Help please. So breathless

[Lala1]

Hope someone can calm me down. For the last week and a half I have suffered from all day shortness of breath. The only time that I am not bothered by it is when I’m sleeping. I had a chest X-ray recently and it was normal. My GP also listened to my chest which was fine. My oxygen levels were 98% and I also had a peak flow test and he said everything was also fine. Can this just be anxiety? I actually don’t have reason to be anxious and the only thing that is stressing me is the fact that I struggle to breathe. I have had shortness of breath for over 10 years and it comes and goes and all my tests have been clear. I quit smoking 6/years ago and deep down I am worried that I might have undiagnosed COPD. Has anyone else had times where they have struggled to breathe? Thanks in advance for your replies x

[Panicattacka]

Hope someone can calm me down. For the last week and a half I have suffered from all day shortness of breath. The only time that I am not bothered by it is when I’m sleeping. I had a chest X-ray recently and it was normal. My GP also listened to my chest which was fine. My oxygen levels were 98% and I also had a peak flow test and he said everything was also fine. Can this just be anxiety? I actually don’t have reason to be anxious and the only thing that is stressing me is the fact that I struggle to breathe. I have had shortness of breath for over 10 years and it comes and goes and all my tests have been clear. I quit smoking 6/years ago and deep down I am worried that I might have undiagnosed COPD. Has anyone else had times where they have struggled to breathe? Thanks in advance for your replies x

I've also been suffering with this the last 2 weeks, like you I have clear vital signs and doctor listened to my chest and said it wasn't congested. In my case I think it's because I am scared about Coronavirus, especially the tight chest symptom caused by pneumonia. Could you subconsciously have this fear as well?

[Fishmanpa]

The only time that I am not bothered by it is when I’m sleeping.

And when you're sleeping, your mind and body aren't in an anxious state so what does that tell you?

Positive thoughts

[kmm111]

I know when I am aware of my breathing, I feel like I have shortness of breath. I think the anxiety brings it on. The more I think about it, the worse it is. My current fear is lung cancer and for the past few days I've been hyper-aware of my breathing. I feel like I'm constantly short of breath. If I get distracted somehow and I'm less aware, I barely even notice it.

[Lala1]

Thank you for your reply. Yes earlier in January there were some positive cases in Australia (where I’m from) and it really terrified me, although as the weeks went by and logic set in where i knew that I wasn’t at risk as I hadn’t travelled to China and I kind of got over it. I have to admit though that I have been following the news quite abit lately for updates so you may be right that subconsciously this is causing me anxiety?

[Lala1]

It’s terrible isn’t it? COPD and any other lung related illnesses have me so worried and I have been like this for many years.

[Lala1]

Thank you Fishmanpa. I don’t post much but read your posts and you are always the voice of reason. Silly question, but do people who have COPD have a hard time with breathing even when they are trying to sleep? The only thing that is keeping me sane at the moment is thinking that if I really did have COPD I would have a hard time sleeping (I have sleep apnea but I’ve never woken up gasping for air)

[ankietyjoe]

Hope someone can calm me down. For the last week and a half I have suffered from all day shortness of breath. The only time that I am not bothered by it is when I’m sleeping. I had a chest X-ray recently and it was normal. My GP also listened to my chest which was fine. My oxygen levels were 98% and I also had a peak flow test and he said everything was also fine. Can this just be anxiety? I actually don’t have reason to be anxious and the only thing that is stressing me is the fact that I struggle to breathe. I have had shortness of breath for over 10 years and it comes and goes and all my tests have been clear. I quit smoking 6/years ago and deep down I am worried that I might have undiagnosed COPD. Has anyone else had times where they have struggled to breathe? Thanks in advance for your replies x

Absolutely 100% yes, it can be anxiety. It can make you feel like you're being strangled even if your O2 is at 100%.

The reason, is tight diaphragm muscles. Your body knows it's not opening your lungs as much as possible so sends you an alarm signal, even though you have more O2 than you need. The paradox is that you then try and gulp down more air and hyperventilate which makes you feel....you guessed it.....short of breath.

The second paradox here is that by deliberately slowing down your breathing, controlled slow in and out breaths...going completely against your instinct....you will probably find you can take a full breath again.

Something else you might find useful is just walking around slowly when you're short of breath as it has the habit of soaking up the excess O2 if you're gulping air and restoring blood gas balance.

And lastly, not paying attention to it. Again, hard....but the more you focus on it the worse it gets.

[Lala1]

Absolutely 100% yes, it can be anxiety. It can make you feel like you're being strangled even if your O2 is at 100%.

The reason, is tight diaphragm muscles. Your body knows it's not opening your lungs as much as possible so sends you an alarm signal, even though you have more O2 than you need. The paradox is that you then try and gulp down more air and hyperventilate which makes you feel....you guessed it.....short of breath.

The second paradox here is that by deliberately slowing down your breathing, controlled slow in and out breaths...going completely against your instinct....you will probably find you can take a full breath again.

Something else you might find useful is just walking around slowly when you're short of breath as it has the habit of soaking up the excess O2 if you're gulping air and restoring blood gas balance.

And lastly, not paying attention to it. Again, hard....but the more you focus on it the worse it gets.


Thank you for your reply. I was doing ok last night and managed to forget it for a while and my breathing went back to normal. Today though is particularly bad as I woke up also with abit of a blocked nose which further sent me into panic so I feel like I am back to square one. I will take your advice and hopefully I will go back to breathing normally.

[ankietyjoe]

Thank you for your reply. I was doing ok last night and managed to forget it for a while and my breathing went back to normal. Today though is particularly bad as I woke up also with abit of a blocked nose which further sent me into panic so I feel like I am back to square one. I will take your advice and hopefully I will go back to breathing normally.

Focus on that bit. You have all the evidence you need there.

[nomorepanic]

Are you treating the anxiety though?

[Lala1]

[QUOTE=nomorepanic;1930847]Are you treating the anxiety though?[/QUOTE

I have started seeing a therapist for other non HA related issues. My next appointment is weeks away though 😢

[Lala1]

So sorry everyone. I’m not having a good evening and feeling quite upset. I went out last night and I noticed that my breathing was back to normal which was a good thing. However this morning and most of the day I have been feeling breathless again. I forgot to mention in my first post that I also get a tickly throat and my gp gave me a steroid inhaler to use twice a day however it hasn’t really helped me. Some days I have no tickle or cough yet other days the tickle comes back. Also in the last few days I also have mucus in my throat. I know that several clear chest X-rays and good result peak flow test and normal oxygen levels should convince me that I don’t have COPD yet here I am freaking out again. I just don’t know what to do with myself right now.How do I get over this?

[ankietyjoe]

How do I get over this?

I've already answered that.

It's going to come and go, you need to practice not paying attention to it. You've already said when you focus on something else it goes away. It's really up to you to keep on top of it.