Panic Attacks

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I've been having trouble breathing lately, having to take deep breaths a lot of the time and not feeling like I'm ''properly catching my breath'', it was becoming a real pain so I went to see my Doctor about it the other day and she seems to think I could be having the start of panic attacks. I have no idea what could be making this happen. It must be an anxiety thing but I cant think of nothing thats making me anxious
Does anyone here suffer from panic attacks?

It sounds to me (a layman who doesn't know you) like you could have a physical illness that you should get checked out. Doesn't sound like panic attacks.

A physical illness like what?

Not my area of expertise. I only want to be a doctor, and this isn't my particular specialty anyway. However, the name for your symptom is "shortness of breath" and it's quite common. If you look it up, you may find information.

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen ... m/521.html This is rather alarmist, but I would take this symptom seriously. Can't really vouch for the information, though. It's only a .org, so it's automatically suspect, though it sounds legit.

As I see it, here are the possibilities for why your doctor dismissed your problem:
1. He's looked into it and knows something I don't
2. He doesn't care and wants you out of his office
3. You have a psychiatric history, which prompted him to assume that every symptom of yours is psychosomatic (a sad but common state of affairs)
4. He's incompetent
5. You're lying, I'm hallucinating, you're really a monkey who's written Romeo and Juliet but hasn't yet succeeded in writing A Midsummer Night's Dream, some other reason the problem is not as stated (this is included only for completeness, as I generally assume this is not the case, not being all that suspicious)

Please remember that I'm not a doctor. Psychiatry is my special interest, and it's led me to do some research into other areas of medicine; that's the extent of my credentials. (Oh, and I have asthma, and once googled "shortness of breath." Seriously, though, I'm underqualified to give medical advice.)

Shortness of breath is a symptom of panic attacks, yeah, but there are more symptoms, and other things that could explain it. Did your doctor do a full physical? There's always the possibility of your having developed asthma; that's quite a common problem and the doctor should have checked for it.

Panic attacks, though, work like this: You're relatively sensitive to your own body's signals, but you're not too good at interpreting them. Something small happens, and your heart beats faster or your breathing speeds up or something. You focus on the symptom; and when you focus on it, it gets more obvious. So you're getting worried that something's wrong with you. At this point most people would figure out that nothing was actually wrong and go, "False alarm," and forget it. But for people with panic attacks, the adrenaline starts going, and worsens those physical symptoms to the point that you are really alarmed that something is very wrong; and it's a feedback cycle: Some small trigger (one trigger they use in tests is simply hyperventilating) creates minor anxiety; the minor anxiety creates more of the symptom; the symptom creates more anxiety, etc. And shortness of breath is one such symptom. It's kind of a misfiring of the body's natural "response to threat" system--instead of it firing when you need it, it randomly fires when some small stimulus gets it going.

If that's the problem, then there are ways to handle it; but physical causes do have to be ruled out. If you turn out to have asthma or something and your doctor treats for panic attacks, the treatment isn't going to work!

Not all types of panic attacks are a result of misinterpreting normal bodily symptoms. I've had panic attacks since the age of 3, and I can predict whenever I will have one. This is because I do not have the type of panic attacks typical of those with panic disorder. Mine are not "out of the blue", and they do not peak within 10 minutes. For me, I will have a panic attack until the triggering event is taken away. I've had panic attacks last for hours.

If you end up having chest pain along with your shortness of breath, ask your doctor to do an EKG. A normal EKG can help reassure you that you are suffering from a psychological problem rather than a physical problem.
-OddDuckNash99-

It sounds to me like some type of ashma, but I don't know.

Shortness of breath is just the tip of the ice burg when it comes to panic attacks. There's a lot that follows it, but since you don't suffer from it, it's probably not that.

Are you a hypochondriac at all?

I have had shortness of breath that was related to anemia, what you describe in your original post sounds like I felt when I was early anemic. It might be worth asking the doctor if they would draw a CBC and also do a serum iron level on you. I agree that sometimes when a doctor is aware of a diagnosis like ASD where it is common to have issues with anxiety that they might dismiss something like you presented with as the "start of panic attacks" and not investigate further.
I've also suffered with panic attacks, usually during times of great stress. Callista gave a great descripton and they're not fun.

I had a really bad one recently for the first time and I'm having trouble coping now. And I realized I might have been having regular panic attacks before upon reading about them, just mild ones. A panic attack seems very poorly defined, which just makes it scarier because if you think you're dying or experiencing heart attack symptoms you really do want to know what's going on.

Exactly.

You know, a panic attack isn't some physical symptom your body experiences without you. By definition it's an emotional experience. (Also, they can be caused by adrenal insufficiency and not fit Callista's description.) I mean, you'd probably know if you were having them; you wouldn't have to go "well, I have shortness of breath... maybe..."