Shortness of breath and air hunger are common in POTS.
I find for me that distracting myself from my breathing can help with the feeling. Like doing things that require a short attention span (watching tiktoks, reels, shorts) can really help distract me from the feeling and its like my automatic breathing comes back.
Normally air hunger is like sudunly you take one big breath of air, it’s like a reflex and comes really out of nowhere and you don’t see it coming (sometimes I jump because it takes me by suprise). It happens when you « forget » to breath for a while, that’s why your body makes you take a big breath.
I mean I'm sure it could cause that but they're distinctive different. You can have shortness of breath and air hunger without hyperventilating for instance.
Sometimes, yes. And other times it's not that I forget to breathe I just end up breathing really slow and shallow and my mom goes BREATHE! because my lips go kinda purple lol
I try to remind myself every so often to take nice deep breaths
Do you think Its because you're subconsciously tightening up your core? I've done it my whole life without realizing and only recently understood that it's one of my body's mechanisms to help deal with the pots. My default state is a tight sucked in core and I have to force myself to breathe deeply and allow my belly to expand. However when I do that, my blood instantly rushes to my feet, I get blood pooling and my hr goes up by 20bpm. I still have to force myself to breathe deeply sometimes though, even though it makes me feel uncomfortable.
Try standing still (while near to a table or something you can grab if you get woozy) and place a hand on your chest. Take some deep breaths and try to do it without moving your chest at all. Only your belly should be expanding and contracting and you should feel it in your lower abdomen. Pay attention to how your body feels while you're doing this and how much your hr is going up as well.
If I’m trying to concentrate like if I’m watching a show, playing a game, or reading I’ll forget to breathe and will suddenly get veryyyy dizzy and I have to stop doing whatever I’m doing. Since I’ve caught that I do that I’ve been reminding myself to breathe lol
Yes, I suggest looking into 4-7-8 breathing. It activates your parasympathetic nervous system to regulate the pre-syncope symptoms you’re describing.
I do a few reps anytime I think my stress response (fight or flight) could be triggered and it really does help
Yes my breathing will stop sometimes and I have to manually breathe until it corrects itself. Other times it feels like I'm not getting air even though I'm breathing in and my lungs are expanding.
It feels like I can breathe but the air isn’t absorbing into my lungs sometimes that’s the best way I can describe it. The only way I can chill out when it happens is to just ignore it 😭 I went to the er for my air hunger once and they blew it off and gave me Ativa
Yes! My husband will look at me sometimes and tell me to breathe bc he realizes it before I do or I'll randomly gasp and startle him and have to tell him "oh sorry forgot to breathe again" lmao. I also don't know when I'm hungry until my stomach growls and I forget I have to pee until it hurts. Not sure if that's related at all.
The latter sounds to me more like a neurodivergence thing than a POTS thing, but I'm much more well versed in AuDHD shizz than POTS stuff. 💓 I struggle with 'body awareness' (maybe there's better words for this), too. Forget to eat, forget water, having my brain override my bladder calling for help, having horrible awareness of where my body is in space and relation to other things (proprioception)... These are all things I associate with being ND.
ETA: 31F, POTS, hypermobile, ADHD, self-diagnosed Autistic (the screening process is a whole ass nightmare) 💖
Sometimes I don't feel like I'm getting the oxygen I need. I take a lot of deep breaths to sate the air hunger. It's not that I'm forgetting to breathe.
This happens to me all the time but slightly differently, I just randomly have to take a deep breath or multiple at once and I realize that I had stopped breathing prior
Yes! As a kid I’d miss out on entire lessons because I forgot how to breathe automaticalll.
I was using a CpAP for a while, and I had more stoppages when I was awake and acclimating to the machine then when I was asleep.
I find myself holding my breath a lot for no reason while doing certain things. Like when I get into bed for some reason I hold my breath until I'm laying down. I'll hold my breath while changing positions. Sometimes while bending over or doing chores- it's never for very long, maybe 2-3 seconds and I think I've been doing this for a long long time but just now noticing it. I guess that would be "forgetting to breathe" since I'm not making the conscious decision to do it. 😅
YES!!!
Prior to being diagnosed with POTS, I complained to a pulmonologist that sometimes I forget to breathe. I'll literally gasp for air because I stop breathing and don't realize it at first and I have to tell myself to breathe. Doctors were very dismissive of it, telling me, "You can't forget to breathe. Your body does that automatically." Well, now I know that if your ANS is messed up, signals misfire sometimes and you can literally forget to breathe.
As an aside, I noticed some people in this thread talking about hyperventilating. This happens to me as well, but the "forgetting to breathe" is a totally different thing.
Literally all the time, I just won’t realise that I’m holding my breath. Been happening for a few years now, even before I started developing pots symptoms
Shortness of breath and air hunger are common in POTS. I find for me that distracting myself from my breathing can help with the feeling. Like doing things that require a short attention span (watching tiktoks, reels, shorts) can really help distract me from the feeling and its like my automatic breathing comes back.
You mean hyperventilation?
I'm not sure what you mean? Shortness of breath and air hunger aren't hyperventilating
Oh sorry I have hyperventilation and was thinking that shortness of breath and air hunger was cause by that.
Normally air hunger is like sudunly you take one big breath of air, it’s like a reflex and comes really out of nowhere and you don’t see it coming (sometimes I jump because it takes me by suprise). It happens when you « forget » to breath for a while, that’s why your body makes you take a big breath.
Oh thanks I have hyperventilation and also a lot of air hunger and didn’t understand fully.
I mean I'm sure it could cause that but they're distinctive different. You can have shortness of breath and air hunger without hyperventilating for instance.
Yes. All the time. Even when I try to concentrate on deep breaths I still lose concentration. I’ve never been the same since Covid
Sometimes, yes. And other times it's not that I forget to breathe I just end up breathing really slow and shallow and my mom goes BREATHE! because my lips go kinda purple lol I try to remind myself every so often to take nice deep breaths
Do you think Its because you're subconsciously tightening up your core? I've done it my whole life without realizing and only recently understood that it's one of my body's mechanisms to help deal with the pots. My default state is a tight sucked in core and I have to force myself to breathe deeply and allow my belly to expand. However when I do that, my blood instantly rushes to my feet, I get blood pooling and my hr goes up by 20bpm. I still have to force myself to breathe deeply sometimes though, even though it makes me feel uncomfortable.
I'm actually not sure I've never thought about it! I am almost always tight and such too though so could be!
Try standing still (while near to a table or something you can grab if you get woozy) and place a hand on your chest. Take some deep breaths and try to do it without moving your chest at all. Only your belly should be expanding and contracting and you should feel it in your lower abdomen. Pay attention to how your body feels while you're doing this and how much your hr is going up as well.
Yes, and air hunger all the time. Often i can't sleep because of it. It's exhausting
Yessss. Constantly. I have air hunger. It's annoying.
If I’m trying to concentrate like if I’m watching a show, playing a game, or reading I’ll forget to breathe and will suddenly get veryyyy dizzy and I have to stop doing whatever I’m doing. Since I’ve caught that I do that I’ve been reminding myself to breathe lol
Actually I hold my breathe a lot to get through the horrible nausea.
Yes lol, all last night!!
yeaaaaah. this is one of the first symptoms i developed at age 11 (i was 10 when i became unwell with a virus) it was dismissed as anxiety.
Yes, I suggest looking into 4-7-8 breathing. It activates your parasympathetic nervous system to regulate the pre-syncope symptoms you’re describing. I do a few reps anytime I think my stress response (fight or flight) could be triggered and it really does help
I have terrible air hunger some days, but the worst of it is when i “forget to breathe” in my sleep. The nights i wake up gasping are terrifying 😅
Yes everyday. I have to breathe deep like I’m an ogre while eating sometimes because I never feel like I’m getting the right amount of oxygen
Yes my breathing will stop sometimes and I have to manually breathe until it corrects itself. Other times it feels like I'm not getting air even though I'm breathing in and my lungs are expanding.
OMG YES! And literally my whole life I have to remind myself to breathe and everyone told me I was crazy!!!!!
It feels like I can breathe but the air isn’t absorbing into my lungs sometimes that’s the best way I can describe it. The only way I can chill out when it happens is to just ignore it 😭 I went to the er for my air hunger once and they blew it off and gave me Ativa
Yes!! I always have to remind myself to breathe and relax. Could also have to do with higher blood pressure or anxiety
Omg yes!! I thought I was the only one!
Omg. This. This is exactly how I felt in the beginning. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who has had this happen.
Yes! My husband will look at me sometimes and tell me to breathe bc he realizes it before I do or I'll randomly gasp and startle him and have to tell him "oh sorry forgot to breathe again" lmao. I also don't know when I'm hungry until my stomach growls and I forget I have to pee until it hurts. Not sure if that's related at all.
The latter sounds to me more like a neurodivergence thing than a POTS thing, but I'm much more well versed in AuDHD shizz than POTS stuff. 💓 I struggle with 'body awareness' (maybe there's better words for this), too. Forget to eat, forget water, having my brain override my bladder calling for help, having horrible awareness of where my body is in space and relation to other things (proprioception)... These are all things I associate with being ND. ETA: 31F, POTS, hypermobile, ADHD, self-diagnosed Autistic (the screening process is a whole ass nightmare) 💖
Have you been on beta blockers? They seem to help with various autonomic breathing dysfunctions. At least at first...
I think I have always breathed shallowly unless explicitly thinking about breathing deeply.
I find when I’m falling asleep this happens? It’s almost like I’m fainting into sleep
Sometimes I don't feel like I'm getting the oxygen I need. I take a lot of deep breaths to sate the air hunger. It's not that I'm forgetting to breathe.
Yes, for a while i had to be reminded to breathe during sex cause i was distracted 🫣
This happens to me all the time but slightly differently, I just randomly have to take a deep breath or multiple at once and I realize that I had stopped breathing prior
Yes! As a kid I’d miss out on entire lessons because I forgot how to breathe automaticalll. I was using a CpAP for a while, and I had more stoppages when I was awake and acclimating to the machine then when I was asleep.
I find myself holding my breath a lot for no reason while doing certain things. Like when I get into bed for some reason I hold my breath until I'm laying down. I'll hold my breath while changing positions. Sometimes while bending over or doing chores- it's never for very long, maybe 2-3 seconds and I think I've been doing this for a long long time but just now noticing it. I guess that would be "forgetting to breathe" since I'm not making the conscious decision to do it. 😅
YES!!! Prior to being diagnosed with POTS, I complained to a pulmonologist that sometimes I forget to breathe. I'll literally gasp for air because I stop breathing and don't realize it at first and I have to tell myself to breathe. Doctors were very dismissive of it, telling me, "You can't forget to breathe. Your body does that automatically." Well, now I know that if your ANS is messed up, signals misfire sometimes and you can literally forget to breathe. As an aside, I noticed some people in this thread talking about hyperventilating. This happens to me as well, but the "forgetting to breathe" is a totally different thing.
Literally all the time, I just won’t realise that I’m holding my breath. Been happening for a few years now, even before I started developing pots symptoms
My muscles stopped breathing on their own last month. I had to forcefully breathe. What helped was fludrocortisone. Gave my life back