Breathing

[beauty]

Feeling so fed up...after 6 years of coping with anxiety and not feeling afraid or panicky I've suddenly gone back to square one and I don't even know why. Particularly over the past year I've been feeling brilliant and like I had got over the panic/anxiety thing for good and possibly grown out of it.

I was in work a few weeks ago and suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe which led to a mini panic attack and I started over-thinking breathing again. It has escalated from there to the point where breathing is the first thing I think about when I wake up and all I think about all day. It makes physically breathing feel difficult and un-natural and my fear is driven by an overall obsession that I will eventually not be able to breathe at all if I think about it enough.

This is making me feel sick and constantly afraid. It is also affecting my lifestyle, I'm afraid of going to the gym and have managed to carry on going but dread it and feel nervous while there and avoid anything which gets me out of breath. I also dread driving to and from work as it makes me feel nervous since I'm alone.

I'm praying this goes away soon as I can already feel it ruining my life. I was so happy before and my life was going so well, it's just so disapointing...

[AnxiousPansa]

hey beauty :)
as you can see from my previous posts I have major problems with anxiety and breathing i actually just got sent home from college :( i had a really bad panic attack last night because i couldnt breathe :( you just need to remember you will not stop breathing . you cannot stop just brcausr you keep focusing on it. just practice taking slow drawn out breaths from you diaphragm xx

[beauty]

Thanks for your reply :) It's nice to know I'm not alone.

I know everyone keeps saying that I wont stop breathing but I find it so hard to believe. When I think about the actual process of breathing and imagine the air going down to my lungs and start thinking "how am I actually doing this" it just suddenly seems so difficult and un-natural and I feel so close to not being able to do it anymore.

I guess I've been through phases like this for years yet have never stopped breathing yet so that should be a good sign, but then my paranoid side tells me it will still eventually happen and I convince myself that each time I go through a phase like this its getting worse and I will eventually reach the point where breathing isn't possible anymore.

I think it's partly fear of having a panic attack too and how scary that is, especially when I'm alone or in a public place with only strangers around me.

xx

[xBettyBoopx]

Feeling so fed up...after 6 years of coping with anxiety and not feeling afraid or panicky I've suddenly gone back to square one and I don't even know why. Particularly over the past year I've been feeling brilliant and like I had got over the panic/anxiety thing for good and possibly grown out of it.

I was in work a few weeks ago and suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe which led to a mini panic attack and I started over-thinking breathing again. It has escalated from there to the point where breathing is the first thing I think about when I wake up and all I think about all day. It makes physically breathing feel difficult and un-natural and my fear is driven by an overall obsession that I will eventually not be able to breathe at all if I think about it enough.

This is making me feel sick and constantly afraid. It is also affecting my lifestyle, I'm afraid of going to the gym and have managed to carry on going but dread it and feel nervous while there and avoid anything which gets me out of breath. I also dread driving to and from work as it makes me feel nervous since I'm alone.

I'm praying this goes away soon as I can already feel it ruining my life. I was so happy before and my life was going so well, it's just so disapointing...

Hi there

I know exactly how you feel except for the gym thing:blush: So when you go to the gym, you do exercise?! Doesn't that make you out of breath? If you can exercise then you know in your heart of hearts that you can breathe properly but tension and anxiety is making you feel you're getting less air than you should. But even then you are able to exercise. The anxiety breathlessness is the worse symptom in book, I've had it since I was a child.

Remember all the good times over the last year and know that if it was something physical, that it wouldn't have gone away. You say you're praying that it goes away, so I will pray for you too.

Els

[Catherine S]

Do you sleep at night? When you sleep your body keeps breathing. If you trust your body to keep breathing when you sleep, you have to trust that it will keep breathing when you are awake. What you do is to alter the breathing process with anxiety and then the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide is disturbed (hence the old breathing into a paper bag thing). Its not only that you are overthinking your breathing but your anxiety is making you overbreathe too. Its a physical thing, but its not harmful only very uncomfortable. Your body would really like it better if you just let it do its own thing..it will breathe for itself without any interference from you :) X