shortness of breathe and lightheadness?

Hi,i am 24yrs old,i am suffering from anxiety attack as the doctor told me,my 1st panic attack landed me in the Accident and Emergency department of the hospital as i was struggling to breathe,was later than diagnosed by the doctor as hyperventilation,breathing too much oxygen,they took a artial blood gas test which the result were fine,then an ECG were also fine and also chest xrays.which then they confirmed it was all caused by Anxiety.
Things dint get better,i went to the hospital again,this time they refer me to the Cardiology department,where i took a stress test,Echodiagram and all were fine..the doctor says its just anxiety,but i been experiencing this shortness of breathe and light headness for 3 months since my 1st panic attack and some times its all day long..i was just wondering can anxiety cause shortness of breathe for that long ? i am also aware of my breathing all day long..like manually taking in breathe consciously which is bad cause i think i do overbreathe a lot which causes all those symptoms of breathless and lightheadness..i aslo did a thyroidtest which came out fine.

[Julie359]

You need to learn breathing techniques to stop this cycle of hyperventilation..... ur so focused on ur breathing that ur changing the way in which u are breathing..... Your proberly breathing from high up in ur chest and gasping as well... Naturally we breath from our diaphram or stomachs, which allows the correct amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide to circulate around the body.  So ur hyperventalation is causing an imbalance and so causing ur dizziness, lightheadedness.

Try breathing into a brown paper bag or cupping ur hands over ur mouth and breathing slowly....

Also try taking a breath in through ur nose to the count of 3 slowly and breathing out through ur mouth to the count of four slowly........ u need to do this several times a day until u can control ur breathing without really thinking about it...

[r9c]

Hi,thanks for the Info,i have been practicing some breathing techiques now.
btw do u suffer from anxiety too?

[r9c]

Just to update on this,argh the light headness dosent get better,it was quite bad today at work,i decided to visit a doctor,after physical examination she said its more likely due to anxiety,tension and stress.Havent peformed a CT scan yet,but if things dosent get better in a week or so time,she might scheduled a CT scan for me.Any one experienced this before,its quite horrible,cant believed the light headness can last for weeks.

[lilybean1]

i an currently in the middle of one of these vicious cycles of short breath and light headedness/dizziness. it has been about 3-4 weeks everyday and night without relief. i can not even fuction enough to clean my house. it feels like i am dying sometimes. the only thing that helps me is Ativan, but they will give it to me only for short periods of time. as soon as i run out symptoms are back. so, yes this can last for days/weeks and even longer. GOD bless and good luck!

[nickbunyun]

Hey.. you just literally wrote my life's story in your first post.
I too, 4 years ago had a panic attack, since than I was constant short of breath. In these 4 years it was better to where i could go to work, drive, etc.. however there were days where I was home for a few days. I would like to know if anything changed?