I feel anxious if I cannot take a deep breath. How to cope with this?

Question

Hello doctor,

I feel the urge to take a deep breath every now and then and feel anxious if I am not able to. Sometimes, I also experience that there is something crawling in my chest. I recently have my ECG done and results are within normal limits including X-ray.

Kindly advise.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

According to the details provided by you, I do not think there is something to worry about. The only thing you can do is change your breathing pattern to 5-4-7, that is, inhale while counting up to five then wait till you count four and then exhale until you finish counting up to seven. It would be of help if I can view your ECG and then the answer will accordingly change if you have other problems like feeling fatigue or dizziness or getting breathless on walking a short distance or climbing an uphill.

Hope this helps you out.

Thank you.