Anxiety related?

[Babyval79]

I went through a stressful situation that brought on a panic attack a few months ago. After that i had to go back to the emergency room a couple of times with palpitations, chest pains, dizziness, blurred vision etc. my doc told me i had anxiety. Since then the symptoms have been increasing. i was taking ativan, which was not doing much good, and my doctor put me on lexotanil(bromazepam) and propranolol. The palpitations have decreased, but nowadays it's like i'm having constant lightheadedness, blurred vision, severe bloating in my chest area, and the head pressure is just ridiculous,it makes me feel like i'm floating. All i do is sleep, because i get scared that i might faint or something, and this happens as soon as i wake up and continues throughout the day. It's really frustrating feeling so uneasy and helpless everyday and sometimes comfused too. There's also this numbness on top of my left foot. i don't even remember the last time i smiled. can someone tell me if all this is due to anxiety. i can't keep on having ekgs and those painful blood tests. thanks. Val.


This discussion is related to shirtness of breath with tight chest, bloating/possible GERD.

[aceoblues04]

I have been experiencing shortness of breath with lots of yawning and fatigue. it is extremly frustraiting. i am somtimes afraid to go to sleep because it gets so bad. I think I may not wake up in the morning. I am a welder at a catalitic converter manufacturing compony and thought maybe my shortness of breath and the welding dust could possobly be related. the symptoms started just a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to take a nap after work one evening, I was having a hard time sleeping because i was excited about something I had to do later on that evening and was afriad I would oversleep. I was right on the edge of being asleep and be awake. I sudenly woke up like someone had fired a gun next to my head. My heart was beating extremly fast and I was out of breath. As the night went on I began to feel short of breath and also begane to yawn alot. it continued fot the next couple weeks. I also found the more I worried about it the worse it got. Which gave me an idea. if just worrying about it can make it worse, it is probably something really simple. I found that when I try and take a deep breath, even though I don't feel like I am getting enough air I also feel like I am hyperventalating. I get light headed, I feel like I'm floating and my eyes don't seem to work right. Now you can't be starving for air and getting to much at the same time. Almost everyone with this same problem says it gets worse when they sit down. So I just tried straitening my back for good posture, I told myself not to worry about it anymore and took a deep breath.  I stopped yawning, I don't feel like I can't get any air and I feel I can finaly get some sleep. Just try breathing with your back strait for a while. It made me feel a ton better. It may just be as simple as that.

[Babyval79]

Hi, thanks for your contribution. I will try breathing with my back straight and see how that goes. The lightheadedness i'm sure comes from hyperventilation, that's what my Doctor told me. What i have to train myself to do is to stop worrying, because it's like all i think about now is about what is happening to me, and i'm always listening to my body, and then ill get like a knot in my throat which i try to swallow to get rid of,but it never seems to go away. I used to love reading, but now, even when i'm reading, my mind is preoccupied with thoughts of what i'm experiencing, and that makes it worse. Thanks a lot though, i'll try your remedy. Val.