Air hunger please help

[lacylay66]

I really need advice, I suffer with anxiety however it’s not a consistent thing, I am just a bit of a worrier is all… 3 weeks ago I experienced for the first time ‘air hunger’ i was worried over something in my life at the time and attributed it to that and it actually ended up going after a couple of days. Fast forward to now, 6 days ago it came back and this time MUCH worse and even painful… I was consistently yawning, monitoring my breathing in my mind and thinking omg I can’t breathe it led to me even having multiple feelings of passing out, it was and still is to now incredibly intense, I feel so short of breath, my chest wall is now really sore because of my constant deep breaths and yawning, my upper back is also hurting me now, I feels like deep muscle aches. I’ve been panicking about it everyday I’m scared to do anything and I have feelings like I’m suffocating almost and it lasts for a few seconds and omg the panic!!! It’s AWFUL. I have an oximeter and my oxygen levels are perfect, my heart rate is also perfect, my temp is consistently around 36.8-37 and has stayed like this throughout these last 6 days. I took the plunge and decided to see my doctor today, unfortunately it was a bank doctor who was covering for illness and he didn’t really seem like he knew what he was saying, he checked everything anyway my vitals were all normal as they are with my own equipment aswell, he even commented on my oxygen levels and he said your oxygen levels are brilliant btw, 99 very good, he then said So I’ve listened to your chest, took your vitals, everything looks good to me I don’t see any red flags so I said I’m wondering if it’s something underlying he said well to be honest as I said, I see no red flags your vitals are very good, you don’t sound short of breath to me and I said yes but I feel it, I feel like I’m suffocating and he said I understand and then asked if there’s anything particular I’m worried about and I said well no I’m just scared I can’t breath and I’m having sore chest because of it and then I said can you tell me if you feel I need to go to a&e and he said I can see you are distressed and again I will reiterate I don’t see red flags. So I said ok are you able to please give me something for the anxiety of this and he prescribed an anti depressant. I left feeling so defeated like I’m not sure what to do, I felt because he was a bank doctor he didn’t organise any potential bloods or even a scan for me so I don’t have to go a&e. As I type this I have tears running down my face as the feeling is so REAL. I have gone 6 days with this so theoretically if it was serious it would have got way worse by now, right? - Ive created an account on here because I’m honestly so scared, I don’t have family to speak to about this and my best friend lives two hours away so it’s not like she can just come over and be here with me. I genuinely feel like something is wrong but to go a&e and sit there all night (I live in a town that is highly populated with little resources) I’d genuinely be there all night and I feel like they may just send me home. I’m hoping someone out there may be or may have experienced something like this and can advise me or even just offer some support. I ordered food earlier and felt so lightheaded answering the door and took a big yawn and I just cried after taking the food, I’m constantly crying over this. It’s hell and I don’t know my mind is saying it can’t be anxiety because why do I feel like I’m suffocating? Surely it shouldn’t feel this real or this bad but then the rational side of me is saying I’ve seen a practicing doctor and he didn’t seem concerned 💔😭 thank you for reading this far, I’m sure my rambling I probably sound mad lol but I’m genuinely terrified I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life.

The thing is, it could be both. It could be iron and anxiety. So it’s still worth checking out as it could be exacerbating anxiety symptoms. I’d ask the doc anyway and say you want to rule out any physical symptoms alongside exploring the anxiety.

Why?

Ive had very similar when mentally unwell. Along with lots of poor spelling and 'patient dissatisfied with having to see a HCP rather than GP', lol

I've had it a couple of times, I got temporary relief by eating jalapenos or something so spicy it forced me to take a big breath. Then I knew my body was capable under the right conditions, but I never did find out the cause. I hope you get some respite from it soon.

Chronic hyperventilation would be my guess. It is common and doctors often don’r seem to know about It. Take a look at this website:

https://www.physiotherapyforbpd.org.uk/

this book is recommended on there. It is very good:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hyperventilation-Syndrome-Breathing-Disorders-Overcome/dp/0857830295/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511362594&sr=1-1&keywords=hyperventilation+syndrome
Although I see it is is £27. I would look elsewhere -
i paid £8.40 (on Amazon).

Are you sure OP? More likely to be 25mg I think. If so then presumably has been prescribed for panic symptoms.

Clinical guidelines for sertraline for panic recommend 25mg/day for a week and then increasing to 50mg after that (can go higher if required) - did the doctor mention this?

If not then may be worth checking in with them as 25mg is not where your dose would typically stay (with the caveat that we don’t know your exact situation or medical history obviously).

