Anxiety Returns: Chronic hyperventilation!

[Godfrey]

It's been forever since I've been here.  XP!

So I've been anxiety free (mostly) for a couple of years, but this last year has been rough.  Had some trouble with depression, my grandparents' passed away, went through a lot of family drama and stuff.  Started work in my dream career field.  XP  I was coping with it all fine, then a couple of days ago *it* came back:  Uncomfortable awareness of my breathing followed by hyperventilation no matter how I try to control it!

It's very frustrating.  I *know* by now my symptoms are caused by too much oxygen instead of too little, but it's still very hard to get my mind off it.  When I DO get my mind off it, I'll suddenly think "Hey, I'm not hypervenitilating!" and then it will suddenly happen. XP

I've been trying to keep my breathing normal, and it works most of the day even if I'm manually breathing.  But around 7-11 each night for the past few nights it gets /bad/.  I'll suddenly start compulsively breathing out too much or taking really deep breaths suddenly when I'm trying to pause between breaths. 

Which lines up with my old problems - after a panic attack, I always have anxiety problems for the next while each night around the same time.

Anyone have any thoughts or tips?   Or wants to commisserate, that also helps.  XP!

I'm starting to be unable to understand why we can even control our breathing at all.  It's never done me any favors.

[Cuchculan]

You know I once had a doctor make me hyperventilate on purpose. Just to show me how to calm back down again. I found it odd at the time. He had a few trainee doctors there too. Made them all do it. One even got dizzy and fell off his chair. Was kind of funny. But what I tend to do is something I done whilst playing football. We were always told to hold our breath. Then we had to walk out towards the trainer. Who would keep walking further away, the closer we got. This was meant to bring our breathing under control late in games. After running for near 90 minutes you are flat out and breathing like mad. As I suffered from anxiety I found I could use this during a panic attack as well. It worked just as good. I would pick a point. Hold my breath. Walk towards that point. Let the breath back out. Take another deep breath. Hold it and walk back to where I started. Let it out again. May not work for everyone. But I always found it great. Maybe because I was so used to doing to it. Really have nothing to lose by giving it a go.

[Godfrey]

You know I once had a doctor make me hyperventilate on purpose. Just to show me how to calm back down again. I found it odd at the time. He had a few trainee doctors there too. Made them all do it. One even got dizzy and fell off his chair. Was kind of funny. But what I tend to do is something I done whilst playing football. We were always told to hold our breath. Then we had to walk out towards the trainer. Who would keep walking further away, the closer we got. This was meant to bring our breathing under control late in games. After running for near 90 minutes you are flat out and breathing like mad. As I suffered from anxiety I found I could use this during a panic attack as well. It worked just as good. I would pick a point. Hold my breath. Walk towards that point. Let the breath back out. Take another deep breath. Hold it and walk back to where I started. Let it out again. May not work for everyone. But I always found it great. Maybe because I was so used to doing to it. Really have nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Hmm...I'll have to remember to try that next time it gets bad.  'Course I know to pause between breathes now, but it's hard to remember that when it gets out of control.

One thing I did notice last night - most of my hyperventilation/anxiety attacks end with me sitting down and bending over.  When I get anxiety my first instinct is to pace (the good news is this has kept me in shape somewhat XP) and move about and exercise, but this never really calms me down.  I think I need to try and force myself to remember this next attack; I realize running around and exercising gets the energy out for a lot of people but when I'm actually having a bout of anxiety attacks it really does just make it worse.  Hopefully bending over while sitting and, say, reading something will continue to work now that I've actually recognized it.  Fingers' crossed...

[JJP]

This is one of my main symptoms. Breathing exercises work for me when a bout hits. Additionally, if I remember to do it regularly it helps cut my anxiety over all.

[Godfrey]

So...

...it turns out I don't even fit the "normal" definition of hyperventilation.  I have a roughly average breathing rate of around 12 per minute, and that all of my breaths are from the diaphragm out of habit.  In fact I breathe slower at rest than any of my loved ones. 

Also, after watching someone /really/ hyperventilate - without passing out either - that I've probably never actually hyperventilated, except for MAYBE during my worst panic attacks.  For a VERY brief period.

Which means that years and two seperate periods of breathing anxiety were entirely caused by fear of hyperventilation rather than actual hyperventilation, though there is some fear that I might be breathing too deeply.  Still, I'd rather breathe a bit too deep and slow than rapid enough to cause symptoms.

I just want to say WOW, THE HUMAN BRAIN AND BODY IS AMAZING.  Like.  Wow.  All that from the FEAR of hyperventilation.  I actually feel pretty calm now, aside from some heavy tension left over in my body from days of adrenaline.  I'm still aware of my breathing, but it's not uncomfortable anymore, and my diaphragm is gradually lightening up. 

Just.

Wow.

WOW.

Let this stand as a testament to how effective anxiety is at creating symptoms.  I /swore/ I was hyperventilating.  Especially with the cold palms and semi-frequent yawning and sighing and other weird symptoms.  And hyperventilation is a perfectly normal cause of panic attacks!  Yet I was apparently so worried about controlling my breath to avoid it that I made most but not all of the symptoms happen anyway.

I am absolutely stumped and floored right now.  I can still hardly believe it.  Amazing