Anxiety can cause an incredible range of different symptoms in its sufferer, whether they are experiencing a full blown anxiety attack or simply feeling anxious on a day to day basis. The tightness in chest anxiety symptom is one that the majority of those with an anxiety disorder suffer from, and without fully understanding why it happens it can be particularly terrifying.

Firstly every anxiety sufferer or person who has a friend, relative or colleague who suffers with anxiety should understand why such harsh symptoms occur. Anxiety is essentially a result of faulty thinking. Our brains perceive something to be a threat to our survival when it is not, but our bodies still react in a way that allows us to either stand and fight the threat or run very fast from it. This response is known as the fight or flight response, which involves a huge rush of the hormone adrenaline. In turn, adrenaline has a number of physical effects on our bodies including a fast heartbeat (preparing us for exercise), eyes being sensitive to light (allowing us to notice every detail that might affect our survival chances) and of course the tightness in chest anxiety symptom. This one in particular occurs for a similar reason as the pumping heart. Our body is preparing us to either run or fight I.E. carry out intense exercise. When we don't do this we get short of breath from not breathing fast enough, we feel our heart working abnormally hard for our activity level and our chest feels tight from having the lungs work hard but not needing to.

Sometimes our breathing gets so out of synchronization that we find it hard to breathe at all. We end up wheezing and trying to talk is almost impossible. For some people this characterizes a panic attack completely, but this and the tightness in chest anxiety symptoms can be turned around in less than one minute. Quite simply we need to put our bodies back on track and get our lungs and heart working together and for the correct level of exercise. Firstly, take a normal breath in and then breathe out slowly until you are at the very end of your breath. Try to hold that for a couple of seconds, then breathe in normally again and then breathe out to the end of your breath suddenly and in one go, whilst bending over slightly. Continue to breathe normally and you should find that your respiratory system has been set back to normal. Walk around a bit at your usual pace to use up the excess adrenaline in your system, while doing whatever thinking exercise calms you down when you are worried about something. This exercise is particularly good when a person is not feeling nervous about anything any more, but an anxiety attack has left their breathing out of synchronization and their chest feels tight.

If the tightness in chest anxiety symptom lasts more than around 6 hours or one day then you may want to visit your doctor for a better solution or a referral to a therapist to work through your anxieties at their root.

Stan Tian

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