Suddenly not inhaling automatically anymore.

[aaron386]

Hello. My name is Aaron, I'm 26, and I've had a serious problem for the past three weeks. Around December 16th, over the course of 3 days, I developed an issue where my body is showing no natural impulse to inhale after I exhale. It started out as a sleep disturbance (waking up repeatedly in the middle of the night taking in a huge gulp of air, having my heart racing, and having a tingling in my chest and arms, like I had stopped breathing in my sleep), and during the daytime as a shortness-of-breath. By day 3 I was completely inhaling manually, and I couldn't get to sleep for 2 days without immediately being woken up due to not breathing. I currently have to focus on my breathing in order to force myself to inhale for each breath I take. I went to the emergency room and they gave me a sleep aid and an anti-anxiety med, thinking I was experiencing panic attacks at night (because I mentioned waking up with an increased heart rate, they assumed it was a nocturnal panic attack). I didn't take either drug, because one was a CNS depressant, and I didn't want my respiration to get depressed even more, fearing that I might stop breathing for TOO long when I sleep. The other one was known to interact poorly with St. John's wort, another drug I'm taking.

I went to the chest doctor in the hospital a week later, and him and the head of the clinic said that they've never heard of this happening to someone who hasn't had a stroke or a brain tumor, or who wasn't obese. One of them just said "I think it will probably just go away." I also had my blood drawn friday and had every test run on it, and had an chest X-ray done, and neither of these things showed any abnormalities. The chest doctors supported my decision to not take those two drugs, as well, saying that this was a problem STAYING asleep, not a problem falling asleep, as well as a respiratory problem at it's core, and they discontinued my prescription to them.

I have gotten about 21 hours of sleep in the past seven days. I can only get to sleep if I'm DEAD tired, and even then I only sleep for 2.5 - 3 hours. I find myself just lying down with my eyes closed and focusing on my breathing just to get some kind of rest. If I begin to fall asleep when I do this, my body will jerk me awake, or I'll just get woken up due to not breathing. Recently I have been able to fall asleep for about 20 minutes after about 1.5 hours of lying down. I often had headaches all day after a night of this, but these have reduced in intensity in the past few days.

In addition to this, now my heart rate seems to increase when I eat certain foods. Regular V8, bananas, avocados, and burritos so far make my heart jump up to 90 BPM. I also am experiencing muscular weakness (I can't clench my fist hard anymore, my legs start to shake if I bend them). I've also been experiencing a kind of dizziness (like you would if you were drunk: limbs running into doorways, dropping things, limbs sort of flailing farther than you intended them to). I've also been getting really forgetful, forgetting where I put things that I just set down a few seconds ago, searching all over for them to find them again.

So, as for what I did immediately preceding the onset of these symtoms on December 16th:
-I had chinese food 3 times in the week and a half preceding. All were from local vendors here in San Francisco (mom-and-pop shops). This was the first time I had chinese food here.
-I drank a bottle of liquor one night, then two bottles of wine the next day. This was the weekend where symptoms began to show up. I have not consumed any alcohol since then.
-I had been microwaving hotdogs and meatballs on a plastic plate that had increasingly begun to flake off parts of it's surface and probably melted into my food sometimes, and I likely consumed some of this plastic. I ceased doing this during the weekend when these symptoms started manifesting.

The hospital is pretty much done with me. The advice nurse over the phone and the ER seem to just want me to stop coming in, as they apparently cannot determine a cause. At this point I'm just googling my symptoms and trying to find a cause and a treatment, eating as healthy as I can, running and exercising daily, drinking bottled water instead of tap water (incase our water is toxic somehow), and trying to stay optimistic.

Any help, suggestions, or theories anyone can give will be appreciated, because this is probably the last place I'll find that can help me.

-Aaron

[Arrowstarz]

It is anxiety ! I have suffered with this since I was 15 I am now 22 and now dealing with it. I am on ativan which helps wonders. I am also working with a counsellor to help not having anxiety (easier said than done) I am still working on it as I am in the process of doing more and more things everyday , from going outside and being with people to driving. It’s a process as I get panic attacks where I am inhaling for air but when that happen so I take ativan and it helps me calm down, however it is or can be addicting, I am on .5 mg so it’s a low dose

[Aly290]

