) and how do you keep yourself from panicking that it's something apart from anxiety?

To give an example, I was at work the other day and this breathless feeling hit me and I was able to talk and breathe but I work in a store and walking around made me feel lightheaded and tired. But it wasn't an acute panic attack either.

I had to take diazepam to prove to myself it was anxiety.

For people with this symptom, what assures you that you're OK? I never know whether to tell someone I need medical help.

[Shazamataz]

Sounds like classic anxiety. Did the diazepam make a difference?

I've done the same thing when I'm not sure if I'm anxious. If the diazepam makes the symptoms go away then it's anxiety.

[Ditapage]

I just wish I knew why I was getting this feeling. My brain immediately goes to lung cancer especially since feeling weak and tired is a symptom. Of course that just makes the breathlessness worse. But I CAN breathe. I try to tell myself if I wasn't able to breathe it would be obvious to people around me.

I keep burping like something is stuck in the middle of my chest.

I am trying to get off Diaz :( but I'll take anything to make the breathless feeling subside.

Have you felt sleepy/weak/heavy chest with this?

Thanks :)

[Shazamataz]

I have Chronic Fatigue so I always feel week and tired.

I've had a bad chest off and on since August last year but have had xrays etc and by all accounts everything is fine.

I think feeling weak and heavy in the chest can just be anxiety. Anxiety seems to manifest in pretty much every physical symptom imaginable!

Anxiety definitely affects breathing and vice versa. I think I've ended up in a bad way because my breathing is all out of whack from a year of constant stress (Dad died a slow and horrid death and the family spent 6 months arguing about his will).

I expect your lungs are fine and you just need to work on your breathing - me too!

[Ditapage]

So sorry to hear about your stress :( Did you develop Cfs from anxiety?

I don't know if I have that. Sometimes I think it's my problem because I get these sudden bouts of weakness but it responds to water, juice, anxiety medication, getting up and exercising and chronic fatigue doesn't just go away like that according to my doctor . But the bouts of tiredness have made me agoraphobic. I don't know how Cfs is even diagnosed and just thinking about it makes me anxious. How did you know/how were you diagnosed and does my sudden feelings of fatigue sound like it?

[Anxious Pete]

I get this, accompanied by chest tightness, can't breath, feels like lungs are packing in. Got it just now..:(

[John_Daryl]

Is your breathless feeling constant throughout the day or does it come and go? Can you try to elaborate on how it feels.

[Ditapage]

It's not constant. It's especially prominent on a hot day in a stuffy environment. It just feels like I am about to run out of air and pass out. I suspect I might actually be breathing quickly. Like I said, i know I'm breathing. It just feels like I'm not! Then I start burping because I think it's helping me to breathe. I relate to everything you're describing anxious pete, and just writing about it, I'm beginning to feel it! :( I guess it feels like I have to make a conscious effort to breathe. Something automatic becomes manual as I feel like I have to try and breathe and I become very conscious of my breathing.