Bad posture, breathing and anxiety

[Mindknot]

I am wondering if this has been my trigger lately... wondering if anyone had similar - I spend the whole day hunched at my computer and have been feeling uncomfortable for months - although the anxiety has really flared up in the last two. I feel like my posture restricts my breathing - and now I generally find it really difficult to do belly breathing unless I'm lying flat on my back.

I'm trying to figure out the root cause of my anxiety as I don't have much to complain about in my life really, but the anxiety has spiralled out of control as I started feeling dizzy on a regular basis, and also my guts have been rubbish which led to a million other health anxiety concerns. I feel like the HA has been allayed by a few trips to my very kindly doctor, but anxiety remains - I've had a couple of panic attacks at work today, for no apparent reason... Could it just be discomfort from sitting & bad posture?? ...or is it my negative thinking brain just assuming the worst about my bad posture...

This is so confusing, I just want to get rid of the physical symptoms I've been having, it's really getting me down. :-/

[JulieJay92]

thats identical to me at pc all day hunched over yet no real anxiety in my life just aches and breathing

[Mindknot]

Thanks for replying, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed this. Hoping that if I can improve my posture, the breathing will get better and anxiety less but guess it will take some time to fix...

[Mindknot]

Thanks Eyji for replying too.

An update on this: I actually have a new chair at work and my new seated position is much more upright, I feel "different" already, although not less anxious yet, I notice that my stomach/chest muscles are still super tight (possibly I'm thinking this is a body confidence thing - am sucking in all the time), and I find it really hard to breathe in a relaxed way. But, I have also started to work with a personal trainer to strengthen the various muscles required for better posture, so will see if office life improves gradually :)

[Mindknot]

Hmmm, I just found this quite interesting so thought I would stick it in this thread for future reference. Not suggesting this is the solution... but it does seems to be strongly affected by "office posture" so interesting that it's also so important for fight or flight/anxious situations...

http://www.hushyoga.com/blog/why-the-psoas-is-the-fight-or-flight-muscle/