The 4 differences between anxiety and breathing problems

The moments that run are truly stressful. Although it seems that the situation is improving, the truth is that the pandemic has turned the lives of many people upside down who are afraid of being infected.

Some symptoms of anxiety coincide with those of COVID-19, especially those of shortness of breath and pressure in the chest. As the fear of having the disease causes even more anxiety, those who are experiencing one of these episodes worry more, having even more difficulties to breathe and feeling worse.

Taking this into account, today we are going to see what are the main differences between anxiety and respiratory problems associated with diseases, as well as see some ways to find out if you are facing an anxiety attack or not.


Main differences between anxiety and respiratory problems

Anxiety episodes are conditions that many people can experience throughout their lives. Behind them, there can be all kinds of causes that provoke in those who suffer from it all kinds of symptoms, different in each person but who share as the main emotion experienced a deep fear and fear of how things will go.

The global pandemic is a serious enough problem to increase the number of cases of anxiety attacks. In addition to the fear of how society will develop in times after this crisis, there is the fact of being afraid of the virus itself, since the disease it causes is potentially fatal. Being a respiratory disease, COVID-19 can cause shortness of breath, a symptom that many people manifest when they have an anxiety attack.

If we put ourselves in the shoes of a person who is experiencing an anxiety attack and taking into account that COVID-19 is the protagonist of the news, the fact that we begin to lack our breath is something that will alert us very easily. We will associate this difficulty in breathing with the coronavirus since it is the disease of the moment and the main danger. We will believe that we have been infected and that we are showing the first symptoms, that we will be just one step away from entering the ICU.

Believing this the situation will get worse, since the more anxiety the more we will be short of breath and, the more we think about COVID-19 (or any other serious respiratory disease) the more anxiety we will have and, so on, until someone or something gets calm them down. Having the coronavirus disease is not the only thing that damages our health, but also constantly thinking about it and not knowing how to differentiate between anxiety and respiratory problems of medical causes.

It is for all this that, with the intention of helping all those people who have ever suffered from an anxiety attack, below we will see the similarities and differences between excess anxiety and respiratory problems.

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Symptoms of anxiety and breathing problems

First of all, we are going to know what the symptoms of anxiety are. This problem does not manifest itself in the same way in all people since, just as we have different personalities, intelligence, and abilities, our way of manifesting a psychological problem is also different. However, what coincides in all cases that there is an anxiety attack is an irrational fear and fear, especially without knowing how the episode is going to end or thinking that there is a potentially dangerous situation.

In the current context, concern about the virus is normal and it is natural for people to be very stressed. To the fear of catching the virus is added the uncertainty of how all this will end, the economic and social repercussions that it is implying, and if the "new normal" will end up being the future "normality", a world in which it will be difficult to adapt.

Thinking about all this is something that can cause an anxiety attack in all types of people, especially those with a neurotic personality or an anxiety disorder. Among the symptoms that we can find in a box of this type we have.

  • Feelings of fear, panic, and nervousness
  • Obsessive and uncontrollable thoughts
  • Repeated thoughts
  • Flashbacks of traumatic events
  • Irrational ritual behaviors
  • Excessive sweating
  • Numbness in the hands and feet
  • Shortness of breath and hyperventilation
  • Chest pain or palpitations
  • Inability to be calm and collected
  • Dry mouth, nausea, and dizziness
  • Feeling without calm, on the edge
  • Fatigue
  • Difficult to focus
  • Mind blank
  • Irritation
  • Muscle tension
  • Excessive worry
  • Sleep problems: insomnia and lack of restful sleep.
  • Diarrhea

Taking COVID-19 as an example of respiratory disease, among its primary symptoms, we can find the following three.

  • Fever
  • Trouble breathing
  • Dry cough
  • Other less common symptoms of this disease are:
  • Pains in various parts of the body
  • Nasal congestion
  • Rhinorrhea (runny nose)
  • Sore throat
  • Diarrhea
  • Distinguishing between both alterations

Looking at the symptoms of both problems, we can see that where an anxiety attack and COVID-19 coincide are breathing difficulties, although their severity is different.

It is clear that if you are having an anxiety attack you are having a problem and that the ideal is to consult with a psychologist to acquire the best strategies to deal with it; this already gives us one of the differences to differentiate between both disorders: anxiety is a psychological phenomenon that in most cases has no organic causes, while respiratory problems are linked to physical disorders.

But perhaps the most notable difference between the two is fever. Although this symptom can occur in very extreme cases of anxiety attacks, this is something very strange, while in the case of diseases caused by pathogens such as viruses and bacteria, it is common that in addition to not being able to breathe well, raise your body temperature.

Another clearer distinction is a runny nose. In respiratory problems in general, there is frequent excessive production of mucus, while in an anxiety attack this does not happen. It may happen that the person experiencing such an attack has a cold and has a lot of mucus, but it is not the anxiety that causes it, but the respiratory problem itself.

Another aspect in which anxiety and respiratory problems differ is in their duration. A panic attack that includes shortness of breath can last between 20 and 30 minutes, peaking after about 10 minutes. On the other hand, the respiratory difficulties associated with a respiratory illness, be it mild like a cold or severe like the coronavirus itself, have a varied duration depending on the medical problem in question, but last at least several days.

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How do you know if it is anxiety or a respiratory illness?

Naturally, the best people to diagnose respiratory diseases are doctors, while the best people to detect an anxiety attack are psychologists. However, it is useful to know what to do to know how to distinguish between these two problems without having to go to a hospital and, on the one hand, give more work than necessary to the doctors and, on the other, risk catching it.

In addition to taking into account the differences mentioned above, what we can do to see if we really have a respiratory problem is the following exercise :

  • Sit or lie down with your back straight
  • Exhale completely through your mouth
  • Close your mouth slightly and inhale through your nose for a count of four
  • Hold your breath and count to seven
  • Exhale audibly through your mouth for a count of eight
  • Repeat steps 3 through 6 three more times for four breath cycles.

If we have been able to do this exercise without gasping for breath, it is most likely that we have had an anxiety attack. In people who suffer from respiratory disease, it is not possible to complete the exercise, since the lungs are too affected and respiratory difficulties become worse in a short period of time.

Likewise, given the exceptional nature of the situation in which we find ourselves, regional and state governments and different Adelaide Naturopath and health therapist have made available to users telephone numbers with which they can contact people who, without having to go to the doctor, they can tell us if we may have the disease. If the breathing exercise just mentioned could not be completed, it is best to seek urgent medical help.


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