I've had breathing diffculties for a year now?

[rosie3]

My breathing difficulties started a year ago, I was on my own and it was almost like I had forgotten to breathe, then when I needed to I couldn't breathe at all and it really scared me. Since then, I can't breathe normally. I have to take big deep breathes sometimes to breathe properly, and sometimes I can't breathe properly even if I'm sat doing nothing, and I feel really uncomfortable.
I've had a chest xray and everythings fine, also an ECG scan and they said that was fine too. I'm not overweight and I doubt it is asthma, my doctor gave me an inhaler but it didn't really work.
I often feel dizzy with it, and they have said it might be anxiety but I'm not worried about anything - however, if I do get worried it makes my breathing worse anyway because I have a problem breathing in the first place.
What do you think it is?

[Levin]

Well, if you've ruled out anything physical, then it could be psychological, possibly deeply repressed, something perhaps akin to a panic attack. You need to go to your doctor, and get them to take you seriously. You need to be more forceful with the buggers, well assertive, cause they can easily fob you off. Tell them it's been affecting you for some time, and is really adversely affecting your life. You might need some kind of therapy.

Also, learn to breathe from the abdomen. It's the key to good health. Tai chi or any awareness practice might help, once you have gotten to the root of this issue.

[rosie3]

Thankyou, it really is hard trying to get through to my doctors because I'm starting to think it is psychological, and when it first happened I thought I had a panic attack, but it was so sudden and I wasn't stressed or anxious. I've had it for so long that I'm used to it, but it's effecting everything I do, because I get out of breath doing just about everything.

[Levin]

Tai chi will help you to breathe properly and evenly (provided you have reasonable tuition, yoga and the like may also help), but it's also an awareness practice, so you're bringing deeply repressed emotions to the surface. Emotions can flare up out of nowhere, they are not necessarily dependent on your general emotional state. I'm sure an instructor once told me that you can't have a panic attack if you're breathing from your abdomen. Not sure I remembered correctly, but it will definitely help overall. Aside from that, I've not watched her videos on anxiety attacks, but I generally find her videos useful: www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5PWwTv-FEM

[Levin]

It sounds like a potential cause of the harsh breathing is that you're subconsciously over tensing the whole area, because you're very fearful of a repeat attack, due to the extreme unpleasantness of the experience. So you're essentially over controlling a natural process (breathing).

I'm just speculating, like. I'm no expert. Might help though.

[timetowaste]

Have they ruled out Apnea? Hard to say exactly without knowing the entire story of what they have and haven't tested.

[inlovewithyou2014]

Stress, because I have the same excact problem but I avoid getting stressed and i'm totally fine.