The lump in my throat, troubles breathing

[wysereveryday]

aNyone else get the lump in throat feeling and trouble breathing feeling? I called a nurses hotline which, did not help. She said it sounded like allergic reaction. My anxiety decided to make my lips twitch and tingle. She said call me back if you have a fever. (Its been hot in the Midwest) I took my temp it was 99. The wave of anxiety crashed down on me and I spent the rest of the day useless. Panic attack after panic attack. Called hubby and scared him even called my.mom and scared her over it all. I feel like I'm going to suffocate and it scares me. I've watched 2 people pass from COPD and suffocating does not look like fun. (Yet I still smoke a pack a day and have since I was 15, I'm 26) anyone else have these terrible symptoms???

[wysereveryday]

This was a few days ago but symptoms gave persisted for months now. So it is not an allergic reaction

[vp_tx210]

I can be sitting at work and start getting the feeling my throat is closing up or that something is in my throat and start to panic. It’s been a few months now. Don’t get it often unless I’m stressed out. But I’ve learned to take deep breaths and tell myself if I can breathe ok, then it’s just my anxiety. And I’ll just keep taking deep breaths as it goes away eventually

[Jeff1943]

Wysereveryday, the feeling of a lump in the throat is a very common symptom of anxiety disorder and hardly a week passes here without someone reporting it. It's so common it even has a special name: Globus Hystericus. So you are certainly not alone.

I had it once about 25 years ago and had some test called a barium meal. They told me there was nothing physically wrong whereupon I lost interest in the lump in the throat and realised a week or so later that it had gone never to return.

Clearly my obsession with it had produced more anxiety that kept the symptom going. Maybe this is what is happening to you?

Shortness of breath is also a very common anxiety symptom, I've had that too. But we are our own worse enemies because we keep these unpleasant symptoms alive by obsessing about them and frightening ourselves half to death. This causes more nervous sensitisation causing more symptoms and the whole thing becomes a self perpetuating condition until we shout "Enough!" and decide to just accept these horrible symptoms for the moment, including the multiple panic attacks.

I know the feeling of suffocating is frightening but you are in no danger. These symptoms will all pass in time and you will have lost nothing. The way to achieve that is to reduce your fear as this is what the symptoms feed on, you do this through reassurance and understanding the limitations of anxiety to harm us.

[wysereveryday]

That is awesome advice. I'm going to doctor soon and they will probably tell me the same and my mind will just click and forget about it hopefully. I'm sure it is that because it never happens when I'm having fun. Was just wondering how to alleviate it or get rid of it. Its really distracting.

[Jeff1943 in reply to wysereveryday]

As with all the symptoms of anxiety the thing to do is not to fight them: fighting causes more tension and stress and our nervous systems need less not more of those.

On the contrary, the thing to do is to accept the symptoms if anxiety for the moment. Yes you read that right, accept them, don't fight them. Accept them knowing they are not real physical illnesses but are fake 'copy-cat' symptoms that our nerves inflict on us but which can do no physical damage or lasting harm.

Once we learn to accept for the moment and not fight we stop pumping our sensitised nerves with more fear hormone which allows our over sensitised nerves time to recover.

[Lulu02]

This is a common symptom for me especially when I’m trying to hold back a panic attack

[wysereveryday in reply to Lulu02]

It really wffects me in high stress situations

[Masom]

Hi yes I have the lump in the throat and feel so sick or feel like I'm choking hate feeling this way do you get all the tension and dizziness to