Breathing

[samrah1111]

Recently I’ve had a lot of difficulty breathing in and out and experience a lot of chest pain when doing so. This has affected my sleeping as I suddenly wake up throughout the night gasping and shaking for air. I have been to A&E a few times and as my ECG & Oxygen levels are fine they just label it as anxiety. I have a fear of sleeping as I feel as though I’ll completely stop breathing in my sleep and when I do sleep it’ll be around 4-5 am. I feel this may also be because I am overweight.
If anyone has any answers please help, thank you.

[specialmom]

So, assuming you have had a physical and gotten checked out, you are writing to the anxiety forum.  That's a little telling.  I've had that chest tightness, shortness of breath feeling when very anxious.  Could this be you?  Have you been told to look into anxiety?  It really CAN cause physical sensations.  And I get anxiety at night.  My hormones actually depending on the day can make it much worse at night.  My doctor says this is normal.  I'm a woman and don't know if you are male or female. When you say you are completely not breathing during your sleep, how do you know that?  Most with sleep apnea aren't fully aware.  If they are labeling it anxiety, what about going ahead and seeking an assessment for that from a psychiatrist/psychologist?  Then if it IS related, you could be taking care of the chest/breathing/sleep issue?  That would be what I did.

[uomeasmile]

Have you discussed the possibility of sleep apnea with your healthcare provider. I am not sure what country you are writing from, but a sleep study would be extremely helpful in ruling out many things.

[samrah1111]

I did consider looking into this and will. Thank you for your help

[Paxiled]

Did they test you for covid?

[samrah1111]

yes, each time the test was negative