Gasping For Air and Anxiety

Causes

Anxiety can cause gasping for air in many ways. Here are some of the most common:

1. The Stress Response

Anxious behavior, such as worry, activates the stress response, which secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream, where they travel to specific locations to immediately prepare the body for emergency action – to fight or flee. This instinctual survival reaction is often referred to as the Fight or Flight Response [1][2].

Visit the “Stress Response” article for the many ways it affects the body.

Some of the stress response changes include:

• Quickly converts the body’s energy reserves into “fuel” (blood sugar) to instantly boost energy.
• Increases heart rate, respiration, and metabolism due to the boost in energy.
• Stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing nervous system activity to be more sensitive and reactive to danger.
• Heightens most of the body’s senses to be more aware of danger.
• Shunts blood to parts of the body vital to survival, such as the brain, arms, legs, muscles, and vital organs, and away from parts less essential for survival, such as the stomach, digestive system, and skin. It accomplishes this by constricting blood vessels in certain parts of the body and dilating them in others.
• Tightens muscles, including chest muscles, to make the body more resilient to injury.
• Taxes the body’s energy and nutritional resources harder and faster than usual.
• Shunts blood to parts of the body vital to survival, such as the brain, arms, legs, muscles, and vital organs, and away from parts less essential for survival, such as the stomach, digestive system, and skin. It accomplishes this by constricting blood vessels in certain parts of the body and dilating them in others.
• Suppresses digestion so that most of the body’s resources are available for emergency action.

To name a few.

Many of these changes can affect breathing, causing shortness of breath and feeling like you have to gasp for air. For instance, the stress response can cause:

• A sudden increase in heart rate requires a sudden increase in respiration, making you feel out of breath and gasp for air.

• Increased metabolism, requiring more oxygen, causing sudden shortness of breath and gasping for air.

• Tighten chest muscles, restricting breathing, causing shortness of breath and gasping for air. For example, many people say it feels like they have a tight band around their chest when they are anxious or stressed. Tight chest and rib cage muscles cause a “tight band” feeling, making it seem like they are running out of breath.

• Suddenly increased energy, increasing metabolism, heart rate, and respiration, causing shortness of breath and gasping for air to compensate.

• Sudden stomach and digestion changes, affecting breathing, causing shortness of breath and gasping for air.

The more dramatic the stress response, the more pronounced the stress response changes and symptoms, including shortness of breath and gasping for air.

An active stress response is a common cause of acute gasping for air.

2. Hyperventilation and Hypoventilation

Some people over-breathe (hyperventilate) when anxious. Over-breathing can lead to feeling out of breath, causing gasping for air.

Some people hold or “quiet” their breath (hypo ventilate) when anxious. Hypoventilation can cause shortness of breath, also resulting in gasping for air.

Many anxious people aren’t aware of their anxious coping style. Consequently, they don’t recognize when they hold their breath because it feels “normal.” Only when they gasp for air do they become aware of their “breathing problem.”

Furthermore, some anxious people haven’t recognized the link between gasping for air and holding their breath. When they notice they are regularly gasping for air, they can become alarmed and assume something more serious might be causing their shortness of breath and gasping. This concern causes anxiety, which triggers more stress responses, exacerbating gasping for air.

3. Hyperstimulation

When stress responses occur infrequently, the body recovers relatively quickly from its changes. However, frequently activated stress responses, such as from overly anxious behavior, can prevent the body from completely recovering. Incomplete recovery can leave the body in a state of semi-stress-response-readiness, which we call “stress-response hyperstimulation” since stress hormones are powerful stimulants.

Hyperstimulation is also often referred to as “hyperarousal,” “HPA axis dysfunction,” or “nervous system dysregulation” [3][4][5][6].

Visit our “Hyperstimulation” article for more information about the many ways hyperstimulation can affect the body and how we feel.

Feeling short of breath and then “gasping for air" is a common symptom of hyperstimulation, especially considering the following:

• Nervous System Excitation and Dysregulation: A chronically stimulated nervous system can act erratically and cause all kinds of nervous, somatic, skeletal, muscular, and respiratory system problems, such as shortness of breath and gasping for air.

• Homeostatic Dysregulation: Homeostasis is the body’s ability to automatically maintain a stable internal environment despite changes in the external environment. Hyperstimulation can cause homeostatic dysregulation, leading to internal regulation problems, which can affect the nervous, circulatory, skeletal, muscular, somatic, and respiratory systems, causing problems with gasping for air.

• Hormone changes: Hormones play a crucial role in homeostasis and many bodily functions, which can affect the nervous, sensory, and vestibular systems. Since stress hormones affect other hormones, hyperstimulation can cause nervous, circulatory, skeletal, muscular, somatic, and respiratory system problems, such as gasping for air symptoms.

• Sleep disruption and fatigue: Hyperstimulation can interfere with sleep and tax the body’s energy resources harder and faster than normal. Sleep disruption and fatigue can affect the nervous, circulatory, skeletal, muscular, somatic, and respiratory systems, causing gasping for air symptoms.

Furthermore, hyperstimulation (chronic stress) can set up an interesting paradox. The body can become fatigued from being chronically stressed, yet elevated stress hormones can cause it to become overly stimulated at the same time. The result is a “tired yet wired” body.

A “tired yet wired” feeling can make you feel tired, exhausted, and worn out, making it more difficult to rest. The tired body wants to rest, but when you try to rest, hyperstimulation causes a quickening in breathing, making breathing feel forced, labored, and unusually difficult, resulting in gasping for air to compensate for the shortness of breath feeling.

I (Jim Folk) experienced shortness of breath and gasping for air a lot when I was struggling with anxiety disorder. I remember being exhausted yet “wired” at the same time, which made it seem as though I had to manually force myself to breathe because if I didn’t, I thought my breathing would stop.

Fortunately, not breathing doesn’t occur. Anxiety- and stress-caused shortness of breath doesn’t cause a cessation in breathing. Breathing only stops if you deliberately hold your breath.

However, even if you hold your breath, your body will pass out to automatically regulate your breathing when you are unconscious. Passing out is the body’s way of taking control of poor breathing habits.

If the body believes its breathing is in distress, it will automatically take over and control it. Therefore, there is no cause for concern that you might stop breathing and die due to anxiety or stress.

In grade school, one of our cheap thrills was to hold our breath while a friend squeezed us until we passed out. The body would take control over our breathing, and we would only be out for a few moments. We thought that was fun.

While feeling out of breath and gasping for air can be disconcerting, it isn’t harmful. Breathing is an automatic bodily function you don’t have to worry about.

Even though your breathing might seem labored at times due to anxiety and stress, you’ll always get enough oxygen to breathe.

Hyperstimulation is a common cause of gasping for air.

4. Other Factors

Other factors can create stress and cause anxiety-like symptoms, as well as aggravate existing anxiety symptoms, including:

• Medication
• Recreational drugs
• Stimulants
• Low blood sugar
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Dehydration
• Hormone changes
• Pain

Select the relevant link for more information.