breatthing OCD

[bekw89]

Anyone know any treatment methods for obsessive breathing?

[emptymind]

The only method that does work is to let go of control so to speak
you must learn to let things flow naturally since you will keep breathing regardless
of what you do(also regardless of what you might be thinking right now)

be aware that you are breathing,recognize it but try not to obsess about it by not giving it too much attention and focus on other things

you must have at times thought to yourself "i have been watching tv for x time and forgot about my breathing completely" and when you notice this exact thing you start obessing about it again,well the key is to recognize what is happening and letting things happen anyway as they should

this is a problem that feeds off your attention,the more attention you give it the worse it gets and if you in a very legit manner stop caring about your breathing and whatever you are aware of it or not it will go away

good luck

[MyNameIsTerry]

I think the first thing is to understand is whether you are experiencing this to the level of OCD (Sensorimotor OCD) or whether it is a symptom of anxiety in general? Someone with this form of OCD will be concentrating on it constantly and feel they have to consciously operate breathing. Someone experiencing this as a symptom will find they can be distracted from it.

Which do you believe you could be?

Manual breathing is very common with anxiety and we can go through periods where we believe we need to control our breathing because we are trying to prevent ourselves from stopping but the reality is that your control of this area is easily taken over by the same subconscious processes that have controlled it since we took our first breath. An easy test, of perhaps we could call it a Behavioural Experiment in CBT, would be to hold your breath for as long as you can. Could you do it indefinately or did your subconscious take over in response to needing oxygen?

If this is a symptom, work on it the same way as everything else by reducing overall anxiety levels and this will likely go. If this is Sensorimotor OCD then treating it can be CBT, Mindfulness has been mentioned as a way to change thoughts about breathing whilst in meditation mode, etc.

[bekw89]

Hi Terry

Some days are better than others. But it is my main source of anxiety. Today is a bad day for it as even though I know i'm breathing and not trying to control it, it feels like I'm suffocating and i'm on the verge of panic. But I am able to switch off from it eventually think it's bad today because I had a massive panic attack yesterday.

[ricardo]

bekw89

I am going through a very similar situation these past few weeks and my breathing or over breathing is very noticeable to me. I even asked my doctor who did a few checks including oxygen levels.

I put it down to extreme anxiety at the moment due to a number of things and am hyperventilating to the extreme that my figers and toes are literally feeling the adrenelin rush.

I have never heard of breathing and OCD are linked unless the OCD makes one anxious,hence the breathing problem.

[bekw89]

It's definately jus anxiety but a very scary one. All we can do is ignore it. I also feel it might be a bit of an intrusive thought just like a momentary 'you can't breath!' thought.

[tijnug]

have you tried meditation?

[Mauricejac]

Hi, i have suffered from this breathing control disorder and if can help in my case Zoloft 50 mg had eliminated. Unfortunately now I suffer from another problem of feeling of swollen and not comfortable tongue in the mouth and the drugs do not seem to help me!
however, you are right ignore it, is the solution!
best wishes

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi Terry

Some days are better than others. But it is my main source of anxiety. Today is a bad day for it as even though I know i'm breathing and not trying to control it, it feels like I'm suffocating and i'm on the verge of panic. But I am able to switch off from it eventually think it's bad today because I had a massive panic attack yesterday.

That doesn't sound like Sensorimotor OCD to me. Bek. This form is all about an obsessive need to actually consciously control an autonomic bodily function e.g. Breathing, swallowing, blinking, etc. It's an all encompassing problem that you would spend your days doing. Some are scared of sleeping because they feel they would stop breathing.

What you are describing is more like the manual breathing issue that comes and goes. I've had it too and for me it's been when my anxiety is high due to being at the worst stages before my recovery started or when my anxiety worsened for a period hence something that had gone came back for a time.

Keep working on reducing your overall anxiety and it may go anyway. Don't actively try to ignore things though as you are using your conscious mind to force it away which means more attention is given. That can be detrimental as your subconscious sees the active attention and takes the amount of effort to force something away as a signal it did something "valid". Notice use of the term "valid" and not "correct".

Accept it and be non judgemental.

If it comes from an intrusive thought then definitely be non judgemental and learn to let it float through. Give it the same attention as having a sudden thought you need to buy milk when in the supermarket.

[bekw89]

Thanks Terry, I think it's more likely an irrational thought. I will get the breathing issue and and then I will convince myself I'm not breathing momentarily because I can't feel anything in my chest. But I don't think normally you do feel anything in your chest so it's just irrational.

---------- Post added at 08:28 ---------- Previous post was at 08:26 ----------

Should also mention iv developed a habit of putting my hand by my mouth, it seems I am checking I am breathing. I can spend most the day doing this.