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View Full Version : is this part of anxiety?



sabrocks
04-30-2008, 03:34 PM
for like a week i've just had shortness of breath, like i'll be normal, then its like i need to take deep breaths, just throughout the day. I just feel crap, weak, like i can still run or do what i have to, its not physically weak, but its like i feel floaty, if that meakes sense. I feel the worst when i get shortness of breath, how can i stop it? does anyone else feel bad when they get shortness of breath?

Robbed
04-30-2008, 04:34 PM
Sounds like 'par for the course' when it comes to anxiety. Breathing symptoms such as 'breathlessness' are EXTREMELY common, as is just general malaise/fatigue. Anyway, there is not really a way to deal with specific anxiety symptoms. Rather, the anxiety itself must be dealt with. And a big part of this means not overreacting to symptoms. When uncomfortable symptoms like this pop up, simply accept them rather than reacting to them with fear and thinking about how they are MUCH more harmful than they really are. Understand that they are simply symptoms of high stress, and will go away as levels of stress are lowered.

Cpt_Stunning
05-05-2008, 05:23 AM
Drink water & make a conscious effort to breathe evenly.

Dixxie
05-05-2008, 03:55 PM
yes......to all the above :)

pinkpears333
05-17-2008, 08:59 PM
I've suffered from anxiety for about a year and a half. However, I haven't had a major panic attack in months and I've acquired skills to conquer them until today. Today at work as I coming back from my lunch break, my vision suddenly started to get really blurry. Everything looked wavy and bright. I thought I was going to black out. My heart started to race but my vision kept getting worse, it felt like my left eye was going blind and my vision was getting distorted. I quickly told my manager and she told me, "You're having an anxiety attack, I know you are." It was extremely hard to calm down since I work at the mall and I was surrounded by so many people.
My manager walked me through it but it was so hard to concentrate on her. My vision was out of focus, she looked so distorted. Everyone around me looked distorted. For example, I'm embarrassed to say this at the fear of sounding crazy, it looked like everyone had one eye or if I looked into my manager's eyes or anyone's eyes, one eye looked smaller than the other. However, I wasn't hearing any voices or becoming delusional but I really felt like I was going crazy. It freaked me out and caused my vision to get even more out of focus. I thought, Today is the day I totally lost it and I'm having some sort of psychotic episode." I even told my manager that and told me that I it was an intense anxiety attack and some are just more intense than others. After about 25 minutes (it seemed like forever), my vision turned back to normal, but I really hope I never go through something like that again. It left me feeling scared and depressed that it could have been an early onset or sign telling me that I'm going to go crazy. I really hope it's just anxiety. I've never experienced anything like this and please help me out.

frisby
05-17-2008, 09:21 PM
When this happens you breath too fast getting too much O2. I used to do that when my allergies irritated my throat. If you feel light headed try to hold you breath for 20 seconds. This will slow you down. Your body will take deeper breaths since you are holding your breath. If the lightheadness goes away that that was what it was. It also helps keep you calm.

If you try breathing fast right now in about 30 seconds you can cause the same thing to happen. Of course you can then do the above steps I wrote and the lightheadness will go away.

I was a mess when this started to happen with my allergies and asthma because I thought I was passing out from not enough air causing me to force my self to breath harder only making it worst and that will make someone pass out. lol. Laughing about it now it sound silly but I didn't know at the time.

Usually your body gets really heavy and harder to walk when low on O2. Again you can hold your breath for a minute and feel the effects. Once I learned the difference between the feelings I could control my breathing.

Light headness, hold my breath for 20 seconds. Heavy feeling take my inhaler. Of course my inhaler only works when I am not getting enough air. If I take it when I have too much air it only make the feeling of lightheadness worst.

NOW... Any time you have trouble breathing you should always see a doctor if it doesn't get better or if it scares you enough. Mine turned out not to be anxiety related at all.

Anxiety I hear can also trigger asthma. Lucky for me my asthma is not effected when I am stressed or worried. :)

I also always ask if you feel anything in your throat when you get light headed? Do you feel your self breathing in and out, like the air moving. If you do it could also be allergies causing you to breathe differently making you light headed. Probably not, but it was with me.