Hi, I'm new to Mayoclinic so I'm new to these forums. Thankfully there is a place where like minded people can share their health concerns, even though final remedies still loom in dark corners at the moment. Hopefully a suitable cure will emerge sooner rather than later.

Like most people who have commented, I suffer from intense SOB. On bad days I may have attacks every 30 secs and on good days I can have none...until I remember about them then they can give me a tickle up just to remind me.

Ok, so I'm 78 years old and while playing golf about 10 months ago I suffered SOB. At that time the green keepers had sprayed a rather strong and intense weed control to some areas of the rough. This resulted in me suffering chemical burns to parts of my legs and very large blistering. At the time I didn't associate the SOB with the allergic reaction of the weed killer. I visited hospital to manage the chemical burns and was first informed of side effects such as asthma type allergies, shortness of breath, dizziness etc, that may impact me. When the SOB became worse I visited my family GP and we pursued along the line of allergies due to what I told him. After trying inhalers; Pavtide MDI 250/25, Trelegy and Ventolin, all to no avail, he sent me to a chest specialist. I was informed the inhalers were airway openers but if the inhalers weren't working then obviously my airways were already fully open. What followed were X-Rays, CT scan, blood tests, lung tests, spirometry test, which all came back normal physically and what was concluded was that it must be psychological. I agree and though I have the utmost respect for my family doctor, and his associates - my doctor has cared for four generations of my family and his associates have delivered six of our grandchildren besides being specialists in their relative fields - I think anxiety and depression, as my doctor has concluded I suffer, is rather like trying to fit square pegs into round holes, or as I put it playing football with a golf ball. Sure it fits tidily in medical terms and offers a suitable resolve, but as I keep saying to my wife, the anxiety I may suffer is akin to the feeling you might feel if suddenly awakened if you fell asleep in the passenger seat of a car after it has crashed off the road and fallen into a lake and you wake up as the water reaches your nose. Anxiety on the verge of panic caused by the inability to draw breath! When your doctor...and in my case my wife too! say I suffer from anxiety which is causing my SOB, I want to bash the pair of them over the head! To try and explain how hard it is to slow my breathing down, do breathing methods, act like a Tai Chi Master and stop the universe from rotating while simply rolling over in bed, all while an attack is happening and I'm literally gasping for breath and sucking air in crazily hoping for a satisfying full breathe to help settle me down...well that's not the anxiety they think it is. That's not what's happening in the real world.

Anyway, if anyone has found some perfect solution I would be more than grateful to hear about it, as I'm sure practically all the people that have posted here would be.