Breathing

[Kenton]

Hi all, I'm having a tough time, I have severe health anxiety and have been having a bad time with constant giddiness the past 6 months( since going back to work after maternity leave). I had tests previously for this and they said it was nothing serious basically. But was made worse by anxiety. I have been just about managing but recently my vaginal ( sorry for tmi) area has felt a bit funny, I had an episiotomy and I don't know if it's feeling coming back or what. The dr had a look and said it all looked fine but im just constantly aware of it and so now have convinced myself I have some cancer down there or on ovaries or something and i have started to feel breathless and like i can't take a deep breath and I'm linking the two and probably coming up with 5 but I'm terrified I've got some advanced cancer and now I'm constantly worried about my breathing and that I'll just stop as I won't be able to take a breath. I don't know how to get myself out of this. Does anyone have any advice?

[BlueIris]

Talk to your GP about your anxiety, and see what help they can offer you. I know the breathing thing will be scary, but it's also a classic anxiety symptom, so this is what you need to work on.

[Kenton]

Hi thanks for the reply. I used to have this breathing thing years ago and I can't believe it's come back and is bothering me so much. I thought I had conquered it.( very disheartening). Is it normal with anxiety and this feeling to get breathless if you talk too fast?. I have a doc app next week.

[BlueIris]

Completely normal, yes - it happens to me whenever my anxiety flares up.

[ankietyjoe]

Completely normal. I used to suffer with it 3-4 years ago and I had a ridiculously stressful time about 3 months ago and it came back worse than ever, even though I don't really suffer with anxiety any more.

Best thing to do is try and ignore it as much as possible until it goes away. It's mostly muscle tension around the diaphragm.