Mysterious shortness of breath: What has helped you?

Perhaps instead of suggesting pills we should encourage people to get more tests done first. Overprescribing people is not the answer IMO.

To answer a few questions-
There is a spectrum of disease due to COVID-19. Most people do not have lung involvement or damage- the few who end up hospitalized or passing away often do. There is a significant number of patients who are even asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic and they will not have lung involvement. In my case, I have chills, fatigue, headache, etc but no cough or other respiratory symptoms.

In terms of treatment, there is really no set treatment and that is part of the problem; again, this only applies to those who have normal testing for the usual causes of shortness of breath. As I mentioned, if you read posters, you will read a wide variety of things tried with varying degrees of success. If someone has underlying reflux, including laryngopharyngeal reflux, treating that is reasonable. There is debate about the varying breathing exercises that are mentioned; it does make some sense to me to try to avoid overbreathing to break the cycle you can get into- in other words, when you are driven to sigh/take that deep breath, try not to do it because you really don't "need" to do it from a physiologic perspective.
A trial of an antidepressant is reasonable. SSRI/SNRIs are the most commonly used medications; there is a paper regarding the benefit of amitriptyline in hyperventilation; amitriptyline is an older antidepressant which has positive effects in a number of conditions.
I think psychotherapy may be helpful for some.
At the end of the day, accepting the problem and then trying not to focus on it is probably as important as anything and over the time the hope is that it will fade.
In terms of some of the medical causes that have been mentioned- I'm not aware of any medical condition in which an isolated high bilirubin would play a role; that being said, if a lab abnormality is found, it should be explained.
Many mention allergy testing- airborne allergy does not cause this condition. If testing is performed and you are found to be allergic, treatment would address the typical allergic rhinitis symptoms (nasal/eye) but would be very unlikely to matter from a perspective of this breathing condition (outside of a possible placebo benefit).

Hey my yawning started when I was exposed to dust mite and became Oral I noticed that everytime I eat garlic and other spices it makes me yawn more and also when I eat at restaurants, even drinking juice from bottles, milkshakes, smoothies all of that makes me yawn and also eating certain fruits as well any time I try eating other things like cereal, cheese, ice cream, chips it makes me yawn and short of breath couple minutes after and I have these episodes of yawning that last forever it’s scary when I don’t eat them I don’t yawn I do have other environmental allergies idk if thats causing it I’ve been to so many doc they can’t find the cause and all my test come back normal. it’s a scary feeling Now idk if I’m going crazy but if i am in a room that’s not well clean with dust around or the AC didn’t work there’s usually a strong smell I start feeling air hunger and I have to yawn.

Wow, I see its been several years now but I will reply too, just in case.

Since I was a young child (am now mid 20s), I can recall going thru periods where my chest feels tight, like I am not breathing. The ONLY thing that makes it go away is a deep, forced, sigh or yawn like you said. Sometimes it lasts for a week, sometimes it lasts several months. There are no related triggers and it is not a panic attack. There is nothing wrong with my lungs (I've seen 2 pulmonologists) and no asthma. I've seen an ENT and gotten the camera to look at my larynx, not that. I've seen a speech pathologist; she gave me breathing that didn't help. I've been to therapy (including CBT), and while it helped me, it hasn't helped the BREATHING issue. After all these medical visits, NO ONE, not a single medical professional I've met with, knows what I'm talking about. The best I've gotten is sympathy, the worst was being dismissed and told that I'm making it up.

I've met two people who described to me identical symptoms and I've read similar stories on the internet, which is how I heard that this is a symptom of anxiety. Its a VERY frequent complaint on the r/anxiety subreddit, I've found blog posts from other frustrated people and there are even medical reviews on the condition if you search Google Scholar (its called 'sigh syndrome,' 'compulsive sighing,' or 'psychogenic dyspnea.' can send links). But most studies are kinda outdated, and at least two suggest "reassuring the patient that they are fine" as the "treatment." Importantly, I do NOT believe I suffer from anxiety, but it seems that many say they are connected.

However, I have noticed it seems to be connected to stress. It was the worst for me in college. I was very involved and very busy, so I believe it is related to stress. But again, its not acute.... It almost seems to work like a cold: if I am stressed for too long, I get 'run-down' and it sets in for a few weeks. I did track and field in college, ran 50+ miles per week, maintained a pretty normal sleep schedule and ate a pretty good diet. After I graduated a few years ago, I took a pretty relaxed but unfulfilling job, and for those two years, the sighing stopped. I certainly went thru periods of relationship and COVID-induced stress, but the issue was gone. Except I recently returned to school and last week it started again, ]the same week that I had to submit a scholarship application worth a lot of money. I didn't feel too stressed, but then again, it doesnt seem coincidental. Anyway, I'm not having it this time. I had a taste of freedom and I know I can't do this anymore. I forgot how AWFUL it is to sit thru meetings and go about life faking a normal, blank face while inside I feel like I'm literally drowning. I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist for the 1st time, but the appointment is 2 months away and I'm worried it will go away by then, making it impossible to judge whether meds help.

anyway thanks for reading my life story lol. I'd love to hear if anyone here has any updates!!!

