feels I'm straining to breathe

Anxiety makes every and any muscle tight, including throat muscles. That's why the lump in the throat problem is so common. The more you focus on it, the worse it'll be. Its hard to stop thinking about I know

It is anxiety and one of the common symptoms of panic attacks...people go to the hospital all the time thinking they are dying and doctors are used to it... Some are more understanding than others. You need to see a therapist to learn ways of handling it when it happens. I have lots of other symptoms but not this one but they are all the same, part of the fight or flight response in the body when it perceives a threat

Yes, this sounds just like anxiety.  I used to get panic attacks, until I gave myself a good talking to via my ipad. I recorded a message to myself, really laying it on the line.   It really helps telling yourself just how pathetic you are,how you're  letting it take over your life and being determined to make it stop. I had a visit to London a few weeks ago that normally would have had me pacing the floor all night and having breathing problems and butterflies in my stomach - all that stopped after my recording.   The trouble is, you're concentrating on every little breath, twinge, ache and pain which certainly won't be helping.  Your body is geared up for the flight or fight that's caused by the adrenalin your body is pouring out and, because you aren't fighting or flying everything feels worse.  I read that actually doing something to use it up can help.  Instead of lying down trying to listen to music I did some star jumps and walked up and down but it's hard to do it in the middle of the night in case it causes too much noise.   Have you got some way of using up all that energy, an exercise bike perhaps, that way you could concentrate on cycling and it would help you keep fit as well, a win win situation!

I suppose you ought to think "Do I feel like this ALL the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week or do I have calm times and then I feel bad?   If you REALLY had something wrong with you it would be all the time but, if you can have times when you're concentrating on something else and you feel calm then this must surely convince you that it's just panic.  By the way, another thing I did to help cure my anxiety was to stop reading all the messages on the anxiety board.  Lots of people have lots of different symptoms and, if you read about them all, you'll eventually start thinking that you're having some or all of their symptoms as well as your own.  I only occasionally come on here, usually deleting all the messages that come into my Inbox without opening them when I see they're from this board and that has really helped.  I know people feel better by sharing their symptoms with others but maybe you're all fuelling each others anxiety so why not try not coming on this board for a week or so and see you feel, that and trying a bit of exercise whenever you get a panic attack and see if that works. Good Luck.