Re: Is this all anxiety?
Originally Posted by
TimetoTurn
I keep on feeling like I'm short of oxygen. Like I'll stand up and feel like I need to take bigger breaths to get oxygen to my muscles. Then my head will get random pains in it. This doesn't happen everytime I stand, but sometimes.
I also get these sudden feeling that I need to gasp for air, or I'll feel like when I'm swallowing or eating/drinking something I need to take a big breath and I'll get like a shock of panic as I'll feel like I can't (because I am swallowing/drinking) and then I struggle to breathe/swallow for a second.
These things make my panic escalate. I had an oxygen check a couple weeks ago (just the little oximeter thing) and it was ok but I'm just struggling a lot with these symptoms right now.
The first thing I do before I comment on a new thread is to check out the profile of the poster to see how HA they are, and you fit the classic HA profile looking at the threads you have started...
Bottom line: you're hyperventilating and then panicking about the sensations associated with it.
Rest assured that if disease was the cause for this symptom - your heart and lungs would be struggling and this would be picked up in the oxygen check.
This is a classic anxiety symptom, so you need to learn how to breathe properly.
When you breathe shallowly - you are triggering the fight or flight response. Your body is preparing to move really fast to run away or to stay and fight. With anxiety, there is no danger, so you're left with this horrible symptom and a mind which doesn't understand that this is simply your body trying to protect you.
First thing you do is to completely empty your lungs of air - breathe out for as long as you can - then take a BIG breath in, and hold it for about 4 seconds, then breathe out for as long as you physically can. Keep doing this until you feel calm, and you will feel calm, because doing this switches off the fight or flight response and the parasympathetic response will take over. You can adjust the times until you have a pattern which feels right to you. If you need help with this, there is a very good breathing exercise freebie on the Calm app where you just breathe in and out when it tells you to.
You're ok.
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