Chronic hyperventilation syndrome

[Beej22]

Good afternoon all,

Just thought id share some information I have found. Suffering from social anxiety/chronic hyperventilation syndrome I have realised and kept a diary of when I feel 'good' and 'bad'.

The days I have felt the most confident and able to interact in social situations are the days I have pushed myself the most to get out, I realise the psychological effects are producing the positive effects but wanted to know if something else was causing this.

On researching the effects of exercise (I would post the link but I'm not allowed to yet..), I found the carbon dioxide in the blood increases as we exercise. Chronic hyperventilation causes excess oxygen in the blood, thus the symptoms of anxiety, ocd and light headedness.

Now I know the theory, I better practise what I preach... :winks:

Hope everyone is good

[maya77]

Hi...In the past month or so I have been hyperventilating, struggling to breath normally. I've had some health anxieties (tiredness), but after having blood tests done I was reassured it was all just psychosomatic. However, because I was anxious I started focusing on my breathing and developed chronic hyperventilation - taking in small, shallow breaths, always air hungry, stopping breathing so I wouldn't hyperventilate etc...it was very labour intensive, so to speak.
I've searched the internet trying to find a solution to this problem, but all I could see was breathing exercises, people saying it takes a long time to relearn how to breath properly etc. That just didn't help really, it was impossible to breath in a relaxed way....So yesterday I felt really bad, just couldn't get it off my mind...and at the peak of this struggle I realised all my muscles involved in breathing (chest, diaphragm, stomach etc.) were really tense. It was as if that tension was preventing me from breathing normally. So I made a conscious effort to relax all those muscles and instantly my breathing became normal :). I was so happy...I was able to fall asleep really fast and woke up this morning and I am feeling fine. Obviously there is still the tendency to tense up the muscles, but as soon as I notice it I relax them, and the breathing becomes effortless, relaxed and the hyperventilation goes away. I had to post it because I know how disturbing this syndrome is and I hope it helps someone. So to summarise - relax the aforesaid muscles and breathing should become easy and effortless....I know it sounds simple, but it made all the difference to me...