Deep breathing, anyone else have this problem?

[twistedwhisperd]

Hiya everyone,

when im having a panic attack and i can feel myself worrying etc, i try and breath in deeply, coz i feel ive got more control over my breathing when i do that, but sometimes i cant breath deeply when im panicing, so then i panic even more! does anyone else have this problem?

[ditzygirl]

Trying to breath deeply will make panic worse. What you need to do is try deep breathing exercises when you are calm. You will probably need to lay down and practise as it make you dizzy to start with.

Have a look at some meditation or mindfullness - both teach breathing techniques which help with panic.

[jothenurse]

I get this too. I try to take a deep breath, because when I can it seems to relax me. The problem is, when you are panicky your chest muscles are tight and it makes it hard to take a deep breath. That's where the breathing in slow, and out slow helps calm you. I know sometimes just when I'm uptight, like today, I feel kind of short of breath and it really scares me. But then I just try to tell myself that I can breathe ok, I'm just nervous and focusing in on it. I'm having a hard time convincing myself of that today, because when I do some activity, it feels hard to breathe and I scare myself. This anxiety is not fun.

[scaredstiff695]

hi yeah i get this. i get it just from being mild anxious. x x

[melvin]

i to get this feels like i cant breath proper or like im out of breath i try to do the 7 11 but still hard to over come

[ditzygirl]

try breathing in to the count of 3, 1 and 2 and 3. The breath out to the count of four, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. Exhaling when you panic is important,

It's about rebalancing oxygen and CO2. takes a bit of practice though.

I am no expert but this is the principle lolx

[KayleighJane]

this post is really helpful to me as im experiencing lots of breathing issues as of late, most of the time i feel like I can't breathe which makes me breathe deeper and faster and thus makes me me feel worse,lately i seem to have developed a huge phobia of being unable to breathe or just stopping breathing, does anyone else get this and if so what did you do or are doing about it? any advice would be greatly appreciated x

[scaredstiff695]

hi yeah i have phobia of it too. getting better only advice i no is what my mate nurse told me. you cant stop breathing randomly. also if you can talk etc your fine. so when i feel like i can't breath i talk slowly and loudly to myself x reassuapd me a bit then try to distract myself x

[oldtime]

The new approach is not to try and relax or breath slowly. It is to let the panic happen and feel it, don't try to calm down and don't fight it. Just experience it and believe that it cannot hurt you it is just a fight flight reflex. Easier said than done, I've learnt this from CBT but have not had a panic attack since so haven't tried it yet.

[krees69]

Oh yes,
fairly classic symptom i think.
Panic attacks send your body mechanisms out of control, you are trying to push the panic back by breathing BUT the good old panic attack is trying to gain the upper hand i'e the more you concentrate on it the worse it gets-I've never mastered the art of breathing through a panic attack, it just doesn't happen for me, so i took the drug route-that was 20 years ago! I haven't had one since-although i haven't ever really stopped taking the meds LOL.
Kath

[twistedwhisperd]

this post is really helpful to me as im experiencing lots of breathing issues as of late, most of the time i feel like I can't breathe which makes me breathe deeper and faster and thus makes me me feel worse,lately i seem to have developed a huge phobia of being unable to breathe or just stopping breathing, does anyone else get this and if so what did you do or are doing about it? any advice would be greatly appreciated x



Hiya everyone,

Its nice to know im not the only one! I started this post coz i was sat at my laptop worrying about my breathing, Thats my biggest problem i focus on my breathing too much then worry that im breathing to fast or sometimes to slow then my head tries to convince me that im having a panic attack.
I suck mints alot and also keep an elastic band on my wrist to distract me, I am managing to go out now, i do get anxious and worry that im going to faint etc but i reassure myself that im not alone, if something does happen, someone will help me, im not dying or really ill, its all in my mind!
I dont breath in and then breath out coz i found that this makes me dizzy and i panic even more because it feels like im holding my breath. x

[KayleighJane]

no your not the only one, im glad you made this post as its made me realise that I am not the only one to suffer like this. I saw my doctor the other day and he said the breathing thing is down to me losing confidence in my body's auto-pilot mechanism which made sense :)

[twistedwhisperd]

do you feel like this everyday though hun? i find if im keeping myself busy i dont feel like it too much. its just mind over matter! if you wanted to PM me and talk that would be cool :) would be nice to talk to someone when im feeling like this.x

[xtremx]

I have that feeling to it is hard to over come sometimes but as someone said in a past post I try to breathin for 3seconds hold for 1 then out for 4 seems to help.

[twistedwhisperd]

dont you feel dizzy doing that though? i find sometimes it makes me panic even more coz im holding my breath!

[evil monkey]

i have this. lungs sort of feel constricted. i think its like at the end of when you've been concentrating and you take a deep breath. (kind of like a yawn after concentrating). you try to fill your lungs. think its called oxygen debt or something. think its all part of not being relaxed.