just been diagnosed

currently i have bad anxiety and depression and have had bad dizzy spells since september last year.I went to doctors yesterday and the nurse said i have 25 % asthma if that makes sense. and iv gota take clenil modulite 100 x 2 in the morning and 2 puffs at night Preventer and a blue one when i need it.Well i started friday and saturday i felt realllly ill and dizzy.Is this because iv gota get used to the drug that goes into my lungs or something? and will it ware off,need answers asap! p.s i allso smoke bout 20-25 roll ups per day with filters in,think its time to quit?

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Welcome sunzz,

All meds can have side effects when you start them and if you are worried I would

ring your gp if doesnt settle down.

When I first started with asthma my first signs were light headed and blue lips and kept

going to pass out but was the lack of oxygen,then my other symptoms started/

The Asthma nurse on here can answer some questions if you need to ring them.

good luck love Glynis x

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Hi and welcome,

Breathing is something that most take for granted but when the Oxygen / CO2 levels in your blood get mucked up, from either not breathing enough or over-breathing, you end up with anxiety & depression and sometimes awful panic attacks.

First of all, stop being a selfish idiot and stop smoking - have to be blunt here. It is a dirty, dangerous, selfish addiction that can kill you and others. It will make your asthma worse so you either can carry on or you can get iller.

Only you can break the cycle.

As for your dizzy spells - you need to talk to your GP or an Asthma nurse. Yes, your body will need to get used to taking the medication.

A couple of thoughs crossed my mind.

1. Your airways are so narrowed that you are not getting the correct Oxygen / CO2 mix in your body and are having to force yourself to breathe which is resulting in hperventilation which causes anxiety and dizziness.

2. The medication is beginning to open up your narrow airways which may have been narrowed for years. Again, this results in an inbalance of your Oxygen / CO2 levels in your blood as, again, you begin to hyperventilate.

Imagine that you have been labouring to breathe for years through narrowed airways and suddenly those airways are a tad wider - because your brain has been labouring to get your lungs to work it carries on doing this but because your airways are only slightly wider your Oxygen / CO2 levels go haywire and you feel light-headed, dizzy, get anxious and can have serious panic attacks with papiltations and face and/or arm numbness.

People can have asthma for years without being diagnosed. As their airways narrow they labour more and more to breathe and come to accept this as normal until they simply can no longer forced themselves to breathe. Over that period the entire Oxygen / CO2 levels in the blood get completely messed up - it can lead to anxiety, panic, dizziness, etc... and then when you are given asthma meds, begin to take them and they begin to work you get the same feelings but in reverse.

Read this.

allergyclinic.co.nz/guides/...

I went through something similar - although I have never smoked. My asthma went undiagnosed for years and I suffered some tight chests, breathing got harder and harder but I laboured on due to work and caring for a relative.

I then began to develop anxiety & depression as I developed panic attacks and had a serious of terrible ones over the years. Awful headaches, tight chest, fear - REAL fear, heart attack symptoms, feeling unable to breathe, face and arm numbness. I ended up in A&E on numerous times, was seen by a Heart Consultant but everything checked out fine.

So I was doagnosed with anxiety & depression, given some tablets and some counselling... but nothing got that much better. I still had all of the above. I was also diagnosed with asthma some years earlier but none of the medication worked and, as it did not work, the docs went down the anxiety & depression route.

It is actually very hard for a Doctor to tell the difference between anxiety & depression and asthma and hyperventilation syndrome - all 3 can blur into one with many of the symptoms inexchangeable.

Anyhow, in the end I asked to try different asthma brands and, WOW, suddenly two mkes of inhaler kicked in for me and began to work. My airways began to open up and suddenly I became aware of how laboured my breathing had been for years. But as my airways opened up, because I was so used to over-breathing to try and force air in and out of my lungs, I began to go from not breathing enough, and getting panic attacks, to hyperventilating and getting panic attacks.

In time this calmed down but I had to self-educate myself on this, learn how to deal with it and, even now, it is something that I am daily aware of.

I am not a Doctor.

Hope this helps - read that link.

Bob.

Edit:

Edmund J. Bourne has written a superb book called 'The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook' which I believe he brings out an updated version yearly. It is excellent and I recommend it to all. I have seen it in libraries.

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hi sunzz,

Give the current ones you have tried a week or so if you still feel ill after taking them the gp can change the device around, there are so many different devices around and the mistake i made was when i was first diagnoised i never looked into what i was using and if there was anthing better i could take.

Maybe see your nurse and check your technique out it can be a number of things. Even ask to try a different type of device (most gp surgeries keep dummy versions of inhalers to show you the techniques).

please quit smoking - that will help you drastically!

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hi just curious but have you had any tests at the hospital to definately make sure its asthma n not say a chest infection or bronchitis etc due to your smoking? i always feel light headed and have palpatations after having my medication but then i do have to take a lot. i would go back to your gp and ask to be referred..good luck

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well i went to a&e last xmas and had bloods and 2 ecgs done and they came back as normal,then docs told me i had a viral ear infection that was causing the dizziness so i saw a ear noses and throat spec.had a ear test done and he said that it was fine,ruling out the ear infections and tumours i believe?.then i had my bloods done again to check iron etc and they was all fine.then i decided to book myself a asthma test cos my metal health team lady told me its probley to do with my breathing and thats when i saw her friday and she said from my peak flow chart it says i have 25% asthma,so im not sure what it is,but im quiting smoking tomoz! yup ima buy £10 worth of chewing gum! lol