Trouble breathing constantly

[MarkH]

Hi
I'm new here as I seem to have got several physical symptoms associated with anxiety and depression. I have been to the doc's to start to get these problems sorted out, however the main symptom I have is constant lack of breath, i.e. shortness of breath and yawning. I was wondering whether if other people have this, whether its a contant symptom, or just one that comes and goes quickly, i.e. resuming back to normal breathing within mins/hours?

As for me, this is my main source of anxiety which I guess everything else feeds off of

Regards

Mark

[xBettyBoopx]

Hi Mark

I have this almost all the time. It is my biggest thing too. However, just to reassure you that it is anxiety, I am 51 years of age & have had it since i was a child basically. That's not to say that you will have it that long, just to give you some reassurance that you will always get enough breathe although it always feels like you won't. It is a horrible symptom & very frightening, I get fed up with yawning & sighing, but that's the way we get extra air in apparently.

Dr Claire Weekes explains this breathing thing in her books & cd's. Do you have them? I recommend them. It was a relief to see all my symptoms written down. Have you tried breathing into a paper bag, that is supposed to regulate the breathing.

I hope I have been of some reassurance Mark.

Take care.
Els
xxx

[MarkH]

Hi, thanks for the response, I only got them 3 weeks ago but they haven't gone, I'm just wondering whether if its just part of my anxiety/depression, which might get better as and when my other problems get sorted out, I just don't know but as you say, its awful. I went to the gym for the 1st time since I got this problem and could only do 20 mins as I couldnt get my breathing under control to exercise

[xBettyBoopx]

Its tension Mark. Remember lungs are muscles too & when we get tense all our muscles tense up. Yer exercise would make you more out of breath than normal if you are already tense.

You say you have other problems. I'm sure that is what would be causing the anxiety & depression. I hope that you get your problems sorted out soon.

Els

[julieb]

mark i had this symptom for the first time last year and it was so severe that i thought i must have something terrible wrong with me. i tend to avoid the drs but went twice in 3 days. he assured me it was anxiety but it took really about 3 months to improve to any noticable degree. ive had one bad attack of it since but as soon as i start to notice myself getting thee symptoms i drop everything and just relax as much as i can and it does seem to help. it doesnt always go completely but it certainly doesnt get to the level where i thought i was going to die. my advice would be to just accept that it is anxiety and do things to take your mind off it like watching something good on tv or reading a magazine then before you know it it will subside.

ju

[MarkH]

Thanks all. I actually had this issue about 5 years ago but with no other anxiety/depression symptoms, so I went to the doc's and got it sorted using breathing techniques and since then it has never come back until now with avengance including many depression/anxiety, i.e. feeling low, loss of appetite, sleep problems, constantly crying etc - I can't belive it as I'm a very fit 33 year old guy that has steered clear of recreational drugs/etc. Now within 2 or 3 weeks I am now a shell of myself, on amitriptyline and lonely

[nicbow]

Hi Mark, you are not alone. I have been suffering panic attacks for 8/9 years now, they started very slowly, disappeared for a short while then BOOM back they came along with depression, constant anxiety, agora/claustrophobia etc etc. I understand how crippling it is and i felt very alone too - until i found this site and that lots of the people here are going through the same thing. The chat room here has helped me a great deal already and i have only been here a few days, the guys are fantastic and i would strongly recommend joining a chat one day to see how it goes....

[MarkH]

Hey Nicbow, just joined last night, love to chat but it seems you need to wait 5 days before you can enter the chat room - The top priority at the moment for me is to get my breathing normal - I wish there was a quick fix for it

[SuperInfinity]

MarkH, don't listen to the people who are so full sure it's anxiety. Even my doctor kept telling me it was all anxiety for a while until my breathing got extremely serious.

Nobody's really sure what was wrong with me apart from that I have extremely, extremely high levels of Immunoglubulin E. It kept getting worse and worse and I very nearly died! And somehow it started improving gradually again... I think our bodies can adapt enormously slowly to certain systematic problems. It took about a year and a half to go from how it came about to how it is now.

But it was NOT, I repeat NOT anything to do with anxiety. When I got it first I thought maybe I was just imagining it as well and it took me a long time before I was so positive it was not psychological... but try telling a doctor that... I hope very much that what you have isn't anything like what I do (I'm definitely nowhere near 100% still and doubt I ever will be)... but you're in for a rough time if it is. :/

[MarkH]

Hi Super, that sounds bad. I hope you get as well as you can

Mark