u/Forward-Shallot1939

As the title says, I have a very bad anxiety about my breathing and it’s been ongoing for 3 years now. Basically I am always constantly fixated on my breathing (making myself manually breath, trying not to breath too fast or too slow) and it results in me always feeling panicked.

This started 3 years ago randomly when out of no where I just lost my breath, which scared me and started the fixating. I went to the doctor scared that something was wrong with me to which she just said nothing was wrong, she only mentioned to try and quit vaping as (she could tell I vaped by listening to my breathing), and then after that it seemed to be better.

But about a week after, I had to take a flight to receive treatment for something very minor, but the night before my flight I remember that’s when it seemed to come back and much worse. It just felt so terrifying like I was dying. I was focused on my breathing as well as my erratic heart beat, and feeling like I was burning inside my body.

Skip to now, it hasn’t gotten as bad as that but it’s still something that I think about 24/7 and it’s driving me insane. When I’m trying to sleep, first thing when I wake up, when I try to read and can’t distract myself enough. I got put on anti depressants for the anxiety and at the start it seemed to help, but now it doesn’t seem to do much for me.

I’m also working on getting my license and recently started driving again and it gets really bad there too. I drove before this issue happened and it was fine, but now the whole time I’m driving I’m focused on my breathing when I should be fully focused on the road, environment etc. it’s just so hard.

Has anyone else had an issue like this before and if so does it ever go away? I’m really just looking for advice as I feel as though this has really ruined my life

As the title says, I have a very bad anxiety about my breathing and it’s been ongoing for 3 years now. Basically I am always constantly fixated on my breathing (making myself manually breath, trying not to breath too fast or too slow) and it results in me always feeling panicked.

This started 3 years ago randomly when out of no where I just lost my breath, which scared me and started the fixating. I went to the doctor scared that something was wrong with me to which she just said nothing was wrong, she only mentioned to try and quit vaping as (she could tell I vaped by listening to my breathing), and then after that it seemed to be better.

But about a week after, I had to take a flight to receive treatment for something very minor, but the night before my flight I remember that’s when it seemed to come back and much worse. It just felt so terrifying like I was dying. I was focused on my breathing as well as my erratic heart beat, and feeling like I was burning inside my body.

Skip to now, it hasn’t gotten as bad as that but it’s still something that I think about 24/7 and it’s driving me insane. When I’m trying to sleep, first thing when I wake up, when I try to read and can’t distract myself enough. I got put on anti depressants for the anxiety and at the start it seemed to help, but now it doesn’t seem to do much for me.

I’m also working on getting my license and recently started driving again and it gets really bad there too. I drove before this issue happened and it was fine, but now the whole time I’m driving I’m focused on my breathing when I should be fully focused on the road, environment etc. it’s just so hard.

Has anyone else had an issue like this before and if so does it ever go away? I’m really just looking for advice as I feel as though this has really ruined my life

I’m so sorry for this being so long but this post is in regards to asking for advice/tips for a cat that was once semi tame but is now quite timid of humans.

Backstory: my nan used to feed stray cats and one day a kitten snuck into the house and decided it was there to stay and did not want to go back outside, so my nan decided to keep it. The cat always seemed quite timid when people would enter the house and would run and hide, but I remember I used to be able to sit on the ground, put my hand out, and it would smell me and then be absolutely fine with me (playing, patting, purring), but I noticed when I’d go over the next day, it seemed to forget me so I’d have to repeat the process over. I did this for a little while but due to my busy schedule at the time as well as my family’s, my nan was the only person this cat would interact with daily (she lived in the house alone). My nan claimed that this cat was like your everyday pet cat, it wouldn’t be scared of her, would sit on her lap, not hide etc.

Fast forward to now a couple years later: my nan is no longer living there due to her becoming unwell, and is now in a nursing home. But the cat is still living there (with an older cat), and has been the whole time, but it’s human interaction has been limited due to no one being there for long periods of time like my nan, only my family when we feed them both daily. When I go over to feed them, the cat is always in the same hiding spot, under the dining table on a chair, and I always make sure to sit down with it and just speak to it for a while, it doesn’t run, just sits and stares at me. I have tried to reach my hand out (like when it was a kitten) to see if it might smell and remember me but it just hisses and growls to which I stop. But I still view this as a positive since it doesn’t run away and allows me to sit in its space.

I’m really just looking for advice as my nans house is getting close to being listed for sale, and we need to bring both cats over to live with us, and am just hoping there is still a way to regain this cats trust and have it be a proper part of the family. We also already have 2 cats here so soon to be 4 and will eventually have to introduce them after a while which also makes us nervous, especially with this cat. I feel so devastated for this cat as it was absolutely gorgeous as a kitten and so so sweet, and feel as though I have failed it by not seeing it as often as I should’ve. Any advice will genuinely be so appreciated.