Heart Anxiety and Air Hunger. Wondering if anyone can relate and if it was difficult to diagnose.

[Torch294]

Hey guys i'm just wondering if anyone has been feeling the way I'm feeling just for some peace of mind. it's been getting me down a lot.

So i've had panic attacks in the past and have had a couple instances of nearly passing out back when I was in middleschool. the doctors told my parents back then I had orthostatic hypotension.

fast forward to the present I'm 26 years old (Male) and lately anxiety over this has been giving me issues for a couple years now. I've had weird symptoms the past couple of years with breathing and palpitations. In December 2018 I went on a ski trip and vividly remember plopping down on my behind to clip in my snowboard. the second I hit the ground my heart snapped all out of rhythm and felt like someone was squeezing it like one of those stress balls. I got a bit dizzy and freaked out. Somehow I gathered the courage to snowboard slowly down the slope to get to the bottom and lie down and get water with my girlfriend. It lasted for about 15 minutes of agony until it slowly snapped back to normal. I was very close to going to the ER but as it settled down I ended up not going. fastforward to 2019 when I felt like I had this constant air hunger and couldn't get a full breath which lasted for about a week and then went away. I chalked it up to anxiety. It was probably about 6 months of feeling fine until my final exams came around last December (2019) where the "air hunger" came back. I kind of ignored it and continued to push through for a week of it until one day I went to the gym and lifted followed by a run on the treadmill. I was going pretty fast on the treadmill (around 9.5-10 mph) and idk what happened but I just got the feeling my heart was going way to fast and I couldn't catch my breath. I instantly hopped off the treadmill and felt lightheaded with my heart beating out of my chest. I had to lie down flat fast so I wouldn't pass out while my friend was hovering over me asking if I was okay. I was freaked out after that and had similar attacks a few more times before I saw a cardiologist early 2020 (Electrophysiologist). Got the works EKG, Echo, Stress Test, even a take home EKG monitor on my chest for 10 days. Everything normal. yet I still have this air hunger which I feel at some point every day. If I'm feeling the air hunger and I try to exercise it makes me feel like the rapid heart rate dizziness is going to happen again and I might faint so I try not to push it. But then theres times where I feel fine and can run with no issues. Idk whats going on and I'm just wondering if its all in my head because sometimes I can sit and play videogames or watch TV relaxing at night and I don't even think about it until a few hours later where I'm like "hey I haven't felt out of breath". I've been trying breathing techniques and meditation and it doesn't seem to be doing much as I still get the feeling at some point during the day. Maybe I should see a Pulmonologist idk.

my Heart rate seems to get pretty high just from light jogs which seems pretty strange to me. I can be light jogging at around 5-6 mph on treadmill and my heart rate can get up to around 160. If I go sprinting it goes way up near 200 and potentially higher which is when ive noticed sometimes the palpitations and shortness of breath come. I've been using my apple watch to check my HR.

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I appreciate anyone taking the time to read this. Of course i've told all these things to my Cardiologist but he can't seem to find anything so far.

[Jonp]

I have had something vaguely similar. Usually not when exercising, I would suddenly feel that I had to breathe a bit harder until it passed. A doctor called it nervous asthma. I now find that I sometimes breathe too shallow, probably as a result of childhood illness. My oxygen level drops occasionally at night, but not dangerous.

The problem for you is the more aware you are, the more your breathing may change, probably unnecessarily. You may hyperventilate, causing more symptoms. If you have been checked out and nothing found, I suggest you stay with breathing techniques or relaxation methods to avoid turning into a full-blown hypochondriac like me! Good Luck.