I wasn't even sure if I should have posted this under Mental illness.

Anyone who experiences this regularily in a serious way..meaning to a point where your breathing is affected and you're afraid to leave home because of difficulty in breathing?

My partner's daughter has had this for over a decade. But recently seems to be hit with this alot in past few weeks. She's lost sleep from these attacks.

I personally have never experienced anything like this. The closest was well over a year ago when my heart would be pounding a great deal from stress in the middle of night. It was stress-related because I was worrying excessively for a work-related thing. It went on for about 2 months until things at work improved for my department.

Since this problem has hung around for so long for her, my gut reaction is that cause maybe partially psychologically based for a number of reasons.

She has never been on drugs, alcohol -- a highly intelligent and articulate woman who graduated with her 2nd university degree a few years ago and now teaches/tutors other people for her paid job.

She does have few personal interests that she does pursue on her own that are probably at this time, helpful to her --loves animals/her pets and ..yes, she does enjoy painting on her own. The latter is probably one of the areas she and I can connect instinctively. It's great because if I have unused art supplies, I pass them onto her.

Sometimes she will phone up my partner in the middle of night and occasionally he will talk her through it or visit her next day. But now it is at a point, she realizes it's draining her energy and could affect her work.

I just hope she doesn't get into a drug therapy spiral... she herself doesn't want to get into this.