Okay. Short history. I have had health anxiety for about 5 years now. I am a 19 year old male who is otherwise pretty healthy. 10 months agp, around February-March I began having this sensation in my throat/chest area that was only relieved when i was able to get a good deep breath or yawn. The issue is that this breath or yawn isn't always satisfying so I am constantly taking a deep breath or yawning. I had this issue when I was younger though it went away instantly, this time however it has stuck around and I am in fear that its here to permanently stay. The last 10 months have been absolutely horrible. Some days are better than others, there are times where i don't feel the issue (at the gym, when out with friends). But for the past 3 weeks it has been absolutely unbearable. i feel embarrassed when outside as i think people are often judging my deep breathing. My job requires me to talk on the phone for 6 hours so you can imagine how unbearable this feeling is. I just need advice/help.Anyone out there who has gone through this or is going through it what helps? Will it ever stop? This issue is bringing my spirits very down as i feel that i will be having to deal with this for the restof my life. Please help me get my quality of life back!!
Hello my name is Kimberly and I've been having this issue for almost 2 years now. I'm a 32 year old female with a history of heavy drinking. I was terrified I may have heart problems from the drinking even though I have had multiple EKG done during trips to the Dr for this reason. I always get told its anxiety or they don't know! $1,000. We bill for them to tell me they don't know! Anyway I finally got insurance through my job and I'm gonna have a heart and lung scan to rule out anything more serious.
Hi louise55470,
I'm glad I'm not alone suffering from this problem. How are you feeling today? Have you received any medical help? It's been a few months now where I literally end up having panic attacks over this. I suddenly start getting the urge to yawn and cannot complete them. I also get the same feeling of needing to get a good satisfying deep breath. The deep breaths I can control and I do end up getting them. However, the yawing is terrible for hours on end. I feel this is chronic and that I will never be able to yawn normally again. I keep getting the urge and then it goes away half way into the yawn. It's terrible and I don't know what's causing it. My doctor simply dismissed it as anxiety which can trigger these feelings that are apparently fake. It doesn't seem to bother me when I am engaged in doing something that takes my mind off of it. But as soon as I'm relaxing or not thinking of anything it comes back. It's like it's controlling my life and preventing me from living and doing the things I normally enjoy. Believe me, I know exactly what you're feeling. I think only those who are living this can be each others doctors. I can't seem to find a fix for this and keep hoping it will eventually subside. I'm actually due for an MRI soon. I wonder if that can tell anything from that if it's even related to a possible medical condition. I also completed my annual physical and everything came back normal (chest x-ray, blood work, EKG and stress test). I would love to hear how you're doing and perhaps we can help each other.
Wish I could be writing this message saying how much better I am doing but that’s not the case. The symptom has continued to be an issue and has even increased in intensity the past 2-3 months. I honestly have gotten to the point where I don’t want to step outside because of fear of this symptom it feels so bad and is so embarrassing. Recently even sleep has became an issue. Anyway I have not gotten any medical checkups done however I am seeing a therapist, have been for about a month now, for anxiety. Next week I will be starting some anxiety medication and hopefully that will help me with this because it is so hard to try to balance school, work, and a social life with this horrible symptom that nobody has an answer to. Just my update, the fight continues, wish you the best.
So I think I’m finally breaking this vicious cycle of horrible symptoms we’re experiencing. It’s not the meds! My dr. prescribed Lexapro and Xanax and they didn’t do anything for me specifically. It has helped others but everybody response differently I guess. Yesterday I woke up feeling a panic attack coming on again and not being able to take a deep breath. I immediately resisted the attack and told myself this is not real. I’m in good health and there should be no reason for this to happen all the time. I’m starting to realize that I think this whole thing (like you) is just one big psychological obsession and our brains are literally believing we actually have a problem. Have you ever stared at a picture for too long? Notice how you start obsessing with it and start seeing different things you would have normally not seen by simply taking a quick look. The same thing is happening here. We’re so scared and so obsessed that we are forgetting the reality that there’s really nothing wrong. I proved it to myself when I started feeing this symptom again. I started working on something in the laundry room and realized that I yawned without even realizing it. I was literally stopping myself from yawning every time I felt the need to. I wanted to yawn so badly to feel the satisfaction that I ended up doing the opposite. You know the good old trick with kids…..they always say to use reverse psychology. 😊 It actually works on ourselves even as adults. As soon as I started realizing that this may all be one big ridiculous obsession, I’m noticing I can deep breaths and yawn a little normally again. I’m starting to prove to myself that I created my own problem and symptom! Nothing ever happened to me. I allowed a really scaring thing to freak me out and make me worry every single day. I don’t know if my solution will help you but just keep telling yourself this is fake. Try really hard to ignore it when you feel the onset. I know it easier said then done but I really think it’s the only way out. Does it happen when you are sleeping? If not then there is a small proof that there’s nothing wrong. Why does it only happen when you’re awake and thinking about it right? On goes the fight…..!!! We’ll get through this.
