As we mentioned in the introduction, when people begin to experience shortness of breath or dyspnea on exertion (DOE), they either find ways to modify the activities that cause them discomfort, or they simply avoid them altogether. While this may seem like the safest and most reasonable course of action, decreasing your activity will actually worsen the situation, causing you to become weaker and weaker over time, until even life’s simplest tasks, like showering or getting dressed, can become difficult thanks to that miserable SOB (shortness of breath).