Asthma or anxiety?

[madhatter88]

Feel like my chest is tight like I can't take a deep breath and a bit breathless. My peak flow is pretty much normal. I get anxiety around bedtime so I don't know if its that or my asthma!!

[Mandevilla]

Have you taken any Ventolin? Has it helped?

I often find I get a bit breathless in the evening when I'm tired.

[djbctla in reply to Mandevilla]

Agree with Mandevilla, take a puff of Ventolin in the evening it takes away the heavy chest feeling, I breathe without effort afterwards.

BERNARDINE

[Patk1]

Welcome to the forum.Read up on ' controlled breathing techniques' on aluk website.itll help slow& steady Yr breathing & anxiety x

[Sparkywoo]

aah, my expert area 🙄 Asthma triggers anxiety, i stress about asthma and anxiety gets worse. I now recognise that if my peak flow is fine and my breathing is normal when I wake up it’s anxiety.. as already mentioned practice breathing techniques and I find using a mindfulness app or reading distracts me enough for it to settle

[givingupwine]

Hello,

I had poorly controlled asthma and used to think it was anxiety rather than asthma as when I concentrated on my breathing it really helped. I spoke to an asthma nurse and she advised that if my peak flow is normal then it’s my anxiety or my breathing pattern. She mentioned that my shallow breathing from years of uncontrolled asthma contributes to my ‘ dysfunctional breathing’ pattern which if not controlled will aggravate my asthma, more or less a vicious circle until I recognised which one to focus on. I get tight in the morning, peak flow is normal and put this down to not being able to concentrate in my breathing during my sleep, but after some focused breathing it improves.

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to givingupwine]

Hmm I'm not sure about that advice from the nurse re peak flow as not everyone's peak flow necessarily drops neatly with asthma. I'm glad it works for you (and I'm assuming this is based on *your* normal peak flow not a predicted value, as using predicted by itself to say someone has no asthma issues would be poor advice). And I've heard the same re the cycle so useful to have the exercises if they help.

However, I wanted to respond because the advice from ALUK is to pay attention to asthma symptoms even if peak flow is normal, because it may still be asthma. I'd add that this is especially the case if peak flow is generally a less useful guide for an individual. (For anyone interested, this is the page on peak flow and the advice is in the yellow box: asthmaandlung.org.uk/sympto...

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador]

Hi madhatter88, you may find this post helpful on some of the differences between asthma, anxiety and breathing pattern disorder:

healthunlocked.com/asthmauk...

Worth also remembering that while anxiety and breathing pattern disorder (also called dysfunctional breathing) can overlap with each other and with asthma and they can all interact, anxiety and breathing pattern disorder aren't the same thing.

I say this because I feel they often get used interchangeably even by healthcare professionals and it can be very confusing if you think you may have a breathing pattern disorder but you're not anxious when you get symptoms, or anxiety triggers your asthma symptoms.

You may also find this long but informative post about peak flow useful: healthunlocked.com/asthmauk...