(I posted this in anxietyhelp as well. I was gonna cross post but that isn’t allowed. Really desperate for advice/a solution so I’m trying to get as many people to see it as possible lol) 

So I’ve always had anxiety, but it changes forms every few years. In the past, it targeted my emetophobia. When I was anxious I would feel nauseous and then a panic attack would ensue. 

Thankfully, I have completely overcome my phobia. It doesn’t even phase me anymore. So I thought my panic attacks were over! 

The last few months I have been hyper focused on my breathing. Always feeling like I can’t take a deep enough breath. Always being aware and conscious of my breath. So then I convince myself that I can’t breathe (but I obviously can. I’ve survived every panic attack lol). It almost feels like an obsession/compulsion behavior too. I won’t be able to calm down until I take a satisfying breath. And then I’m fine for 5 minutes until I need my next satisfying breath. And that’s the vicious cycle I am in. Legit every waking minute of my life I obsess about it. It’s horrific and exhausting and making me depressed. 

It’s been giving me so much anxiety to the point of panic attacks. I’m scared to do anything because of the looming threat of a panic episode. I know it’s not real, but in the moment it’s the scariest thing I can imagine. I hate it. My life is being affected because I’m always just waiting for the next one. 

For some more context, I’m also a hypochondriac and have illness anxiety disorder. Sometimes I feel like it could be somatoform disorder. I go to the doctor constantly and they always tell me I’m fine. 

I just feel so alone because I feel like nobody understands what I’m going through exactly and I find it so hard to explain. I hope I explained it well enough here. If anyone else has experienced this please comment so I can feel less alone :( and if anybody has any tips for remedying this type of anxiety please let me know. Breathing exercises used to help me with the nausea-induced panic attacks, but they make these ones worse because it makes me hyper-focus and overthink. Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any advice!