Anxiety can cause shortness of breath, but not all shortness of breath is the result of anxiety. It can be a symptom of many other health conditions, such as asthma, heart conditions, chest infections, and many more. So, how can you tell if shortness of breath is from anxiety or any other condition? Read more to find out.
Anxiety: Causes and Symptoms
Fear of things, events, or people, sudden encounters with a challenging situation, and tensions of events can make you feel anxious. This feeling of fear, uneasiness, and tension is called anxiety. When you are anxious, you may be struck with multiple feelings all at a time, making you feel dreadful. An example can better explain the feeling of anxiety in an individual. Suppose your new boss at work has burdened you with an alien task you haven’t done before. This can leave you feeling anxious and stressed due to the sudden challenge. Although anxiety can be normal in stressful situations, it can get severe for some, if any underlying condition causes it. Anxiety has multiple symptoms, and below is a list of symptoms one many experiences when one is in an anxious condition-
- Persistent and intense worry or fear about situations
- Rapid heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Restlessness
- Feeling tensed
- Feeling of tiredness
- Sudden drop in blood pressure, leading to fainting (in cases of severe anxiety)
- Trouble concentrating
- Feeling irritable and nauseous
- Disturbed sleep
- Negative thoughts
- In some cases, abdominal pain or distress
Shortness of Breath: What it is and What May Be the Causes
Shortness of breath is a feeling in which you feel you are unable to get enough air into your lungs to breathe. This causes a heaviness in your chest and gasping for air or trying hard to breathe.
Clinically known as dyspnea, shortness of breath is mainly caused by lung or heart conditions. Apart from these two health conditions, shortness of breath is associated with several other conditions, such as Anxiety
- Anemia
- Excessive exercising or lack of exercise
- Asthma
- Allergies
- Pneumonia
- Injury
- High temperature
- Obesity
- Sleep apnea
How to Tell If Shortness of Breath is From Anxiety?
As you can see, shortness of breath is one of the symptoms of anxiety and associates itself with many other clinical conditions. So now the question is, how can you say that the shortness of breath is from anxiety and not from any other conditions? Let’s figure it out here.
It is hard to separate anxiety from any other health condition, especially if the anxiety is severe. Being one of the symptoms of anxiety, finding the actual reason causing shortness of breath is even more difficult, as it can happen for many reasons. Some specific characteristics indicate that anxiety is the cause behind it. Here are the characteristics of the shortness of breath caused by anxiety-
1) You run out of breath suddenly
If your shortness of breath is triggered by a sudden occurrence or a challenging situation, the reason can be anxiety. Anxiety-prone individuals often run out of breath suddenly due to the underlying fear of combating that situation. If you are experiencing something like this, then maybe you are dealing with anxiety.
2) Sudden increase in the heart rate
When you are under extreme stress and anxiety, you can observe a sudden acceleration of your heart rate. This sudden increase in the heart rate causes a tight feeling in your chest, leading to shortness of breath. Under anxiety, a person’s heart rate increases to pump blood faster to other organs. This causes shortness of breath, indicating the reason to be anxiety.
3) A sudden feeling of fear or nervousness
Fear or tension causes your heart to race at a fast pace, making it hard for you to breathe properly. If your shortness of breath is coupled with a feeling of nervousness or fear, you likely are anxious.
4) Rapid breathing, leading to fainting
Rapid beating of your heart under severe anxiety makes you run out of breath, with a drop in your blood pressure. A dropped blood pressure in a tense and stressful situation often causes the anxious person to faint. So, whenever your shortness of breath under a stressful situation leads to fainting, it is very likely you are severely anxious.
How to Treat Anxiety?
Anxiety can be treated or controlled in various ways, depending on its type and severity. From medications to therapies, treatments can help you deal with your anxiety to a large extent. Here are some treatment options for addressing anxiety-
Medications
Medications for treating anxiety are generally focused on relieving its short-term symptoms, such as shortness of breath. Some commonly prescribed medicines for anxiety are-
- Benzodiazepine
- Alprazolam
- Lorazepam
- Clonazepam
- Selective Serotonin Reuptake or antidepressants
Although benzodiazepines are the most commonly prescribed anti-anxiety drug, it has adverse side effects. This medicine should be taken as per the doctor’s advice and prescribed amount. One must know that these medications provide temporary relief from anxiety symptoms and don’t cure the condition completely.
Therapies
Therapies often work wonders for controlling mind and psychological conditions, including anxiety. These therapies have proven to be effective in managing anxiety-
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT helps navigate complex emotions and people’s reactions to challenging situations. Through this therapy, individuals suffering from anxiety can modify their behavior in response to situations that trigger anxiety. With CBT, anxious people can learn how to deal with conditions causing a sense of fear or nervousness.
- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: This particular therapy aims to address interpersonal or family conflicts causing anxiety in a person. The patient-therapist relationship in this therapeutic anxiety treatment fosters personal reflection, engagement with new behaviors, and acceptance of the harsh reality to better manage anxiety-driven symptoms.
Relaxation Activities
Relaxing your mind can help you push away negative feelings or thoughts that are leading to anxiety. Activities like meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, and pursed lip breathing help calm a chaotic mind. Meditation helps relax the mind by taking control over negative thoughts causing anxiety.
In order to get relief from anxiety-driven shortness of breath, Diaphragmatic Breathing can be a good option. This relaxation method ensures emotional balance and better management of one’s emotions in dire situations. Pursed lip breathing helps lower rapid breathing as a result of anxiety, helping anxious persons breathe properly and calm their minds.
The negative, complex, and fearful feelings that an anxious person experiences lead to symptoms like shortness of breath. This temporary breathing problem is triggered by any fearful or challenging event that causes the heart to race, breaths to become rapid, and drops in blood pressure. Shortness of breath driven by any such condition indicates anxiety to be the cause. By learning to cope with stressful situations and short-term medications, anxiety can be managed effectively.
