Been experiencing strange breathing issues past few days. I'm worried about it.

[Mark_P]

Since the weekend I have been experiencing issues with my breathing. I can breathe in pretty normal, but when I breathe out it feels like it's shallower than when I breathe in. I have been experiencing mild panic attacks again, such as heart racing at a higher than usual pace. I have had aches in my upper back/trapezius muscles and neck, some mild pain in my chest. I had a headache yesterday which felt like a tension headache. I didn't take anything for the headache, but it went away by the time I went to bed.

I usually go gym, but I haven't been for about 2+ weeks and I've been eating a lot of junk food. I have put on a lot of weight recently and I'm wondering whether the weight gain coupled with the mild panic attacks is causing my breathing to act up. I never used to worry about breathing issues, but now I've been experiencing them my health anxiety is kicking in again which is creating havoc to my anxiety in general, which is probably why my sleep has been so broken and poor. As well as that, it's causing me to worry about my heart/lungs or that I have an unknown cancer that's spread to my heart or lungs. I know it's insane to think like that, but I do worry.

[Carys]

The trouble is with breathing is that it is something that is meant to happen without being thought about, an automatic bodily function. The moment you focus on it, or get worried about it in even the slightest way - then it becomes problematic for anxiety sufferers. Every manner of 'breathing problem' has been described here over the years - can't take a deep breathe/feel like I'm having to concentrate and make myself breathe/feel my lungs aren't inflating/feel tight in the chest etc etc. A combination of tight muscles and anxious posture, with over-thinking and focusing can make breathing feel quite odd.