Wow, I see its been several years now but I will reply too, just in case.

Since I was a young child (am now mid 20s), I can recall going thru periods where my chest feels tight, like I am not breathing. The ONLY thing that makes it go away is a deep, forced, sigh or yawn like you said. Sometimes it lasts for a week, sometimes it lasts several months. There are no related triggers and it is not a panic attack. There is nothing wrong with my lungs (I've seen 2 pulmonologists) and no asthma. I've seen an ENT and gotten the camera to look at my larynx, not that. I've seen a speech pathologist; she gave me breathing that didn't help. I've been to therapy (including CBT), and while it helped me, it hasn't helped the BREATHING issue. After all these medical visits, NO ONE, not a single medical professional I've met with, knows what I'm talking about. The best I've gotten is sympathy, the worst was being dismissed and told that I'm making it up.

I've met two people who described to me identical symptoms and I've read similar stories on the internet, which is how I heard that this is a symptom of anxiety. Its a VERY frequent complaint on the r/anxiety subreddit, I've found blog posts from other frustrated people and there are even medical reviews on the condition if you search Google Scholar (its called 'sigh syndrome,' 'compulsive sighing,' or 'psychogenic dyspnea.' can send links). But most studies are kinda outdated, and at least two suggest "reassuring the patient that they are fine" as the "treatment." Importantly, I do NOT believe I suffer from anxiety, but it seems that many say they are connected.

However, I have noticed it seems to be connected to stress. It was the worst for me in college. I was very involved and very busy, so I believe it is related to stress. But again, its not acute.... It almost seems to work like a cold: if I am stressed for too long, I get 'run-down' and it sets in for a few weeks. I did track and field in college, ran 50+ miles per week, maintained a pretty normal sleep schedule and ate a pretty good diet. After I graduated a few years ago, I took a pretty relaxed but unfulfilling job, and for those two years, the sighing stopped. I certainly went thru periods of relationship and COVID-induced stress, but the issue was gone. Except I recently returned to school and last week it started again, ]the same week that I had to submit a scholarship application worth a lot of money. I didn't feel too stressed, but then again, it doesnt seem coincidental. Anyway, I'm not having it this time. I had a taste of freedom and I know I can't do this anymore. I forgot how AWFUL it is to sit thru meetings and go about life faking a normal, blank face while inside I feel like I'm literally drowning. I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist for the 1st time, but the appointment is 2 months away and I'm worried it will go away by then, making it impossible to judge whether meds help.

anyway thanks for reading my life story lol. I'd love to hear if anyone here has any updates!!!

I was Dx with Bronchiectasis and NTM from a CT scan in 2016. Dr. asked me if I had any shortness of breath. At the time I didn't even realize that I was experiencing shortness of breath. But, I can remember many years ago, LONG before my Dx, asking my mom if she ever felt like she needed to yawn and just couldn't. I didn't know THAT was shortness of breath. I still get that once in a while. I do know that when it happens, then it seems to happen more, the more I am aware of it. Never really realized what causes it. And never knew that it had a "name".

@ginak- Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect and the lung health group. Yes, it has a name and is the nemesis of a lot of people. I don't think that pulmonologists realized that through all of the other lung diseases that plain ole' SOB could be a problem and that there was a need to deal with even if no known cause was found. It's so difficult for some people to get a diagnosis because a lot of it is subjective with asking patients for their histories but not having the tools, a machine, or some other thing to find the cause. Some doctors don't deal with it well because it is so difficult to diagnose as an illness by itself.

Here is a history questionnare that has been given out to patients:

I am assuming that you have a pulmonologist. Have you addressed this with her?

@merpreb Hi Merry, Thanks for the welcome. I’ve actually been a member of Mayo a while now. On the MAC/Bronchiectasis thread. I guess this was a new thread I started seeing. Yes, I do have a pulmonologist and have been going since 2016. I guess the “yawning” comment caught my attention. Years ago I used to say I could never do yoga because when someone tells me slowly to “breathe in, breathe out” all of a sudden I couldn’t breathe! LOL Anyway, thanks again for the welcome.
GinaK