Give Up!!!

[xJust_Sarahx]

Hi
I went to the doctors this morning about my concern with my breathing and how my chest is always wheezy and im always coughing and waking up breathless, and i cant walk far because i get out of breath and it panics me, (im not over weight and i dont smoke) and this is all taking its toll on me because im losing the will to live.. i mean if it wasnt for my 3 kids.
I just look at people and im envious when i see them talking to mates and walking about and playing with there kids etc, and im house bound, i dont get out once a week, tbh. My x partner takes my son to nursery and that.

Anyways the doctor made me feel sooo small and i just feel like a waste of space, she said " from what you tell me there is no evidence that you have asthma or anything else which would be of any concern" and she then said "i dont doubt the symptoms you have are real, but they are harmless and you know you will enventually catch your breath"

Anyway.. she perscribed me with some tablets and said it will change my mood. I didnt want to take tablets because i always worry about the side affects but i will give them ago, but i think noone cares, and i mean why couldnt she even listen to my chest or could i not have a peak flow thing? or even my blood took. Just something to rule out things and make me feel better. i do give up. I feel like if something bads going to happen to me then bring it on. Il worry about it at the time.

I cant see how anxiety can affect your breathing all day, and how it can makw your chest wheezy and cough up phlegm when you dont smoke and not over weight etc, and chest pains and so on.

[allergyphobia]

Hi sarah

Since September 2010 I had what I would call a “barking cough”, with chest pain and shortness of breath. This came after I had costchondritis, which is inflammation of your chestbone. The more panicky I became about the cough the more frequent it got.. and I eventually went to the doctors and asked him about my symptoms. I was first trialed on a blue reliever inhaler, and had a spirometry, where I blew into a machine and a graph mapped my results. All my results came back fine although I had a lung age of around 80, which I was told could ‘happen sometimes’…with no explanation. My cough started to take over my life. I went to aerobics and got so out of breath afterwards I felt like I would never catch it again – I left the class, coughing and spluttering, dashed home to my inhaler with no relief and started to try to calm down, had a warm bath and eventually settled. I used to constantly press a warm wheatbag to my chest as I felt like it opened me up and gave me some relief. The doc then trialled me on some acid reflux tablets, but by this point I wanted more tests to find out what was going on… the cough would happen when I was exerting myself, if I got too hot or too cold, when I was eating, all sorts of random situations. I tried the tablets for a couple of weeks but went back to the docs in floods of tears and they referred me to a respiratory clinic at the hospital.

Basically at this clinic I had more things tried for me with a physician who didn’t see the point in seeing me. The whole time I was made to feel like a waste of time, as I kept failing to respond to treatment. I was given a course of tablets which caused me to lose my appetite and over a stone in weight, and I believe they have a big connection to where my anxiety really kicked in. I was on steroid inhalers twice a day and a reliever inhaler…. All of this DIDN’T make any difference. Lastly I tried a nasal spray to see if it was post nasal drip, this helped slightly but didn’t shift the cough.

I went back for a ‘final diagnosis’ and was told I have ‘hyper-responsive airways’, which actually, doesn’t mean that much. It’s not asthma, doesn’t respond to treatment, and can disappear the same way it appeared. The way I was treated through the investigations made me so frustrated and anxious that by the end I didn’t care anymore. I ditched the inhalers and step by step I started to get my life back. What I am trying to say to you Is a cause or reliever for my cough and breathing has NEVER been found. Now, I can walk up stairs, do tai chi, etc etc without coughing and when I don’t think about my breathing I notice it’s not a problem. There are definitely situations that affect my breathing but whether it’s physchological I don’t know.

There are people on here that have asthma, and can tell you what the symptoms are like. When do you struggle to breathe, is it when you breathe in or out? This is a really long-winded post but what I am trying to say is do NOT let this take over your life like it did mine. It became an obsession. It is perfectly ok to ask the doctor for a peak flow test, but if the results are fine you need to leave it at that.

I am sorry you are not getting the support you need, I know it is awful not being able to catch your breath etc. basically it could be to do with post nasal drip, which can be made worse by anxiety, acid reflux, which can be made worse by anxiety, or over breathing through anxiety, or like you seem to think, it could be asthma. Either way you need to pluck the courage to speak to your doctor frankly about it, as at the moment they do not seem to have given you the answers you want.

I hope you find the support you need soon xxx

[xJust_Sarahx]

Hi
Thankyou very much for your reply, you have made me feel so much better than i was earliar.
It has definitly took over my life and i am way more obsessed with my breathing than i should.
So the fact when you used your reliever inhalers and didnt feel better.. you knew then it was basically just anxiety making things worse type thing? Because if it had of been something where you need your inhalers then it would of eased the symptoms but the fact nothing was working was when you could relate it to anxiety?

It all does make sense, and theres been times where i have been so fed up and embraced something to happen such as run up and down the stairs constantly until my legs couldnt take it anymore just to get so bad out of breathe to see what happend, and in my head i thought if something was wrong with me then i wouldnt be able to catch my breath, but the fact i eventually caught it must of meant there isnt? Only thing is after that i was coughing none stop and always needed to clear my chest more so.

I have problems breathing in and out, breathing in i feel i cant breathe in as much as i want like from the stomach.. it feels trapped, and breathing out feels like i havnt released it all properly.

Do you think that the fact i have been obsessed with my breathing for so long and caused my self to slow down what i do and do nothing to get out of breathe that is made me unfit? and thats why im wheezing all the time?

Thanks again x

[suspicious1]

Hi, you sound just like me, I have had a severe phobia of getting breathless for years ever since I saw someone have an asthma attack.

I do have mild asthma but the attacks are occasional and mild but I kept going to the dr and upping my dose of medications until I was on the maximum doses and still I felt I couldn't breathe ALL of the time. This is what lead them to reaslise that I am mostly suffering with anxiety and I am tensing my cheast and not exhaling fully. Years of avoiding doing anything physical made me unfit which made me even more out of breath. I got a peak flow measure and ended up taking it all the time, even when it was fine I'd still panic that it would suddenly get worse so it's not a great idea to get one.... just gives you something to obsess about.

What has helped me (and it's still a work in progress)... is I started exercising, very gently to start with. I bought a Powerbreathe which is like doing weights for your lungs, it has helped. Meditation with slow breathing, this has helped relax my chest. I#m just about to start CBT so hopefully now I have strengthened the lungs and relaxed my chest muscles and got a bit fitter I can deal with the negative thoughts to stop me focusing on breathing. I also avoid dairy as this gives me mucus.

I hope this helps to know you aren't the only person with this problem.

x

[suspicious1]

another thing that made me realise that it was anxiety and not a breathing problem was that I could be struggling for breath but if something else caught my attention or required my concentration I would temporarily forget about being breathless.......