Man I wish I was as strong minded as you. Even when I tell myself it’s in my head I cannot ignore the urge, my throat gets tight to the point where I feel like I’m gonna suffocate and then I begin to breathe very shallow or get lightheaded. I am living in constant fear and it’s very upsetting. It doesn’t help that when I check forums of other people who speak of this they’ve had no cure for decades, which scares me. I’m only 20, supposed to be living life right now but instead struggling through this. I see my psychiatrist tomorrow, I didn’t want it to get to the point where medication was needed but these last few months have been horrible so this is my last resort. Hopefully some meds will do the trick, not cure me of course, but just make it easier to deal with so I can get to the bottom of this
hey, is there any progress? its been 6 months since you posted this.
i have shortness of breath constantly for over a year now too.... it seems as if it just wont get better...
did u smoke or have any sort of lifestyle that might have brought on the breathing?
could u also post any progression or any current status on your breathing?
thank you
Like stated in the previous post I made it hasn’t been getting better. It has actually been picking up and getting pretty bad the last 3 or so months. I didn’t think this could get much worse but it has. I’ve been prescribed some SSRI medication but I’m hesitant to take that. My therapist has also advised me to stop doing so much online searching for answers but it’s so hard to do when I have this tightness in my throat that I need answers for. I am trying to live my every day life as normal as possible but it’s so hard to do anything with this. Work has become a burden and school as well as it’s been happening to me in those places now too, even when out with friends, previously it wouldn’t happen but now t does. From all the readings online I’ve done about this I fear that this is something that’ll be here to stay and I don’t see how I can live a happy life with this holding me down daily.
if it only effects you when u think about it, and u have had all of your tests come back normal, it could be psychological.
do u have anything in mind that could make it a physical possibility?
did you smoke, how old are you, have you had diet problems, have u been exposed to anything bad, and when did u notice this? could it have been sparked by PTSD?
my situation is consistent and is 24/7. im searching for answers but there are so many possibilities in my case as in i smoked, ate like s**t, was over weight, lifted really heavy weights (powerlifted), im 21 , and i have had a very traumatic life especially when this started...
if you could possibly feel me in on anything you can think of that might be triggering it, i can definitely help you overcome this. i have helped many people but not myself quite yet, only made mine more manageable.
Nope. No triggers really. I never smoked before, I was pretty damm active in the years prior. I’m currently 20 years old, the thing that keeps this going for me is the constantly feeling the tightness in my throat which throws me into full anxious mode
When you said, “ throws me into full anxious mode,” that’s exactly what happens to me. As soon as I felt the need to take a deep satisfying breath or yawn I would start getting scared because I knew it wouldn’t work. This made me panic and immediately get an anxiety attack before I even had a chance to take that full breath. Of course, the minute you freak out you won’t be able to take that deep breath/yawn because you’re too nervous! You’re muscles need to be relaxed. The point is, I’m doing much better now that I’m slowly understanding that this is all psychological. There’s nothing physically wrong with me/you but your brain is believing you actually have a problem that is fake. It’s very hard to overcome this mentally but believe me you will. It happens in small steps. Try to resist it when you feel it and tell yourself this isn’t happening. Then do it again little by little. Your brain eventually begins to rehabilitate itself and goes back to normal mode without fearing these fake symptoms anymore. In my opinion, time is the only real medication. Also, you’ve had this for quite some time correct? If it was really a serious physical problem, something worse would have happened by now. But nothing has other than the increased fear. Hope this helps a little. 😊
This is EXACTLY what I am experiencing. Had a few too many one night, felt bad and racing heart pretty much ever since. A week or two in I would be dizzy in the mornings, short of breath the afternoons. Well now for almost two months I’m short of breath, gasping and yawning for a deep breath every 20-30 seconds and my life has become dark and miserable. Had stress test and EKG all normal except elevated heart rate, which I wake to every day.