I develop the same problem after  my nervous system took a hit from toxic mold exposure . It’s possible you’re being experience to the same thing without knowing . You can’t always see it or smell it .  And to about 20% of the population mold can be deadly causing  problems circulation problems / swelling hands feet and severe damage to the brain and heart .Often times there be many neurological side effects that don’t necessarily cause pain and  appear  of anxiety side effects . I will say going through this has given me anxiety because it is so scary .So that fear often makes everything your already experiencing worse and the doctors will further try to convince you it’s just an  anxiety . I went into the ER 4  Times and stump three different hospitals .  Then I decided to look for specific specialist and they determined what I suspected all along . The odd thing is is you could be living in a house full of people that are not part of that 20% so their symptoms will be so minor they won’t even notice but for those in that 20%  whose genetics don’t protect them from the mold they  will suffer severely . Mold often and hides and in air ducks ventilation systems in anywhere there’s pipes and moisture .The biggest problem in our house was that we removed all visible mold and I had no idea that our entire air duck system throughout the house was infected so unknowingly for over a year it was blowing in my face. I have been told it could take me over three years to recover fully I’m only eight months in treatment now .I suggest you find yourself a good neurologist/toxicologist to get yourself tested . Also you can try removing yourself from your current residence for over three months and see  if there any improvements to health. There is a great MD/ neurologist named Dr. Larry Empting in GA that help me  tremendously and got me on supplements to detox and heal and they have  inpprove my neurological symptoms greatly .

[JustMeT]

Try meditation. There are several apps out there. I'm using one called Let's Meditate and it's been great so far.

Side Note: I have Restrictive Lung Disease due to radiation and chemotherapy and rely on supplemental oxygen. Try pursed lip breathing too and breathe in through the nose and out the mouth.

Hope this helps!

T.

[DonnaDonnaBoBonna]

I have had this problem for years.  I do believe it is anxiety, and many of your other symptoms are the result of sleep deprivation.  However, my endocrinologist isn't convinced I don't have an adrenal problem.  Sometimes my bloodwork is fine (almost always in fact), but sometimes it is not.  I would suggest having the bloodwork re-run, and maybe re-run again soon after that.  Bloodwork is like taking a quick peek into what is going on inside, but sometimes it takes more than a quick peek to catch an issue.  I do hope it is just anxiety, but I sleep just fine most nights and yet my neurological symptoms and extreme fatigue continue.  It's possible that I am not away that I don't sleep soundly and these are the affects of sleep deprivation.  So many possibilities...  Wishing you well~  

[NathaliaFigueroaxo]

How many years have you been dealing with this? My problem is that my body isn't automatically inhaling and exhaling. Do you just have a problem with inhaling ?  

[Bebe_Payton]

I had this! I also had issues where I couldn't get a full breath in very easily. I called it "air hunger". I would constantly yawn to try and get a good breath and even then it was very hard. I would sit there and just think about breathing all day long. I also know it was NOT anxiety induced, but it started to make me anxious - so that was the effect, not the cause. It was msotly very frustrating. I was testing for asthma, had blood work done, and ultrasounds, etc. I learned doctor's are very limited in what they can actually help with..
It FINALLY went away after I started working out 3-4 times a week. I'm 5'5" and was 115 lbs, so I wasn't very motivated to work out, but I ended up having to start working out for a competition I was entering, and I quickly realized my breathing issue went away. It was very strange. So maybe even if a person is not overweight, they can be out of shape and slowly break down if they aren't getting enough exercise. (For context, I was an athlete in high school but stopped in college, and the breathing issues started my junior year of college.)

Extra fun fact, my brother went through almost the exact same thing and went as far as using inhalers (even though he also was tested for asthma and result's were negative). He was very average weight and pretty healthy. He ALSO was cured as soon as he started to work out.

[Bebe_Payton]

I had this! I also had issues where I couldn't get a full breath in very easily. I called it "air hunger". I would constantly yawn to try and get a good breath and even then it was very hard. I would sit there and just think about breathing all day long. I also know it was NOT anxiety induced, but it started to make me anxious - so that was the effect, not the cause. It was msotly very frustrating. I was testing for asthma, had blood work done, and ultrasounds, etc. I learned doctor's are very limited in what they can actually help with..
It FINALLY went away after I started working out 3-4 times a week. I'm 5'5" and was 115 lbs, so I wasn't very motivated to work out, but I ended up having to start working out for a competition I was entering, and I quickly realized my breathing issue went away. It was very strange. So maybe even if a person is not overweight, they can be out of shape and slowly break down if they aren't getting enough exercise. (For context, I was an athlete in high school but stopped in college, and the breathing issues started my junior year of college.)

Extra fun fact, my brother went through almost the exact same thing and went as far as using inhalers (even though he also was tested for asthma and result's were negative). He was very average weight and pretty healthy. He ALSO was cured as soon as he started to work out.