Short of breath during a work presentation

[breakingbadhabits]

Probably one of the most embarrassing and scary things happened to me while I'm on a meeting call. I'm talking and all of a sudden I'm getting short of breath, so then I start to panic and I leave the call, tell my manager I'm not delivered well and run out of the room. Now I'm worried because I'm getting shortness of breath from talking and I'm not an over weight guy. Should I leave work and go to an urgent Care or ER?

[Catherine S]

Shortness of breath is really common when we get anxious. It's part of the flight or fight response when we're faced with a situation that we dread, and all the bodily symptoms that we experience include a feeling of not getting enough air. What happens when anxious is that we take in more air and this upsets the balance of oxygen/carbon dioxide in the system. This imbalance can produce all sorts of other symptoms like panic and lightheadedness, and once it's happened, you live in fear of it happening again which of course it will and the cycle continues.

Assuming you don't have any underlying problems which your doctor will be able to advise you about, it does sound like classic anxiety symptoms.