Hi. Brand new here! I have had anxiety all of my life. Mostly phobias but if life is particularly stressful, I have more symptoms of GAD. I've never had panic attacks. About 4 weeks ago, I started having high heart rate and shortness of breath. It is only with exertion and directly proportional to the level of exertion (i.e. dressing makes me less short of breath than walking the dog or showering does) I have no palpitations before the SOB, no fear, no anxiousness, not even a little. When I get SOB, it doesn't scare me at all. (My friends without anxiety have even said I'm "irrationally calm" about the whole situation.) When I stop the activity and sit, it goes back to normal. I just feel suddenly very out of shape - like my SOB and heart rate are something I would experience if doing much more intense activity than I am. I'm not gasping for air or anything and I don't feel like I'm hyperventilating. I just feel like I'm unfit - like I gained 200 pounds overnight and my body is behaving as such. My PCP thought. I should see a cardiologist. The cardiologist saw me for about 8 minutes, heard my symptoms, didn't do a thorough assessment and listed my diagnosis as anxiety. I feel like she saw anxiety written in my chart and completely dismissed my symptoms. Regardless of her awful and dismissive approach though, I have since heard that being short of breath and having a high heart rate can be because of anxiety even if you're not anxious! It seems to be usually triggered by the feeling of palpitations, which cause you to start breathing differently and then causes this whole vicious cycle. I don't have palpitations, though. I only know my heart rate because I was taking it during the episodes so I could give my cardiologist the information. I don't even feel the sensation of my heart racing. I seriously just feel like I'm suddenly terribly out of shape. Have any of you experienced these symptoms (with no palpitations, fear, etc) and it turn out to be simply anxiety. I just can't fathom how it could be that! I know what my anxiety feels like and it certainly doesn't feel like I'm not having anxiety! Haha! If you have had this experience due to anxiety and understand the mechanism that causes it, I would love to hear (because I just can't wrap my head around how it could happen). But, if you don't know why it happens, that's okay too, I'd still love to hear about your experience. Thank you so much in advance for your input!
For heart palpitation and physical anxiety try propranolol- its a really safe med that might help x
I have the same issue, and I'm going to see a PCP for it today, though I doubt it'll come to much. From what I understand, shortness of breath can last for weeks and weeks - lingering symptoms seems to be a common hallmark of anxiety. I wouldn't worry about it if your heart and lung tests come back clear.