Shortness of Breath feeling-please help

[Ethansmom]

I'm so upset over this. Can someone tell me how i can get rid of this feeling? I'm hoping this isn't a heart problem!? It's been going on for three days now (almost all day long). If i look back, it started shortly after i found out my best friend's mom died suddenly. I was literally in tears all day long-- thinking of things that i can do to help the family. I noticed i started hyperventilating and felt like a could not catch my breath. Now it's ALL i'm thinking about, ALL day long! It does get worse when i'm walking around as well. My stomach feels tight and sometimes i also feel as if i'm holding my breath. Xanax only helps a bit.

I don't have a fever or anything, so i'm hoping i'm not sick with some sort of virus. I have one of those pulse oximeters that has the heart rate &O2 levels and currently i'm at 99%. Would that tell me if i was actually having a problem breathing???

[xBettyBoopx]

Tension and anxiety can cause you to hyperventilate and now you are completely focused on your breathing which will make you breathe different to usual. If you think about swallowing you will start swallowing more than usual, if you think about your breathing, you will breathe more than usual causing the breathing to go out of sync.

The anxiety of hearing about your friends mum has started it, hopefully in time it will disappear. Hearing about someone being ill or dying is a trigger for a lot of people with anxiety. Your stomach feeling tight is tension and is not helping your breathing as you may not be breathing deeply enough. Can you look for some relaxation exercies online to do whilst you're feeling like this?

I suffer with overbreathing too, it's scary but it does calm down.

Oxygen level of 99% is excellent! You can only get 1% better :noangel:

[Ethansmom]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! Yes, it's definitely caused by hearing bad news :(

I went for a walk with a co worker on lunch and felt much better afterwards. Maybe i need to start exercising more to reset my breathing!:yesyes: