Comments on: Asthma Linked to Anxiety Disorders

By: lavinialuna

lavinialuna — Sat, 12 May 2012 01:05:44 +0000

Don’t forget to look for allergies in her food. I am really allergic to MSG and other chemicals. Since stopping eating most processed food I have improved in every way, but I too still am looking for triggers.
I am currently having a horrible bout with anxiety (for the past several months) with no asthma symptoms. Who knows how it is all linked, and why it sometimes seems to be related, and other times, not. Hope to soon have more answers.
Good luck!

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:02:35 +0000

Hi there, my partner has been told she has brittle asthma. She has had it since she was 10 and she is 19 now. Over the past few years it has been getting increasingly worse she is now on Salbutamol (2 puffs morning and night and when needed), Seretide 250 (4 puffs morning and night), Uniphyllin, and Montelukast. We have been back and forth to the doctors and all the keep saying is that she is on step 5 of 5 and there isn’t much else they can do. She has a specialist she sees at the hospital and we are waiting for an appointment to see him. She does get very anxious about things and has recently lost her job. She has been tested for allergies on a number of things and the only allergies really are dust and rats. We regularly clean the house and wash our bed sheets at 60 and vaccum the bed to try and get rid of everything. But still nothing has worked. Doctors keep talking about “the trigger” but the keep looking for allergies. Could the anxiety be the trigger? She has had bad experiences in the past that could cause the anxiety but the doctors just keep upping her asthma medication. From what I’ve read it seems that it could. Thank you for any input.

Richard.

By: lavinialuna

lavinialuna — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:43:36 +0000

Thanks for writing this. I recently noticed that what I had always felt was anxiety (feeling of dread, a “pit of my stomach feeling,” a conscious need to breathe, sighing, and I kept catching myself holding my breath) was helped with the use of an inhaler. I figured it all out because I have an inhaler for when I have colds etc. (as I have had wheezing in the past) and I was having a stretch of time I had been dealing with increased anxiety symptoms. I just so happened to get a cold at the same time, and therefore used my inhaler. To my surprise, those weird stomach feelings and even what I had perceived as dread improved with the use of the inhaler.
Perhaps what is happening is that the decrease in oxygen is causing a “panic” in our bodies and causing anxiety in our brains as a response, or the panic we feel from the lack of ease with breathing has caused us a panic in the past and we are automatically having panic feelings at the onset of the asthma as a sort of automatic response? Either way, I am relieved to finally have a little more understanding in how my body is working. Keep up the good work!

By: Joan

Joan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:33:49 +0000

Great intriguing topic, I look forward to the conclusion of the report. I strongly believe that there is a link, my Mom was a chronic asthmatic for years, whilst she could manage her asthma condition very well, she sadly suffered from an enxiety disorder that deprived her of a good quality of life. She was in constant fear, of unreal things / circumstances that were so real to her. She refused to go for treatment or diagnosis as she believed in the reality of her fears. My 11 year old son was diagnosed with asthma almost two years ago, he also presents with panick attacks that present as asthma attacks. We can tell they are panick attacks because they get trigerred by a certain environment, which we can now clearly identify with but cannot keep him away from. I believe it could be genetic too. I am desprately in need of an answer to this.

By: DanDan

DanDan — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 07:03:57 +0000

I am a 35y old male. I have had asthma since I was maybe 6years old.
I have recurrent symptoms but never intense attacks. For one, I really think my asthma is in part a response to anxiety (which I don’t take any medication for).

The root of my anxiety is unknown.

~Dust will trigger asthma symptoms (I do know that allergies,dusts and cats will inevitably trigger symptoms)
~Physical work that I absolutely hate doing will trigger symptoms (Liking mowing the lawn, manual labors, mechanics etc…)
~ Stressful situations or period of the year with work will trigger symptoms.
~ My passion for hardcore trekking and intense mountain biking and even if I do it for a full day, it will never trigger symptoms.
~ I could be inflicted by symptoms for 2-3 days but as soon as I jump on my motorcycle, all my symptoms disappear.
~ Swimming for long period won’t trigger symptoms.

To me, asthma is often a response to uncomfortable situations and I will never have symptoms when i am happy and truly enjoying myself.

Although in some rare occasions, positive anxiety will trigger
symptoms. Like watching my son in his school play, waiting to get into my brand new car at the dealer, opening a gift etc…

My asthma symptoms are not violent enough to trigger anxiety but for me, it’s definitely the other way around. Whether it’s positive or negative anxiety, it will trigger slight symptoms…

I am 100% that in my case, anxiety is the culprit for my constant symptoms. I found this page while researching the link between my asthma and my anxiety.

By: Jezza

Jezza — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:54:14 +0000

All i know is that asthma can increase blood pressure, which can raise general stress levels, thus worsening stress/anxiety response to environmental factors. Asthma worsens emotional response to anxious thoughts and also worsens anxiety symptoms. It has a negative effect on your vision which can weaken your outlook

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:27:27 +0000

I have agree with Lynda here. As a Nurse Practitioner also, who does work in an ER setting, there clearly is a difference between asthma and anxiety induced asthma. I am not saying that the two variables are not related, asthma is a very hetergenous disease with no set progresssion or presentation. Just because two event/illnesses/conditions occur together dose not mean that one causes the other. Management of asthma is based on individual symptoms and personal response to medications, therapy and control of environmental triggers. Lump all these patients together is irresponsible and dangerous.

By: Lynda

Lynda — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:24:55 +0000

I’m really sorry but I do not agree with this; this theory is based mostly on one persons reasearch – Goodwin. This does not constitute viable sound conclusion. As a Nurse Practitioner, mild asthmatic, and non panic attack sufferer I have to say ‘stop there a moment’ – if we start saying asthma =panic attack= asthma; ER staff are going to start treating all asthma sufferers as mental health patients – and this is not the case. Having studied many research works on a variety of subjects for BSc clinical medicine one can if one is so inclined make that research ‘fit’ ones argument.
It is a dangerous road to tread to start labeling ‘asthamtics’ as also having a coexisting mental health issue. Asthma has many forms and many triggors each as individual as the sufferer, adding a tag of panic attacks to all of them is irresponsible to say the least. Inexperienced health workers could totally jump to wrong diagnosis and utimately patients could suffer as a consequence.

By: daniel

daniel — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:38:14 +0000

I have had asthma since i was about a year old. It has been poorly managed. now i’m in university and i keep on having these panic attacks and anxiety epecially when i am speaking in public. i did not know what was wrong with me until i read a publication that led me to find this article. What is the way out?

By: Paul Gordon

Paul Gordon — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:01:50 +0000

I served as an Army Combat Medical Corpsman in South VietNam from 1966 to 1968. My unit was attached to the 3rd MarDiv, and worked more closely with the 9th Marines. We went wherever they went, but the Marines always got all of the press and the Army got little to none for it’s support and presence there. I was part of a Field Artillery Unit at first but during my second tour I was assigned to a Task Force Group and sent into Khe Sanh at the time of the 1968 Tet Offensive. We had 30 pound rats that could open C-Ratio cans with their teeth, Centipedes 20 inches long and Mosquitoes that could show up on radar, along with a few not so friendly snakes and ugly bugs I don’t believe theyhave names for
and pretty well confined to mud filled trenches and bunkers. Add to that the 2000 rocket attack one night and 2 days and ground firefights that ensued for several days at the beginning of Tet, and you have a recipe for long-term Latent and Debilitating Issues.
It took the better part of 23 years for PTSD to raise it’s ugly head in my life and nobody took it seriosly. I thought I was having a heart attack, and until a young Doctor in Lancaster Community Hospital in California diagnosed me in the ER one evening, I had no idea either of what it was. I now have 100% Total and Permenent Disability for it as well as severe tinnitus. Since then I have developed Asthma amd both seem to work together when these attacks occur. Those brave young people serving multiple deployments in Afghanis-Nam and Iraq-Nam are being bombarded with Seroquel, and Effexor while still in-country there. Those poor young warriors have no idea what life will be like for them in 10 or 20 years, but someome had better remember them and help them when their time comes and scares the hell out of them not knowing what the residues of Combat Exposure and PTSD among other disorders they have festering within them. I just sincerely hope that our Government won’t turn their backs on them the way it did on most of us.