shortness of breathing with anxiety

[sarmarie812]

I've been suffering for about a year now...straight. I've suffered before with this. But shortness of breath...it's horrid. I feel like I can't get enough air, it's all day, all the time, I'm always aware of my breathing, it's like I'm just waiting to die. I take ativan if I'm really, really panicky. I was just prescribed paxil, I took it when I was 13-14 years old and it worked well, but over the years I developed a phobia to medicine ): I don't know why or how, anyone else suffer with this or who can help me?!

[Belkin]

I suffer to something similar to this.. I have been burping for like 2-3 weeks now on and off and when ever i do i get shortness of breathe and im unable to complete a deep breathe and it really scares me!!

[sarmarie812]

Yeah its reallyyyy scarey!! I need to.go back on meds.

[PanicCured]

You are most likely overbreathing causing loss of too much CO2. The more you breathe the more you blow out CO2 causing a whole cascade of symptoms. I had this quite serious, and I practiced Buteyko breathing and I got much better. For me, I was able to actually breathe deep, it was more of a feeling I couldn't breathe. I don't know if you have something wrong with your lungs or not, or something else. But if it is like what I had, then here is a free website about it: http://www.normalbreathing.com/

I bought Patrick McKeown's book Anxiety Free: Stop Worrying and Quieten the Mind: http://www.amazon.com/Anxiety-Free-S.../0954599640and

I read the whole thing and used the MP3 meditation breathing that came with it daily. It was a digital ebook and MP3 I downloaded from his website. I would just buy it, read it and practice the MP3 2 times a day.

People think the more you breathe the more you oxygen you get. Then you breathe more and you screw it all up. Breathing needs to match your respitroty rate. Excercise you breathe more. At rest it is very subtle. I suggest practicing reduced breathing exercises and learn about Buteyko breathing and the science behind it.

From http://www.normalbreathing.com/buteyko.php
"Dr. Konstantin Buteyko made 2 essential physiological discoveries that are studied in detail on the Homepage of this website:
1). Sick people suffer from alveolar hypocapnia (lack of CO2) caused by chronic hyperventilation;
2) If they normalize their breathing, their symptoms and diseases are going to disappear.

Dr. Buteyko discovered that chronic diseases are accompanied by abnormal changes in breathing, usually manifested as chronic hyperventilation (overbreathing). He also found that hyperventilation leads to cell hypoxia, while restoration of normal breathing parameters eliminates cell hypoxia, symptoms of diseases, and the need for medical drugs - leading to improved quality of life. Normal breathing, apart from other parameters, means breathing 4-6 liters of air per minute at rest, with a breathing frequency of 8-12 times per minute. In order to achieve normal breathing, he developed and, together with other Russian physicians, refined the Buteyko breathing technique. Changes in breathing and body oxygen levels also produce profound impact on lifestyle and quality of life factors, as the table below indicates."

[V8SplashMan]

Sarmarie812,

What PanicCured said is correct. Normally when we go through our lives we do not pay attention to our breathing we just let our body do it for us. Our body is only interested in wanting more oxygen if we really need it.

If you ran a race you would eventually have to stop because your body would need more oxygen than you could supply. So after you stop running you have to breathe through your mouth because obviously you can take in more oxygen through your mouth than in your nose.

However what I was doing and what you are doing is believing your not getting enough air! Then right behind it the anxiety creeps up some more and tells you that something bad is happening so in turn you keep breathing even more trying to correct the problem. When you do this you start to get sensations of impending doom, worry, feeling light headed, pressure in your chest or adominal muscles, labored or gasping type breathing. Sound familiar maybe?

This is all because your carbon dioxide levels are falling and your oxygen levels are going to high. Take a look at your nose and your mouth. Your nostrils are small and adapted to manage 90% of your breathing through out the day. Your mouth can suck in large amounts of oxygen and is your secondary back up for when you truely require more oxygen than your nose can provide.

You have to remember that your anxiety is just egging the problem on. Anxiety works off of fear, so if your worried and scared your anxiety starts negative thoughts which may scare you and will often cause you to begin over breathing from you constantly worrying and thinking about it.

If you went to a ER and did a pulse oximeter test more than likely you would show 100% saturation levels indicating that your body is recieving huges amounts of oxygen.

If you look up Hyperventilation syndrome you can find a little more information on what your experiencing. What you must remember though is your not crazy, your anxiety is playing a role in this and you need to learn breathing exercises. It's very important to breathe through your nose and keep your mind occupied on fun or interesting activities.

Part of healing and getting better is to do your very best to try stop any concentrated anxiety thinking where all you do is think about breathing issues. Anyways I hope this helped a bit! Any questions just ask.

[laurandisorder]

You can download a free application called 'relax' to help you monitor your breathing in panic-prone times.

It has helped me stave off anxiety in the past - especially when I'm at work or out and I find myself hyperventilating.

Good luck

[sarmarie812]

Did u feel like u would be running out of breath just talking sometimes??

[PanicCured]

ALWAYS breathe your nose. When talking even breathe through your nose. Breathing through your mouth lets out out much CO2. There is a Buteyko method of taping your mouth at night even, so you don't breathe through your mouth while sleeping. Don't do that after drinking any alcohol though, and probably read up on this before doing it. If you run really hard or exercise hard then you may need to breathe through your mouth. But all other times it's the nose. The nose allows the right amount of air to come in and out and also helps develop nitric oxide which dilates the blood vessels.

Think about this: If you breathed in and out really deep and hard non stop really fast what would happen? You may pass out from lack of oxygen to your brain. You didn't actually get more oxygen, you got less.

[knp]

Do best you can and leave rest to god

but never afraid of anything
Anxiety and fear is nothing more than an emotions
You are bigger and braver than anxiety
Do not fight it just embrace it if you learn to embrace it you are cured right now it's only way out
You should not be afraid of anxiety symptoms and thought
Thought comes and go just do not judge it just observe do not do anything when it happens

Be witness be observer do nothing

Anxiety Is just manipulative mind playing games

It's all in mind

Be brave and strong

Take care

[sarmarie812]

I have allergies and tis the season so sometimes breathing through my nose is crappy! My boyfriend told me I was making weird breathing noises thru my nose lastnight..so I'm thinking that was allergies...last night was my second night on paxil..it does make me fairly tired but I've taken it before so I'm praying for this anxiety will come to a hault.