"Manual" breathing?

[lalouba]

Hello all,

For the entire time I've lived with anxiety (5 years almost to the day!) I've found myself experiencing a weird symptom during my anxious periods.

My breathing feels laboured and almost manual, as if I need to be in control of it or it will stop. I get out of breath quite easily and feel almost like my stomach is pushing up into my diaphragm making it more difficult to get a full breath. I wouldn't say I have shortness of breath exactly, more like it's just sort of uncomfortable!

I realise this is quite a common symptom but just wondered how many of you had the same thing!

[Ronan23]

I have it aswell. The only solution for it is distraction. When you are focusing on something else you can't focus on your breathing. You could also attempt to become a "watcher" of your thoughts which is something I am currently trying. All anxious people have the problem of not living in the now. I recommend the power of now by Eckhart Tolle.