Shortness of breath

[skippy66]

The last 2 nights have been awful for me, I've been struggling to get a proper breath and unable to sleep properly. Does anyone get this?

I've had my heart checked and the fact that this SOB gets better with exercise makes me think it's probably not my heart. So google gives me the following possibilities:

- Allergies. I am allergic to dust and pollen, but I changed my sheets last night and bought a new pillow and it made no difference. I also took benadryl before bed.

- asthma. I tested negative for this as a kid, I don't really wheeze and my problem seems to get better with exercise not worse.

- GERD. I've just finished a course of acid blockers, but I wasn't feeling any heartburn last night so seems unlikely that was the cause of my SOB.

- Anxiety. The SOB seems too 'real' for anxiety to be the cause, and this gets worse when I lie down which makes it more likely a physical problem than psychological.

- then the scary stuff like pulmonary edema and cancer, but does anyone know if these would make SOB worse with exercise?


I'm at my wits end really tired and this in itself is making my SOB worse.

[PokerFace]

Hey skippy, I had extremely bad shortness of breath for about 3 whole weeks everyday when my anxiety first started. I had no idea what was happening to me as I didn't fully understand or accept the fact I had health anxiety so it made me panic and over breathe without even realising, which made my body try to slow my breathing down cuz I had too much oxygen. When your body trys to slow itself down it's scary cuz of the effect it has. It feels like you can't breathe and/or it's extremely difficult to get a breath when infact you're perfectly fine. If you try to slow yourself down instead of letting your body do it for you it's not so scary.

If it would put your mind at rest you can be checked out by a REAL doctor and if he/she says everythings fine, it's definatley just anxiety as most of us have had shortness of breath. Remember Google will only ever add to your worries, not fix them and I think I read in the paper a couple of weeks ago under 50% of the "health symtpoms" websites checked out by real doctors were actually credible and gave correct advice.

You should try to stop googling symtpoms, I know it's hard cuz we just want reassurance but Google just gives us 100 other things to worry about on top of the thing we were already worrying about and we end up in a viscious circle. Take care xx

[anthrokid]

Heya Skippy,

I've always suffered from shortness of breath to some degree but never had asthma or the like. I feel short of breath a lot of the time. My psychiatrist says it's because I hyperventiliate without realising. I only breathe in for 2-3 seconds then breathe out for the same. This has always been normal for me but it's actually very, very fast paced breathing and is classed as hyperventilation even though it doesn't feel like it to me. I breathe 3-4 times faster than is necessary. Try to breathe in for 5 seconds and out for 7. If you struggle to do this then it's probably reallllly likely that you're a serial hyperventilater too :) It's very common with anxiety!

Check in with your doctor if it's really worrying you, but like Pokerface said, if the doctor says there is nothing wrong (which is very likely) then it'll just be over-breathing!

[ozjeff]

gday skippy,
mate , i have this all the time, even when i dont think im anxious & like you also feel thats its just too severe to " only" be anxiety,
we are dealing with our subconcious here, dont underestimate just how bad anxiety can be, just when you think youve reached your absolute limit, itll throw some more at you.
the more attention you give it , the worse it will get, garenteed,
you need to calm yourself & say " its anxiety", it wont happen straight away, but if you do this continually , it will eventually pass.
good luck mate