How do I fix shortness of breath? I think it's due to anxiety but I have to manually breathe because when I don't my chest gets tight and it feels like I'm not breathing enough. I have started randomly gasping for air out of nowhere and I can't stop sighing. I take deep breaths but then I try to get on with my day and it comes back. Sometimes deep breaths don't even work all that well because it still feels like I'm not getting enough air and then it makes my anxiety worse, which then makes the symptom worse.