Shortness of breath or just a feeling that you can’t breathe properly is a classic symptom of panic and anxiety disorders. When we are under stress — particularly long-term stress — the muscles of a chest tend to become tense which means that we are not able to expand our chest as much as we would normally. If we can’t breathe properly we immediately become uncomfortable which only doubles the anxiety we feel about not being able to breathe and it becomes a vicious circle.
The diaphragm also plays a part in this as when we tense we tend not to allow it to move as much as we would normally.
Dyspnea or dyspnoea pronounced disp-nee-ah — to give it its proper name — or shortness of breath (SOB) is perceived to be difficulty of breathing or painful breathing and is a common symptom of numerous medical disorders including Panic Attacks.
If this is something that affects you, the thing to remember is that you can actually survive quite well on what are relatively shallow breaths so in most cases a shortness of breath is not as life-threatening as it appears. Normally, if you allow yourself a minute to just sitting calmly and noticing that you are still breathing albeit shallowly most people find that normal breathing will return quite quickly.
However, as always a trip to see your medical practitioner to have your lung function checked over would not be a bad idea. The fact that you’re looking at this article does mean that you may think that this is a symptom of an anxiety disorder, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
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