Hope you get some relief soon

Can I ask what do you do to sort this as I’ve had it for about a year with no improvement.

sorry to hijack thread !

I think to state the obvious that your focusing on your breath and breathing is doing you more harm than good. I had this after a trauma some years ago and my then psychotherapist said focusing on the breathing is not good for everyone depending on the issue. You need to distract yourself from it rather than focus on it. You also need to make sure not thst you are getting enough air in (which you are) but that you are actually expelling the full amount on the out breath (without obsessing about it). It’s an awful feeling I know but it is not forever and you can and will get past it. I hope you can get some support with whatever is actually causing the anxiety.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=flTsYNqCxOw&pp=ugUHEgVlbi1HQg%3D%3D

Watch this. It talks about. How air hunger and yawning are symptoms of disordered breathing and what to do to counteract it.

Low residue diet for a few weeks (I use the GERD diet), prop head of bed up with an acid reflux pillow along with the meds.

The diet is boring AF but it does the job.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I’m actually wondering if it’s iron now as I have been getting really bad headaches recently which I thought was maybe stress but I’ve just seen shortness of breath and headaches even anxiety is symptoms of iron. I checked my recent blood test two months ago and my hemoglobin was just one in the range of normal, any lower and it would have been abnormal, I read that could mean there’s an iron issue as it’s very very low of normal. I’ve not had my iron checked in over a year last blood test for ferritin was two years ago. I doubt doc will listen to me now as they’ve given me anti depressants.

Thanks so much!

If you are taking the anti-depressants and they work, that's great. If they don't, then you've every right to go back to your GP and ask for further tests. But to just jump to a conclusion based on what Dr Google suggests will lead your GP to a reasonable conclusion that you have health anxiety and that that is what is causing any of your symptoms. I would kindly suggest that you stop looking for a physical reason for what you are experiencing now. Take the course of anti-depressants and, as other PP have suggested, engage in diversionary tactics and/or meditations. And then, make another appointment with your GP for however long in the future they offer it and discuss what has or hasn't worked and what might or might not be a reasonable diagnostic test to run. But don't spend your time while you wait for this appointment worrying that having low iron is going to kill you or that you have some other undiagnosed terminal illness.

The ADs are likely to take around 6 weeks to properly kick in so theres a few weeks to manage this in a different way
Nothing to stop you taking iron supplements that you can buy over the counter in the meantime either.

They're not insulting you by saying you are having physical symptoms which are caused by your MH. It's panic attacks. Which can feel like asthma/breathing issues. And then you desperately gasp for breath which makes it physically worse.

Please try and do mediation, emotional freedom technique, yoga, or similar relaxation and take the antidepressants.

Why on earth wouldn’t you look for a physical reason as well? Surely it’s worth exploring both? Especially as a blood test is so easy to do and she’s got borderline haemoglobin.

Just message your GP and ask to have those tests repeated. I expect they will agree to do it.

I recently looked into this as I thought I was anemic but turns out I'm just iron deficient without anemia because my haemoglobin is 133.

I think potentially you could have really low ferritin if you are only just in range with your haemoglobin. With me-a couple years ago my ferritin was 16 and I still had a haemoglobin of 130 in the healthy range. And 16 is too low.

And yes this definitely could cause shortness of breath and headaches. Defo get your iron checked-you should have no problem requesting this. I ended up with a ferritin under 10 in the past just from a vegetarian diet-and possibly heavy periods but I didn't even realise they were that heavy at the time. So now I really take it seriously.

Do you remember what your ferritin was a couple years ago?

*I should add that you won't really know until you get tested so not trying to scare you about the ferritin! You might just have a healthy but low haemoglobin level and your ferritin be fine. Definitely something that needs ruling out though.

I didn't think doctors even prescribed that anymore? I know mine wouldn't give me any-not that I was as distressed as OP sounds. But it seemed like a blanket policy to not give it out at my surgery because of the potential withdrawals etc.

Get your ferritin levels tested. Low ferritin gave me awful air hunger & heart palpitations.

When your body feels breathless and stressed and your heart is racing, your mind will automatically look for threats in the environment to account for why you feel this way.

It’s not always the case that physical symptoms are caused by psychological issues - anxiety can be somato-psychic, and underpinned by things like hormone fluctuations or mild thyroid conditions or anemia. None of which are acute health crises, but all of which can make you feel like absolute shit.

You can buy prescription strength ferrous fumerate tablets otc at the pharmacy. Take 2 last thing at night for a month and see how you feel. If you're deficient (under 70) this should help but it's highly unlikely to raise your levels to a dangerous level if you're not in this time. I was extremely deficient and took them for 18 months just to get to an adequate level.