Anxiety—Need reassurance

[Angawd]

Hi everyone, I’m new around here so I’m a little anxious to make my first post.

I’m a young anxiety sufferer who regularly experiences physical symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pains and depersonalisation, and I’ve decided to post here because I’m currently anxious about things and I’m looking for some extra guidance/reassurance.

My main worry for the past week or so concerns my lungs. Last Saturday I experienced a sharp pain in my right rib area, and my mind jumped straight to the conslusion that my lung may have collapsed. I then worried about it all week until yesterday I finally figured out that the pain I was experiencing was just due to muscle tension. All was well and good until I got another strong ache in my left side this evening, which I thought and still think is trapped wind. It keeps occurring just under my left ribs and sometimes spreads to my back, but it feels as if there is a lot of pressure around that part of my chest and therefore I’ve been finding it quite hard to breathe. When I do take a full breath in, I feel a sharp pain.

I’m very worried that the trapped wind could have gotten into my ribcage and is causing my left lung to collapse partially, though others have told me that this isn’t possible. I would be extremely grateful for reassurance that it isn’t what my mind thinks it is and is just trapped wind.

Thank you so much in advance,

- Angawd

[Teresa_K_S]

Hi I've had this also with anxiety. It can be quite sore and make u panic. Have u tried taking an antacid to see if that helps. I get a lot of indegestion/trapped wind when anxious. There are stretches you can do the help relax the muscles around you ribs and back cage. It really does help to do the stretching maybe 4 times a day. Try googling some or look on you tubr

Teresa x

[Hidden]

No it sounds like it is Anxiety, not a collapsed lung, If stressed it can cause Wind, If you stress to pass wind that can cause pain.. When I was young I was always told : Let the Wind go free wherever you may be, because it is the Wind that Killeth Thee. if I passed wind. Sometimes also if Anxious people can gulp air and this can cause pains in the chest.

However I do not know if the Doctor knows about your Anxiety, if not you need to discuss your body sensations with him to make sure everything is ok, you sound anxious you need everything confirmed if not already.

Have you tried the Mindfulness Relaxation Technique, that may help to relax you. You can find and explanation on the Web, also a book on Amazon that costs around £7.00.

Breathing Techniques can also help, find these explained on the Web

BOB

[Calm_mama]

I don't think it's anything. I've been getting what you describe periodically since I was ?10? (and I'm now 51) and it's just GI irritation and/or little gas bubbles. The pain can double me over sometimes! And even be in the upper chest, near the shoulder! The large and small intestine take up a lot of trunk space, and any trapped gas or cramping of the large/small intestine causes referred pain because of how the nerves innervate the bowels. The nervous system is unbelievably powerful, capable of creating all kinds of bizarre symptoms. Then, if you have high-alert anxiety, it will send out "oh no, emergency!" signals, causing more stress chemicals to be dumped into the bloodstream (they are harmless BTW), causing intensity of the symptoms to increase and/or new physical sensations to start. When you start practicing having the correct reaction to this mistake that anxiety makes, you will start to recover This holds true for all the manifestations of anxiety.

[hypercat54]

Hi there is always a medical reason for a lung to collapse or partially as it doesn't happen out of the blue like that. If you have respiratory issues it can happen or if you have other serious illnesses. As you are young and I presume you haven't got these then it is almost certainly trapped wind caused through anxiety. x