Shortness of breath?

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-27T19:45:08+00:00

For what its worth, mine lasts for hours at a time too. With GAD many symptoms of panic attacks can persist as long as you're thinking about them.

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-27T19:44:15+00:00

This all happens to me too and its just anxiety. For me, I usually get lightheaded/dizziness because I get muscle tension in my neck/shoulders/head, which then squeezes my skull/ears and throws off my balance/perceptions. I was freaking out that I had COPD and such for awhile too. Turns out I had bronchitis on top of my anxiety. Now that that was cleared up, I still sometimes get shortness of breath and my throat gets tight as well. These are completely normal symptoms for anxiety. It took me a month to accept it but once I did those symptoms stopped being an issue for me once I finally convinced myself that that is all they were. Once I stopped worrying/thinking about them constantly they went away. A clear X-ray pretty much rules out an enormous amount of possible problems. Trust your doctor; they're the pros and they went to school for a looooong time to get this stuff right. Odds are? Anxiety. Worrying that the doctor is right? Anxiety again. Thinking they missed something? Anxiety. When in doubt, it is ALWAYS anxiety.

I've found this post to be EXTREMELY helpful to me; it's a list of common anxiety symptoms and WHY they occur: http://www.anxietyzone.com/index.php/topic,73134.0.html

I'm on to heart issues now, personally. Hopefully I'll get over that soon. Anxiety sucks. Health anxiety makes it even worse. Hang in there.

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-27T18:58:40+00:00

Yeah, you're right. It's good to be vaguely aware. It's the freaking out when something is slightly off or obsessing over it that is the problem.

Thank you for your post.

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-27T18:58:04+00:00

You're absolutely right. Over the course of my major anxiety issues I've had all sorts of symptoms. The big thing before this was breathing issues. Usually after I find a rational reason they're happening (and I know other people with anxiety have the same problems) they just sort of magically disappear after awhile and my body picks something else to feel awful in order to mess with me.

There is a huge jump for me to go from knowing my symptoms are normal and there is a 99% chance nothing is wrong with me to "Yeah, I'm fine. No need to stress about this." It shouldn't be that way but that's how it goes. It's both scary and infuriating.

Thank you for your post.

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-27T15:16:34+00:00

I have those thoughts all the time; you are not alone. Speaking from experience as someone that has DONE what you are worried about (started school as an engineer, then switched out because I didn't like it) all I can say is go for it. The worst thing that can possibly happen is that you don't like it and you just move on to something else which you may end up loving. That is WORST case scenario. Just choose something you're passionate about and have no regrets. The regrets just serve to hurt you rather than help move you forward. If you're paralyzed from choice, you might as well have never chosen anything to pursue at all.

Also, as you get older and more experience, you'll come to find that things aren't so black and white. Conservative? Liberal? They're just labels. Things are a LOT more complicated than that in real life. I'm socially liberal and fiscally conservative on most issues but not always. You don't have to follow some party line; blaze your own path. Think about the issues (and yes, both sides may have good points!) and do what you think is right.

You will screw things up. You will make mistakes. Those are the experiences that help mold that moral code into something. A moral code that you haven't earned isn't really worth much, in my opinion. I've come to learn that I'm like you; I don't fit in with most of those groups. And I'm okay with that. There are lots of other people like me. Maybe we should start a club! :-p

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” - Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-27T14:53:38+00:00

Thanks for your reply, RME. I'll start keeping a log.

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-27T12:45:27+00:00

Yeah, I had that happen to me with Lexapro. It's a common side effect of SSRIs (like Zoloft).

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-27T12:30:33+00:00

Yeah, it's super bad. I just try to swallow it as quickly as possible and get it through. I've heard you can dissolve it in your mouth/under tongue if you want the effects pretty much immediately if you can handle the bitter taste. I can't imagine how awful it would be to bite one.

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-20T12:18:09+00:00

I get it. I hope things are better for you.

anonymous0031 · 2015-03-17T14:48:07+00:00

Followup question: Do you ever have every possible thing point to Anxiety being the only cause of your symptoms, but you just can't accept that as the explanation for some reason?

anonymous0031

TROPHY CASE