Begging for help! Shortness of breath etc

[thomas1776]

So lately I've been dealing with probably the worst anxiety symptoms I've had.
It started while I found out my wife was pregnant, we're broke and just a lot of stressors. It was also around this time I stopped smoking.

I started feeling short of breath, like i had to yawn frequently. It transisted into feeling smothered and suffocated with chest pressure. The thing that freaked me out was that when i was lying on my back and only my back I felt like air was squeezed out of me with pressure on my chest. If I lay on either side I have no symptoms. Sometimes this is accompanied by the fact that i feel like I'm wheezing when exhaling really hard, not when breathing normally.

I went to the ER and have had 2 doctors visits. My lungs sound excellent and so does my heart apparently. No wheezing or diminished lung functions. Just said I was suffering from hyperventilation.
Sometimes I feel like there's a lump in my throat that i have to cough up but only clear mucus if anything comes up.


The biggest relief I get is from exercise! I'm thinking that it's just anxiety because when I go for a jog or lift weights I breathe normally without thinking about it. I got prescribed Ativan which completely helps alleviate the symptoms.

I have a kid on the way and I'm sooooo afraid I'm going to die before it's born. Please help me with my fears of having lung cancer or COPD.
Lately

[alfred24]

Do you smoke?

[Catchyourmiracle]

Do you smoke?

Yes I do! actually, I was thinking about quitting when my anxiety topped the scales in 2006. My Psychiatrist reccomendation: Don't do it!


New book on Amazon.com
Panic and Anxiety : through the sufferers eyes 2013

[ClaireGordon]

I must admit I quit smoking at the begining of the year and I would say this has been my worse year so far........ Any truth in it you reckon?

Xx

[Catchyourmiracle]

Thomas I know exactly how your feeling. Its hard to comprehend your not dying when this happens. I sure thought I was. I kept asking myself, whose going to take care of the kids. Mine were teens by then. So I definitely know how or feeling. I went to the hospital five times by ambulance in one month. The ambulance drivers and the ER doctors got tired of me. I didn't blame them. But you are very lucky if ativan is controlling yours a 100%, so stay with it. Dont let nobody start changing your medicine unless you decide its not working.



New book:
Panic and Anxiety: through the sufferers' eyes
Amazon.com

[Catchyourmiracle]

Yes totally. I loved Psychiatrist. He was the best! I trust his theory. :)




New book:
Panic and Anxiety: through the sufferers' eyes
Amazon.com

[sweetypie]

I definitely think it is the anxiety as well if your lungs checked out fine.

You're probably feeling trapped by financial stress and this big transition into the next part of your life (becoming a father.) Whenever I feel trapped like this, it's like someone is suffocating me and it literally feels like I'm carrying something heavy on my shoulders (which could explain the heavy feeling in your chest.) Like it's hard to stand.

Figuratively, your mind is struggling to gasp for air, struggling to carry the burden and I think you're also feeling it physically because of it.

[thomas1776]

Do you smoke?

I used to. Not anymore. Maybe me quitting has something to do with it

[alfred24]

Why don't you guys just vape?

[thomas1776]

Bumping this thread as my anxiety levels are through the roof today. I've been noticing that when i exhale REALLY hard its like i can feel mucus in my lungs. I AM SO WORRIED I HAVE LUNG CANCER OR COPD!!

Please help me. I started feeling smothered today when i was in public. It passed when i went to a private place.

The funny thing is that somedays I have ZERO symptoms, and somedays i feel like I am dying.

Can someone please help me?? How do i know if i have COPD or Lung Cancer?

I've been to the doctor 3-4 times and they've listened to my lungs and heart and says that everything is beautiful.
Shouldn't they have heard anything was wrong?

And i get relief when i workout, shouldn't i be unable to workout if there is a real physical problem?

[emtw12]

Go back to doctor if you're worried! I get shortness of breathe daily ( the need to breathe in deeply and I can't most the time ) it's so annoying

[thomas1776]

Go back to doctor if you're worried! I get shortness of breathe daily ( the need to breathe in deeply and I can't most the time ) it's so annoying

Yeah I've been like 4 times already. I feel silly going back. However, I know i am constantly thinking about if the doctors are missing anything. I wish i could for sure know if it's anxiety or an actual problem.

Yesterday I took an Ativan and i had no problems or symptoms at all.

