Anxiety and Breathing

[jakem713]

I’ve had general anxiety my whole life, but in recent years it’s gotten insanely more intense.

I always overthink things, but in the past year my overthinking has turned to my breathing; I am hyper aware of it every single time I leave the house. I feel like i’m not breathing deep enough, or that I’m gonna stop breathing, or that my throat is gonna close: the possibilities are endless.

This has affected my life in so many ways. I can’t drive more than 15 minutes because i’ll absolutely have a flair up where I think I can’t breathe, long trips on public transportation terrify me (I was on a train the other day and couldn’t stop telling myself that if I stopped breathing, there was no way for me to get to a hospital, which obviously only made things so much worse).

I’m open with friends and family about my anxiety, but they don’t know that it’s to this extent. I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but it’s basically ruining my life at this point. At home, i’m completely fine for the most part. The second I leave the house, however, it starts.
I know i’m not gonna find all the answers to this obviously large scale problem here, but I just wanted to reach out to see if anyone else deals with/dealt with this and how you handle/handled it. I’ve tried forever to search the internet for someone to relate to but it’s such a specific problem that I figured it was best to check here.
Thanks if you’ve read this all. Sorry if it was a bummer. Lol.

 

[triceps]

Hi and welcome jakem. With my wife out of town I figured I'd go the two miles to our local diner for breakfast. That plan was made last evening when my anxiety is at its' most controlled. Woke up this morning and realized there was no way I was leaving the house. Like you, I'm just much more comfortable at home. I'm fine when walking around my property but if I have to drive away, all kinds of irrational fears creep in. I'd suggest that you open up to your family that your agoraphobia is giving you a tough time right now.
There are quite a few folks on this forum with difficulties very similar to yours. Sorry to say that I haven't found a consistent strategy that helps me be more reasonable about leaving the house. I have been able to get past the fear of my next panic attack so my fear of leaving the house isn't related to that. My anxiety just goes through the roof from my overthinking any potential trip away from home. Again, welcome.

 

[Brad66]

Do you guys find you get anxiety from the anticipation of the anxiety?

That has always been my big hangup when a trip rolls around. I recently started just trying to force the anxiety to come in the situation. It's a counterintuitive solution as it eliminates all the anticipation therefore it lessens my anxiety greatly.

I used mostly recently on a 5 day vacation and I had the most relaxing vacation I ever had

 

[Jones]

Anticipation anxiety is the worst! You just KNOW that something is going to go wrong or you’re going to feel anxious, or be put in an embarrassing situation or die or something equally as horrific. 99.999999% of the time everything turns out just fine and you’ve just wasted days, weeks, months, worrying for.......NOTHING! Yeah, you’d think we’d learn, but some of us just keep doing it over and over and over again.

 

[Rosy]

I think anticipation is the worst also. Next week I have to start on two new brands of meds and I am already dreading this. I hate that and I get myself to the point of panic. I always worry they won't have the same effect or what if I am allergic to it. I know all drugstores do this when they have to so changing drugstores would be useless.

 

[triceps]

I think anticipation is the worst also. Next week I have to start on two new brands of meds and I am already dreading this. I hate that and I get myself to the point of panic. I always worry they won't have the same effect or what if I am allergic to it. I know all drugstores do this when they have to so changing drugstores would be useless.

Hi Rosy. I just received different colored generic klonopin and it seems weird but I know it's the same ingredients. You won't have any reactions to them other than the worry. I have to have the pharmacy mail mine to me. Hope you are doing better in general.

 

[Rosy]

So glad you responded. I know you know more about meds than I do. Mine are nortriptyline and I take a 25 mg. and a 10 mg. one at night. Not only is it a different company but they had to give me two brands cause they ran out. of the one. Hope I survive the anticipation. lol Thank you for your input. I hope you are right.

 

[Brad66]

Anticipation anxiety is the worst! You just KNOW that something is going to go wrong or you’re going to feel anxious, or be put in an embarrassing situation or die or something equally as horrific. 99.999999% of the time everything turns out just fine and you’ve just wasted days, weeks, months, worrying for.......NOTHING! Yeah, you’d think we’d learn, but some of us just keep doing it over and over and over again.

Make worry appointments leading up to what ever it is you are anticipating and even make a point to be to worry on the day of the event going to it or in the morning. It's works wonders for anticipation anxiety.

Here is a decent article about the benefits of doing them:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anxiety-files/201005/make-appointment-your-worries?amp

 

[dtown710]

Hey! I can't fully relate, but in some ways I can. A few months ago I woke up in the middle of the night and had a panic attack that caused me to tremble and I could only breathe if I did it manually. For a few weeks after that breathing was what I fixated on the most. Every time I'd think about breathing, I'd feel like I couldn't, but when I was distracted and forgot about it it was fine. I was trying to learn to meditate during this time and was bummed out when I learned a BIG part of it is focusing on your breath. But anyway, it's been a few months since then and I don't have this issue anymore. I don't really have any advice so I apologize, but anxiety symptoms seem to just kinda pass after a while, for me at least. I hope your issue passes soon. It's hard and can feel debilitating, but you'll get through it. Have a good day

 

[Thatguy19]

Hey! I can't fully relate, but in some ways I can. A few months ago I woke up in the middle of the night and had a panic attack that caused me to tremble and I could only breathe if I did it manually. For a few weeks after that breathing was what I fixated on the most. Every time I'd think about breathing, I'd feel like I couldn't, but when I was distracted and forgot about it it was fine. I was trying to learn to meditate during this time and was bummed out when I learned a BIG part of it is focusing on your breath. But anyway, it's been a few months since then and I don't have this issue anymore. I don't really have any advice so I apologize, but anxiety symptoms seem to just kinda pass after a while, for me at least. I hope your issue passes soon. It's hard and can feel debilitating, but you'll get through it. Have a good day

Is there anything that you changed to helped you get through this? I’m having a similar issue and it has been 4 weeks.