Chest tightness and inability to take a deep breath...

You are suffering from one of the most common symptoms of anxiety, and one of the most frequent issues I have dealt with for many years. in reality, you are over-breathing which is called hyperventilation thus causing you to feel like you can't take a deep breath. I know it is very concerning and you feel like something serious MUST be going on but I can pretty well assure you that it's not - it's just another terrible effect of the anxiety we suffer. I suffered with it for many, many years and was always tested negative for any heart problems but I still thought the docs had it wrong and I was going to have a heart attack any minute. Well, that started around the age of 18 and now I'm 66. I don't have your issue that much anymore because I guess eventually I had to realize that it was just anxiety, as I've never had any real heart problems. Just keep talking to yourself and eventually it will pass - it might come back again during heavy bouts of anxiety but I'm sure you are fine. Good luck and keep talking to yourself and to all of us here on this forum who know exactly what you're going through.

WW, your fear is the same well almost, some have other sx but
as you mention the underlying fear that scares us silly, is, the
fear of death and at some time in life everyone deals with it,
You are right, there is nothing you can do to 100% take the guess out of the situation, You will find your answer in your Faith
and your own common since, please trust me I went through this
for ten years, I would feel fine for a month, week and then a
sharp pain and the adrenaline would hit my blood stream and I was off to several hours of personal insanity. I also had heart disease and every pain was the big one, my doctors tried to
tell me that the pains I was having were something other than
my heart but all I could hear was my heart pound. Finally
my doctor hooked me to an EKG right in the middle of a Grand
Mal Panic attack, my heart was only going fast, no problems.
The real trick is to Live every second between now and that eventual day, don't rehearse our death every time we feel pain.

Larry ***

i think it you distract yourself with something other than thinking about breathing, your breathing will return to normal. i have a meditation tape which says "don't try to control your breathing, just let it regulate itself". that helped me a lot.