Deep Breath Difficulty: Just wondering, does... - Anxiety Support

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Deep Breath Difficulty

keptainicandozatt profile image

Just wondering, does anyone here have any problems pulling in a deep breath? Mine started a month ago and while it doesn’t hinder me from my daily activities, I find it annoying 😂

I’ve got my lungs checked at the doctor and he said there’s no problem with them, but I’m just still a bit uncertain. There’s no chest pain, I have no cough, doctor says my heartbeat per minute is normal (no palpitations). I’m really at a loss here.

I encountered this when I had my first panic attack a few months ago,and then it went away but now it’s back.

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keptainicandozatt profile image
keptainicandozatt
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2 Replies
Jeff1943 profile image
Jeff1943

Keptain, you did the right thing getting your lungs checked and found they are fine, the fact that this deep breath problem started with your first panic attack can't be coincidence. What I suggest is that you somehow started noticing your deep breaths and decided you had a difficulty in that direction. Then you thought about it and thought about it and thought about it until it became an obsession, this can easily happen if you have high anxiety re: your panic attack.

If I concentrated on thinking about my little finger and kept testing it for muscle pain every 5 minutes guess what, you can be pretty certain that within 3 days I would start feeling muscle pain in my little finger. Same thing happened to you only you concentrated on your lungs and breathing. It's called too much introspection.

So I'd say this is defo an anxiety symptom. From now on just accept the apparent difficulty to take deep breaths, don't keep testing yourself for it, don't attach so much importance and certainly don't start stressing and obsessing about it because that produces fear hormones that feed your sensitised nervous system and prolong your obsession.

And Yes your doctor did diagnose this correctly and No don't be uncertain about the diagnosis and think you know more about the pulmonary system than he or she does.

This will pass, nothing's physically wrong, you're gonna be fine.

keptainicandozatt profile image
keptainicandozatt in reply to Jeff1943

Hi Jeff,you’re right!It started with my first panic attack,went away and it comes back at odd times.I do realize that when I realize that I can’t pull a deep breath,I keep focusing on trying to pull a deep breath and all the more I can’t seem to do it 😂 It’s the same with my other pain.I keep thinking that I have a pain somewhere and lo and behold,pain will appear at that place!

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