Lump in throat and sudden shortage of breath, please help!

I think I have already answered your question for you in the message to which you are repying.

"Ask your Dad or your GP if Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) might be a good approach to start with. A really good therapist will teach you some very simple techniques to alter your perception about your physical symptoms".

In the hands of a counsellor where you can build up some trust, they will help you to train yourself to "forget it" over a period od time.

You can't "help it" hazem, and I'm certain nobody would suggest you could, as that implies somehow you are at fault. You can't "help it" if you trip up and break your leg. You can't "help it" if you were born in the Middle East and your home and life is now in ruins. Life is a rollercoaster pal, and it isn't all fun.

What you CAN help, is yourself, by taking positive action beyond just discussing and dwelling on it every day. By doing so, you are reinforcing more and more the thoughts patterns that make you think you are going to die of a sudden cardiac arrest and all the other horrible symptoms you feel.

Remember I told you a while back that I suffered with the same symptoms when I was younger. I was even taken into hospital so that they could insert a camera into my throat and see if there was any evidence of polyps or lumps. There was nothing there. I was experiencing "feelings". So are you. Like mine they are wholly irrational, but unless you decide to say 'enough is enough, I accept the need for professional help', then I will be as honest with you as I have been from day one and say you are building a stronger torture chamber for yourself which will be harder and harder to get out of, even with help.

Remember the amputees that complain of pain in their non-existant legs. I cannot think of anything more compelling to convince you that you are suffering from some type of anxietal disorder. It really is now up to you to request assistance.

Best wishes again young fellah.

Apart from the joy of your words, I am deeply grateful you took the time and the courtesy to let me know. There are more and more of these days to come. You are going to win this battle and have a full and happy life.

Way to go young chap!

How very kind to keep me updated. You have a lot of consideration and basic good manners.

Well this latest development really is cause for even more joy than yesterday. Your second good day in a row, plus a medical specialist giving you the reassurance you needed so badly.

It's all very well people like me and others trying to support you, but it's not the same as talking face-to-face, plus, although experienced in the suffering of the same symptoms, a totally independent diagnosis from a qualified physician will do a great deal more to quell your fears.

I'm delighted for you hazem. Believe it or not, like other people I have replied to, I know there is a real person at the other end of this conversation, and I have actually worried about you. You are a real person, not just a ghostly character on the internet. So your news is music to my ears.

As for thanking me, well, that is really not necessary. That's why we are all here, and it's not my style to engage in a conversation with someone then just 'drop' them. You should take credit yourself anyway, because without consistent feedback from you, I would have had nothing to base consistent replies on.

Summing up, I'm really proud of you, and I'm sure your family are too. It's been a joy to try and back you up and it is a privilege that you allowed me to help. This is something I shall value and remember for years to come.

You have my very best wishes young man, and I hope with all my heart that in a few years time you will be a thriving successful adult looking back at this period of your life and feeling proud you got through it largely on your own merits.

If you believe in God, then may he bless you and make your future bright!.  :-)

Your message is deeply touching and my appreciation is genuine. But really you know, I don't deserve such praise. It would take a very hard-hearted person indeed to have read that first post of yours and not feel compelled to respond. My heart went out to you because you described yourself in such distress.

For me, it was a privilege to notice your post and respond, not a chore or a burden at all. I'm sorry that you have a variant of the first symptom, the "squeezing" you refer to. But do you know, your attitude is so completely different compared to two to three weeks ago.

You are not panicking. You are comparing this feeling to the 'lump' in the throat and saying, well, this is not as bad, so you are minimising the symptom. This is a new hazem that is thinking more objectively about what basis these symptoms have for being related to anxiety than actual physical occurences. You have made big steps young fellah and it may well be that these past weeks, unpleasant though they have been, will have endowed you with a new focus, a new strength, and a more calm, balanced attitude.

Just keep those thoughts under control and don't let them run away. Remember, your throat "feels" like it is being squeezed by someone. But it isn't. Where are they? Can you see them? Look in the mirror and see if anything is round your neck or throat. There won't be. So unless you are one in six billion, and there really is such a person as the invisible man, why do you think he picked you to squeeze?

You're learning now hazem. You are building up your own arsenal of tools to fight back with. A fight I believe that you will eventually win.

God Bless, stay safe, appreciate your family, cherish your friends, and look to the future with confidence and pride!

Your anxiety colleague. R.

Do you remember me saying that you would have reoccurrences of your symptoms, not necessarily identical to the'lump' in the throat feeling, but if you like, variations on a theme.

Obviously it doesn't please me to know the feelings worry you enough to post them here, but to be honest, this comes as no surprise.

I want it to come as no surprise to you either, to the extent that you embrace them all as symptoms of anxiety which you have now had medically confirmed, so much so that you are able shrug them off gradually over a period of time.

This is NOT A SETBACK hazem, just another part of the process. Once again, single out this sensation that something is "coming up your throat" Now, CHALLENGE that feeling, don't allow it to consume you with worry because it is feeding of that worry.

You and I both know there is nothing lodged in your throat, and if there were, does it really make sense that it can move up and down your trachea or windpipe as though it had a mind of its own? Next time it occurs, don't react physically in the way you described because all you are doing is reinforcing the idea in your mind that it is real.

Instead, try using focus on the sensation itself. Say to yourself, 'Oh back again are you. Well fine. Do what you want. I'm getting on with what I want to do. Stay or go, I really don't care ".

Keep doing that until it becomes second nature to you and you do it without even thinking. Try focusing on the feeling and make it worse. You won't be able to. It is not the feeling that can cause you any harm, only the fear of it.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY. You already do and you know its weaknesses. Its greatest weakness is being ignored, so it tries hard to get noticed, but you will win in the end by facing the fear with your suit of armour on and win the day. The suit of armour is your knowledge of what is REALLY going on.

You have been doing incredibly well over the past couple of weeks. Don't go wobbly now young fellah. Use the strength of your own mind and reasoning, and harness all the good wishes and positivity that has been sent your way by the many people who have responded to your posts.

You are going to be fine hazem, I promise you! :-)