Hi I’m new here

[SleepyBabySloth]

Hi

I’m new here and thought I’d tell you a bit about myself.

I suffer from a few chronic illnesses but I also have terrible health anxiety and suffer anxiety attacks when I’m going to sleep at night. The more tired I am, the worse the anxiety attack. I get heart palpitations and feel as if I can’t get enough oxygen even though I’m not breathing fast and my oxygen levels are fine. I also wake up in the night suddenly feeling as if I can’t get my breath.

[Dolphin14]

SleepyBabySloth

Welcome to the community.

You will find quite a bit of support here, many members are going through, or have gone through, what you describe.

I'm sorry you are struggling. Have you tried anything to help manage your symptoms? Have you seen a medical Dr to rule out any other conditions that could be causing this?

🐬

[SleepyBabySloth in reply to Dolphin14]

Thank you for the welcome.

I see a medical Doctor a lot as I have many health problems. She says the heart palpitations are perfectly normal and everyone gets them. She thinks the feeling of no oxygen and shortness of breath are caused by anxiety and thinks I have anxiety attacks in my sleep which causes me to wake up feeling as if I can’t get my breath.

I have had an ECG which was normal and my oxygen levels are always good which rules out heart problems and lung problems.

I am awaiting appointments with 3 different medical consultants at the hospital for other various medical health issues I have due to my blood tests being abnormal so I will mention these palpitations and breathing to them just in case the are related but I don’t think they are.

I haven’t tried anything to manage my symptoms as I don’t know what to try. I already breathe fairly slowly and deeply when I get these attacks as they make me feel as if I need to breathe slowly and deeper but it doesn’t help. My heart rate doesn’t usually increase during these attacks either.

Any suggestions of things that may help are gratefully received.

[Dolphin14 in reply to SleepyBabySloth]

It's good you have had some checks and have more coming up. I'm of the mindset that other things should be ruled out first. Sometimes they slap a label on and it could be that our thyroid is off or something.

The deep breathing is great. I talk myself down saying I'm ok and I am safe. Music maybe? Something that will pull your focus off your thoughts.

I used to do this strange thing of getting up and moving to another bed or a couch. I'm not sure why but sometimes that helped

When we don't get enough sleep things can escalate.

I'm so sorry you are going through this. I remember those days well and it was a struggle