I had a stress induced asthma attack today. (Really, really rare)
Two pumps of my inhaler and it wasn't working and I didn't really have it in me to try to breathe. I didn't lose consciousness, but I felt like I was 10℅ on the way there.
I was getting this weird "tension " in the middle of my skull, I never experienced it before and was just wondering if anyone knew what it was.
I have had asthma since a teenager, off and on, but never had an attack to this extreme or feeling like losing consciousness.
(I'm okay now btw, could stand to drink more water probably and be around a ball of sunshine and hope)
I thought about you today at work; reminding myself to comment on your post when I got home and had free time to respond. I’m sure this was scary and I’m not advising you to not have it checked out. But I do want to give you some other considerations. I’ve suffered with anxiety and panic attacks since I was a teen. Today, at age 52, I have high blood pressure. but after seeing a heart doctor he keeps saying it is anxiety induced high blood pressure. I also have a friend who called me one night. We have been friends since we were teens. She called to tell me she never understood, seeing me have panic attacks but never experienced one herself….until recently. She couldn’t breathe and called an ambulance. She described it as suffocating saying she was so terrified that she punched a paramedic while gasping to breathe.
You mentioned an inhaler not working? if it is anxiety, then it is anxiety that causes the suffocation of the air ways and not an allergen.
You mentioned the feeling in your head? Have you considered this is from your blood pressure also going up from the panic? They put me on a beta blocker which blocks the “fight or flight” surges from adrenaline overload. It helps. My friend that experienced this suffocating “unable to breathe” said someone told her to lie down and to focus on connecting all the senses: taste, touch, sound, sight. I agree that it works. The panic gives a sense of unconnected to the present or a disconnect to reality, which makes you dizzy as if you are going to pass out or delirium…grounding back in touch with sight, taste, hearing and touch helps it subside and to reconnect. These are only suggestions but consider taking or having someone take your blood pressure if you feel that way again. Is that the cause of the head feeling? Makes sense to me that if anger or agitation can drive up blood pressure…then also panic or fear or “high stress levels” from suffocating can do the same?
