Has anyone who has daily anxiety found themselves fixated on shortness of breath? I find it increases my fear.

[kama24]

shortness of breath

[Beevee]

Most, if not all members on this forum have one fixation or another, simply because that is what anxiety does. That fixation can be about any one or more of the myriad of physical symptoms or thoughts generated by an anxious mind. The ones that resonate the most to an individual, for whatever reason, are the ones that are likely to stick or bother them the most. If it isnt shortness of breath, I am willing to bet that it will be something else. My anxiety hopped from health anxiety to relationship anxiety and a ton of other hang ups in between (general anxiety), heart beating of of my chest being an example. The smallest insecurity about anything can be grossly exaggerated by anxiety. It makes mountains out of molehills.

The key thing to remember is that it doesn't matter what is bothering you, it's just anxiety.

If you want my advice, learn to accept or allow yourself to be short of breath. Nothing bad will happen. You wont keel over and likely to be caused by tension in the chest muscles caused by all the strain you have been putting yourself under. This, of course, is assuming that your doc has given you a clean bill of health and just another symptom of anxiety. This advice applies to ALL symptoms of anxiety.

The reason the symptoms hang around is because you add more fear to the fear that came with the feeling. By accepting things as they are and not fretting about them, you stop adding more fear so the symptoms you fear the most have nothing more to feed on and will die away to nothing.

Hope this helps.

[kama24 in reply to Beevee]

Thank you for your advise. I appreciate it.

[Tobyjugs3 in reply to Beevee]

Just read your reply to kama24, it has helped me a bit as I realise that with anxiety everything gets blown up out of proportion. I worry about lots of things at the moment my health being one of them.

[kama24]

No I've never had any breathing tests, a chest xray I am waiting to be hooked up to a heart monitor, seems to be a long wait! Once I've been up 3 hrs or so it eases off . This has been going on since Jan. 2021. I get so scared. Thank you for responding.

[Jstbcuz]

Oh my gosh YES!! I tell myself it's just anxiety. Then I get busy and it goes away. Try not to ruminate on it because it ony makes it worse. Your going to be fine. It will pass.

[kama24 in reply to Jstbcuz]

Thank you for your reply. I too try to keep busy. It usually lasts a couple of hrs after waking then lessens. Its a scary feeling. Anxiety causes so many different things to go on in your body. You feel all alone

[Jstbcuz in reply to kama24]

Agree! Sounds like you have a pretty good understanding of it. So happy to hear that. Trust me your not alone.

[kama24 in reply to Jstbcuz]

Sometimes it feels like we are alone and are the only ones who suffer from these symptoms. This forum helps to convince us that we are not the only ones who suffer from strange and odd symptoms.