Taking a deep breath isn't satisfying - what on earth is this?

[Offloadontome]

This is probably going to sound really weird, but here goes. Normally if you take a nice deep breath, or sigh / exhale for air, you feel satisfied with the air you've got - I can't think of any other way to describe it.
Well lately, now and again I feel the need to take a deep breath, but I don't get that sharp, satisfying feeling of getting enough air, and then feel like I need to take another one.
Sometimes is does feel satisfying like I've got enough air, so it's not every time. But it almost feels like my chest can't quite expand enough right at the end sometimes. I've then made my chest hurt a bit from trying to take deeper breaths and feeling unable to!

I wondered if anyone has ever had the same thing, and knows what might be causing this?
I have (likely) ADHD and initially wondered if it could just be a sensory thing.
I also wondered if it's triggered somehow by anxiety or worry - as once it's happened I then worry about it - but not until after it's already started happening!
But then also I don't want to ignore this if it's actually something I should be worried about!

Can anyone help? Has anyone had anything similar? Any idea what this is? Sorry I know this sounds so odd and it's really hard to describe. The feeling is as if I've not got enough air for whatever reason like I've been sat down and taking small breaths for ages, and usually that's resolved with a deep breath, but now for some reason it's not?

Did you check out if your pelvic floor was tense?? It is the usual cause of inability to take a full deep breath. If you can manage a proper deep belly breath when you first wake up in the mornings but not later on then it could just be pelvic floor tension.

I get this occasionally too and I know exactly the sensation you mean. It could be anaemia or low ferritin.

But mine does coincide with anxiety/stress. So I wonder if it's tightening of the ribcage muscles not allowing a full expansion.

For me its not about the depth in the stomach, I still get that, its the satisfaction in the throat. So difficult to explain

Yes, that's exactly it! So hard to describe. Sorry I don't know what WLS stands for? Oooh interesting that it's worse after eating that. I'm going to see how I feel first thing tomorrow morning before I eat and see if it's different to now.

So glad I started this thread as other people seem to know what I mean - I thought I was just odd!

Weight loss surgery, so I only have about 10 or 15% of my stomach left so hence very prone to GERD. but in reality Ive realised I think I always had silent reflux, more notably the coughing, spluttering, nasal drip, hoarseness, throat clearing. Complicated by actual sinus problems too

I will continue breathing today and see what happens!!

Thanks for updating OP.

Question for those of you in the know, if iron levels are in ok in full blood count but ferritin levels are low does that mean you still need iron supplements?

Yes, you need iron supplements if it's low. Or to increase your dietary intake drastically! I work with dieticians and the last time my iron stores were low (as that's what the ferritin is) they told me dietary changes aren't really adequate and you'd need to supplement, so I started taking spatone but clearly it didn't do much!

I've had this twice and never knew what caused it, so thanks for this thread.
My inhalers didn't help, but eating chillis, jalapeños did shock myself into taking a fuller breath which helped me mentally.

I had this a while ago and it was awful. I kept trying to make myself yawn to get a deep breath. I was fobbed off by the doctor with asthma inhalers when I had never had asthma and didn’t help.

Probably won’t help people who are dealing with anxiety but mine turned out to be a significant amount of fluid around one of my lungs, so if it carries on for a long time don’t dismiss it as anxiety/ deficiencies get properly checked out!

Spatone says it's 35% but that's of your RDA (recommend daily amount) not 35% of the amount needed to treat anaemia.

Imagine your ferritin (stored iron) like a bucket with a very tiny leak (the iron your body needs each day or the RDA to keep it topped up), Spatone replaces 35% of what's leaking out each day.... but your bucket is already nearly empty. Heavy periods or some other medical conditions cause that bucket to leak at a faster rate.

To treat iron deficiency (start to fill the bucket back up) NICE recommends 65mg elemental iron daily (or every other day if daily irritates your stomach), you can only get iron supplements with that much iron from a pharmacy/ online pharmacy/ on prescription. Spatone contains just 5mg of iron.

Iron in overdose is toxic, hence why you can't just pick up high strength tablets off a shelf, it's not classed as a food supplement but as a medicine. Spatone and any similar products are in the food supplement dose range.

@Offloadontome I know this post is old but can I ask how you're feeling now? I'm in a similar boat

@Appletree6826 hi, I'm absolutely fine now - I haven't had this for a few months now! I have been taking nutrition geeks iron tablets (the "plus" version) with orange juice every day alongside multivitamins since starting this thread. I repeated my blood test in February and my ferritin has gone up to 24, I'll retest again in 6 months.

I'm still tired and stressed, so I don't think it was anxiety etc - I'm thinking it was the low iron!

Laid in bed and can breathe deep breaths perfectly fine now!

@Offloadontome really pleased that you're feeling better. Can I ask how long you had those symptoms before you felt better?

@Appletree6826 I want to say a few weeks? I honestly don't think it was much longer than that. I think I started noticing it every now and again over a period of several weeks, then it became much more frequent (like daily) which is when I posted. Then I feel like it gradually tapered off again over a few more weeks, but I am absolutely terrible with timescales. I don't feel like it bothered me for that much longer though, because I'm a worrier and I'd have absolutely gone to the GP or something if it hadn't started to improve.
Are your symptoms similar? X