[emtw12]

Yes they don't seem to help do they?? always say it's anxiety

[Catchyourmiracle]

Hey Thomas

I have COPD! Just diagnosed last year. I do smoke as you know, however, I have been studying on it since. And I don't want everybody to think I'm advocating smoking, however, I read on Lifescript, that only 15% of people actually get COPD from smoking. There are so many chemicals we are exposed too. In answer to your question; "How to find out"? You need to see your doctor and have him do a spirometer test which measures your breathing. Nothing to it really, but it is a little harder than it sounds believe me. When I get my next spirometer reading though, I am going to go to a pulmonologist . I think they are more clear on everything. Mine just seems like it could be something else too. Like mold in the walls. I always feel worse at home than I do outside or at the store. We had a roof leak a while back, and I just wonder, cause mold can be terrible. But I would get that test done. That way you would know for sure whether its your anxiety or not.:)



I had to do i
Bumping this thread as my anxiety levels are through the roof today. I've been noticing that when i exhale REALLY hard its like i can feel mucus in my lungs. I AM SO WORRIED I HAVE LUNG CANCER OR COPD!!

Please help me. I started feeling smothered today when i was in public. It passed when i went to a private place.

The funny thing is that somedays I have ZERO symptoms, and somedays i feel like I am dying.

Can someone please help me?? How do i know if i have COPD or Lung Cancer?

I've been to the doctor 3-4 times and they've listened to my lungs and heart and says that everything is beautiful.
Shouldn't they have heard anything was wrong?

And i get relief when i workout, shouldn't i be unable to workout if there is a real physical problem?

[stephanie3126]

How would you know if you have COPD? Can your GP do a spirometer test? I've been having heart palps and shortness of breath for two days now and I don't know for sure if it's anxiety or not and I'm getting worried. I'm only 23 though so I'm not sure when people usually get it.. I'm quite nervous and I don't know what to do. I don't smoke either so I'm a little confused as to what it might be.

[Catchyourmiracle]

Thomas, you sound just like me when I started having Panic Attacks. And yes working out helps panic attacks. It did mine too. Panic is the pits. I been on medication now since 2006. Yet sometimes I still have, what I call, a breakthrough panic attack. Go to the page on amazon where my book is, and read the excerpt from the back cover and see if it sounds like you. If so, you need to visit a psychiatrist. Not because your going crazy, but because they are the ones that know how to make you feel better. I had so many problems with doctors in the beginning. I only e started feeling better after I started seeing him. The name of my book on Amazon.com is Panic and Anxiety; through the sufferers eyes. Go check out that back cover! You don't have COPD I'm Sure! But when I had panic and anxiety, I thought I was dying from everything, and it felt oh so real.










Bumping this thread as my anxiety levels are through the roof today. I've been noticing that when i exhale REALLY hard its like i can feel mucus in my lungs. I AM SO WORRIED I HAVE LUNG CANCER OR COPD!!

Please help me. I started feeling smothered today when i was in public. It passed when i went to a private place.

The funny thing is that somedays I have ZERO symptoms, and somedays i feel like I am dying.

Can someone please help me?? How do i know if i have COPD or Lung Cancer?

I've been to the doctor 3-4 times and they've listened to my lungs and heart and says that everything is beautiful.
Shouldn't they have heard anything was wrong?

And i get relief when i workout, shouldn't i be unable to workout if there is a real physical problem?

[Catchyourmiracle]

Stephanie

If your doctor has a spirometer machine, he can do one. All you do is breath in through your nose, and out into a tube. It measures your oxygen. Any type of shortness of breath, and the doctors will/or should check for any physical problems first. However, if they find nothing, then its anxiety or panic, or something emotional? I would definitely see a psychiatrist if that is so. Doctors, as in MD's never really understood that I felt like I was going to die. They wanted to give me medication for two weeks and that's it! I knew no better at the time, so of course I took the medicine till it was gone. I felt alright! Then a few weeks later...BOOM...all hell broke loose! That was the main reason I wrote my book. To help others!






How would you know if you have COPD? Can your GP do a spirometer test? I've been having heart palps and shortness of breath for two days now and I don't know for sure if it's anxiety or not and I'm getting worried. I'm only 23 though so I'm not sure when people usually get it.. I'm quite nervous and I don't know what to do. I don't smoke either so I'm a little confused as to what it might be.