Excessive Yawning and Constant Need to Breathe Deep

today has literally been the worst ive had intense pain all over my chest my ribs my back.. sharp pain in my chest when inhaling to go along with the shortness of breath.. it is Terrifying its so bad yet nothing is found when i say its bad i mean so bad i take a shower once every 2 days i struggle to brush my teeth any bite of food i take makes it 10 times worse i cant work i am 100% disabled like there is no way I'm not dying i feel sooooooooooo bad!!

Hi all,

it is actually relieving to see so many people experiencing this. I have this problem for around 9 years - started with 22 when I was working a lot and in an abusive relationship.

By then I checked everything: lungs, heart, blood... they said it could only be in my mind - anxiety. The doctor prescribed Xanax but it gave me panic attacks so I Stopped. I just had to learn to live with the condition.

When I moved to London 5 years ago I had severe episodes so I went to see a GP again and he gave me propanolol for crisis. It made me sleepy so, again, I stopped. For me the episodes go on an off and I notice that they are worse when I am under pressure, or if I am not exercising regularly/ drinking/ worrying too much (what makes it worse because lack of oxygen makes you even more anxious). I have also been diagnosed with reflux recently (after severe back pain) but I do not believe it makes it worse.

What helped me recently was Counseling. During 4 months of counseling i had very little episodes, isolated. I stopped a month ago and the breathlessness is back full on.

I just feel that keeping the mind healthy is the best answer. exercising, talking to people, avoiding toxic news and social media...

I will start CBT (cognitive behaviaoural therapy) next week to tackle the triggers and will update you all. I just accepted that my mind is directly connected to my body and sending me signs.

It is a painful condition indeed and I hope someday we can manage to find a solution!!

I had an episode of this about 15 years ago. It lasted for a few months. I saw my doctor, and had pulmonary tests done, but the results were normal. I was told that when tests show that there is nothing physically wrong with the patient, by default they assume it is anxiety, and that there is little that the medical community can do about these symptoms. I was told to use something called "Primatine Mist" to help breath easier. I did, and it helped a bit, but this product has since been removed from the market. I recall feelings of despair that there was apparently no medical help available to me. They did tell me that the need to take deep breaths was not real, it was just my minds messed up perception that I wasn't getting enough oxygen. After a while I just decided to try forcing myself by sheer will to not take deep breaths. It was horrible fighting those urges, but during the day I made a conscious effort to breath slowly and shallowly as much as possible. (Fortunately, the condition didn't bother me during sleep.) It did take time, but after a week or so, I began noticing the urges to breath deeply were lessening. I kept up the mind over matter slow breathing, and slowly over the period of a month or so, the symptoms finally vanished. At the time, I knew nothing about the theory that Buteyko breathing could help resolve this condition.

About 2 months ago, after a 15 year interval, the symptoms returned. This time, there were some clues I could look to for a possible cause--I had spent about 90 minutes outside in the cold shoveling snow, not something I typically do. Also, earlier in the month we had been having work done inside our home, which involved sanding, painting and sawing. After the work was done, we noticed that dust and sediment had settled on all the furniture, even though the workmen has put up plastic sheets to block off the rooms they were working in. So there must have been an increase in the amount of particles circulating in the air during that time, even though we didn't notice it while the work was going on. I don't know if one or both of these events contributed to the recurrence of my symptoms or not. Off I went to my primary care doctor again. I also went to my endocrinologist ( I have a hyperactive thyroid condition for which I take medication) and then to a pulmonologist. After a number of tests, none of these doctors could find a single thing physically wrong with me. The pulmonologist believes it is GERD, and sent me to a gastroenterologist. He will be performing an upper endoscopy on me in early February. I have suffered with heartburn for most of my life, and have taken antacids on and off for many years. I have also struggled with anxiety and depression for which I take Trintellix (antidepressant).

I decided to search online to see if there was any information that others may have who suffer with this condition also. I was grateful to find this site! Here I read about the Buteyko breathing method. I googled it, and read a little about it on a website I found. It seems that the basic principle is to breath slowly, and only through your nose. This was intriguing, because it reminded me of how I had resolved the symptoms 15 years ago. Due to a deviated septum, air flow through my left nostril has always been limited, and I tend to breath quite a bit through my mouth. So about 2 weeks ago, I decided to shut my mouth, and breath slowly only through my nose. To make sure I was able to breath freely while I am using this technique, I purchased some Flonase to open my left nostril and have been using it every night. I am also using a 24 hour Allegra, and breath right strips at night. I am now breathing fine through my nose only, and my symptoms are most definitely very gradually improving. I don't know what causes this condition, it may very well be that there are many different causes. But I just want to offer encouragement to anyone thinking of trying to stop mouth breathing and breathing more slowly. It is helping me, and I hope this condition will go into "remission" in the not to distant future. My thoughts are with all of you who are also suffering.

hi all, i get this for months at a time then its better for a while. Just wanted to say i think my steroid inhalers for asthma are associated and on 24hr ecg i seemed to have quite a few irregularities but nothing the doc was concerned about, but i am young and otherwise healthy. could be worth keeping an eye on your pulse for irregular heart beat and if you get palpitations look at the triggers.

You are breathing too fast!! Count your breaths over a minute you should only be doing between 12 to 20 (absolute max, even that is too fast) but between 8-12 is excellent (counting in and out as one breath). Once you start concentrating on your breathing you tend to over breath and think you need to do it more not less. Also breath in and out SLOWLY through your nose so you are using your diaphragm. If you put your hand on the top of your stomach it should rise and fall (while breathing through your nose). If you are mouth breathing your chest will rise and fall. When you exhale as well you should have a 2-3 second break before you inhale again. The shorter the pauses and the faster the breath rate the more the body is being stressed which in turn gives you the feeling of needing to take a deep breath (which you don't need to do). Check out buteyko breathing it's fantastic. Practice makes perfect - it will get better every day if you stick to it. You will be surprised how little breath you actually need to take when you've spent however long thinking you need to breath more when actually what your body is telling you is to breath less,

okay everyone forgive me in advance for any selling errors this is voice to text and I'm probably not going to read through to correct anything. I have struggled with the need for a deep breath without achievement for quite some time. I have gone to one doctor after another thinking I'm having a heart attack turns out to be panic attacks, however I really am not able to get a full breath of air. along with other symptoms I saw every specialist that I could imagine finally landing on an allergist. she was the one who after already seeing two different ENTs said that she thinks I have vocal cord dysfunction. then I went to see another ENT who verified that yes indeed I do have vocal cord dysfunction. in addition to that something never seemed quite right with the breathing and the tension throughout my body. So I started to see a deep tissue massage therapist and oh my God she has been nothing short of spectacular. It's the most unpleasant treatment but the most effective so far. It's been a long, long, long road. but she is getting me back up on my feet. I haven't been able to work in a year and a half but I've been back now for 2 months. this is been going on with me for nearly two years. 10 months of which I was bedridden to the point of needing to be taken to all of my appointments and driven to the store by someone else. I could barely get on my feet to get to the kitchen and back. please see someone about vocal cord dysfunction and or deep tissue massage in the neck area there's muscles in the neck that connect down through the collarbone into the ribs that help expansion and contraction when you're breathing and if those are messed up you're not going to be able to get a full breath of air. Good luck to everyone, please see a deep tissue massage therapist.