This is one of the scariest symptoms that anxiety can cause. Think about it, we have to breathe to survive. There is no negotiation over this. Nothing can cause more fear than the obstruction to our breathing. I never heard any case where anxiety causes someone to stop breathing. But it can cause sensations that seem pretty close to it. I myself experienced this to the fullest.
” I feel like someone is smothering me. I can’t get enough air”
I remember rushing into the ER department asking the nurse to save me because I “can’t breathe”. I insisted that they have to connect me to the oxygen tube because I felt like my body was running out of oxygen, and me passing out is just the matter of time. Just a quick note; I have never passed out for 10 years fighting with anxiety and panic attacks.
Breathing is a natural mechanism; your body will breathe regardless of how hard to try to interfere with it. Have you heard someone commit suicide by holding their breath? No, right? Because your body will step in and force you to breathe. If you have been checked out by your doctors and get a clean bill of health, then be at peace that it doesn’t how convincing anxiety can be, how manipulating its symptoms are, your body will breathe.
Muscles tension caused by stress can cause harmless tightness around our chest and neck. These tight sensations can trigger the fear of choking and smothering which can lead to a panic attack. And once panic attack sets in, the feeling of not being able to breathe intensify and down the spiral we go.
I had so many panic attacks and hospital visits from this darn symptom, so I know what you’re going through. But if I can give you any advice of what to do in these situations, the answer will be, nothing. Do nothing is a simple and easy thing for “normal” people. But for anxiety sufferers, it’s a skill; a very hard to develop skill. Doing nothing in the mist of panic takes courage, determination and will. Once you can achieve this, your anxiety in general and your smothering sensation in specific will disappear, for good.
Use A.C.E.R. and recovery tools from this site can help you achieve that goal.