I had this too. I have atypical asthma where I don't wheeze. The asthma affects primarily the smallest airways in my lungs. It became chronic because my doctors didn't understand it or have me on the right medication, in spite of being diagnosed 15 years ago. Eventually I developed chronic shortness of breath and a feeling of suffocation. After a lot of testing they found that it had affected my heart.
Bottom line -- it is not normal to have this feeling. You should have a spirometry or pulmonary function test to rule out lung disease, and a cardio workup. Don't let anyone tell you it is psychological until they have done thorough testing. Once they figure out the underlying disease there are medications that help. Also, if the disease is advanced or severe there are palliative medications. Ativan or other benzodiazepines can help with anxiety from difficulty breathing, and codeine suppresses the feeling of suffocation.
have you had a PFT test? my FEV1 levels are in the 60s usually in the low 70s and the FEV1/FVC ratio may show airway remodeling.
I just don't feel comfortable with my FEV1 being so low.
I've tried almost every inhaler and nebulizer treatment but am still wheezing for 11 weeks now. finally after another course of prednisone at 40mg/day I had improvement in my FEV1 to 82 but I still suffer from terrible sleep apnea
how do you know if you need regular prednisone or is that a bad idea. the only side effects I've read about are bone loss, sugar, adrenal atrophy?
hi how are you now? I was reading this thread and your comment caught my attention. If i understood you right, initially you have an anxiety and later it already affected your heart? right now i am sure that i have anxiety and sometimes i feel like my heart beat is irregular and i will feel suffocating right after i realized it..
i just want to know what happened to you now? I am afraid that later on i will really have a real heart disease because of anxiety
Thank you so much for all your comments and advises. I am 25 and it suddenly started a month back. The doctor felt its from deprivation of humidity, asthma or allergy
medication and inhaler has no results. Trying to receive a PFT but apt eith doctor takes too long to receive and I am feeling anxious from having difficulty inhaling. I often cough to open my airway and its just awful sapping me of energy. Hopefully, thr specialist can help me soon. But it does not appear as doctors take this seriously. I am afraid to develop anything chronic from misdiagnosis. I hope there is some medication thst can reverse the effects. I dont feel anxiety and I am feeling tirre of hearing that I am anxious, if anything, the feeling of suffocation would make anyone anxious! >_<
These feelings are terrifying, I've had them now for years, I even called out an ambulance one night because I thought I was going to die from suffocation and like you guys, doctors can't find anything wrong other than anxiety problems so I'd definitely say it's a mental condition. A nurse has told me to try and control my breathing by taking deep breaths, holding it for a second or two then slowly breathing out, sometimes this helps, sometimes it doesn't.
Definitely needs some research as people don't understand how devastating this can be. Good luck to all of you guys.
i too have this feeling of suffocation i have a tight pulling sensation on my chest too with no pain just heaviness sometimes in my stomach too ,
im 22 female with no previous health problems accept anxiety,asthma and hyper acidity i got diagnosed with the hyper acidity after i was having chest pains and shortness of breath like getting out of breathe fast before all this started in october 2014 i started getting the suffocation feeling it lasts a second and sometimes can last a hour but its on and off it sometimes is full on or very mild i have had around 10 ecgs and heart ultrasound also holter monitor which im still waiting results for the holter but this is crippling me i cant concentrate on anything else because i dont know what it is i have been searching for answers for the 3 months i have had it i rember it happening once in 2012 in my friends car but it never happened again until october it happened in my sleep last night too and its really scary ! before it started like this it was a constant out of breathe feeling hope somebody finds answers i don't feel its relataed to anxiety although the doctors are pretty sure it is did you ever find out what was causing it ? hope your ok .