I’m sick thinking I have to live the rest of my life like this, nothing works including meds or inhaler, I’m so frustrated just like you!
I had this for years and always put it down to allergies. I developed other symptoms as well though that I thought had nothing to do with this. I had this warm feeling under my rib cage which felt a bit uncomfortable, I then started to get chest pains when I lay down. Then the palpitations started they could go on for hours sometimes. I went into A&E a couple of times it was so bad and was given an ECG and blood tests and told it was anxiety and musculoskeletal pain. I went on ssri antidepressants which help anxiety and it helped with the palpitations and my blood pressure, which was pre high before, but I put on 2 and a half stone in 5 months because I am insulin resistant and the tablets do something to insulin levels. So I came off them and a few months later my symptoms returned. I went onto beta blockers and lived a very unpleasant lifestyle where I just thought I just had to put up with my symptoms because no one found anything wrong with me. It got to the stage where even on the beta blockers my heart was racing, my breathing had become unbearable and I again visited A&E where they did ECG, chest X-ray and blood tests then sent me home and told me to take some Gaviscon on top of the PPI indigestion tablets I was taking and to take paracetamol for my musculoskeletal pain!! Also they told me my breathing was down to anxiety! I realised I wasn’t going to get any help on the NHS because it is a joke so I organised to get myself a private CT scan with contrast. I was immediately diagnosed with multiple pulmonary emboli and put on blood thinners that day. It is lucky I am alive because I have been symptomatic of PEs for years. I got mine from a high risk contraceptive pill but there are many other risk factors. A chest X-ray will only show up a really big PE mine were small but there were loads. If the doctor in A&E had thought to give me a D-dimer blood test when I first went in, I wouldn’t have had to suffer for years and I probably wouldn’t have had so many blood clots. You can tell the difference between anxiety and something serious because I have experienced both.
I feel I have the same problem some days are better than others. I've tried allergy meds worked at first but stopped all that really works for me are really strong halls. it's only maybe been happening for a year but last few months have been worse. I've tried inhaler doctor just told me to try allergy meds. feels like it's never gone away. have you came across anything that's helped?
how are you guys doing . urge to yawn and take deep breath ruining everything now its interrupting sleep. tests came back normal. pls post your progress
great thread to come across. Good and bad to see lots of people with the same thing as me.
4 days ago, work got really tough. A lot of home troubles and tight deadlines converged to send me in a bit of a panic and i started feeling starved of air, as if the last 20% of the breath just couldnt be achieved. Which made me panic even more.
Only sleep so far offers relief. feel so annoyed that something that came on so quickly now dominates my day and now I have to find a way to learn how breath again, or at least forget I am breathing.
Plenty of videos about this on youtube but so far nothing has helped.
tried meditation, tried breathing exercises to try to not need that last part of the breath, but its like a drug, like an itch that MUST be satisfied. can anyone here relate to that?
has anyone here tried going to a chiropractor? i am currently having an episode and have an appt with a chiro but i can say that when i had this before i realized it was due to being so tense or positional i will keep you posted on my progress
I don't mean to be rude but most people here have made it clear they went to the doctor with no result. I have noticed that my dyspnea gets worse based on my hormones. Also when I think about it...has anyone else noticed if they make themselves busy it goes away? Or gets better?
Hi,
Yes, thinking or occupying yourself does indeed help. See my post 11 months ago (alan-03355). I'm past this problem now (chronic inability to yawn or take deep breaths). THis all began with panic attacks due to constant anxiety. Please read my 3 past posts about 11 months ago. It took me a long time and the only remedy was time and psychological healing (i.e. literally had to snap myself out of it). The only thing the doctors helped me with was to prove that my brain and heart were in good health (testing). They really couldn't explain the dyspnea and root cause. I think once I knew that I was in good health, the healing began. Slowly, slowly, the sensation of a good deep breath, less panic attacks and no more urges to take a deep breath for no apparent reason started to improve. It took months but that's the only thing that cured me.