Not being able to catch a deep breath..

[glimmer2525]

Hello all! So, my overall panic attacks have been mild lately (and few and far in between) except one night last week. I was lying in my bed reading, when all of a sudden I tried to get a deep breath and couldn't. I tried to relax so that the breath would come naturally, but no luck. I ended up hyperventilating so badly that both of my arms went numb. I had to breathe into a paper bag, then I finally started winding down a little bit. I lied down, and tried to get a control on my breathing.. finally I was OK again. I also took my magnesium supplement to further relax me.

This week I'm having trouble again. Last night I ended up having to take one of my more stronger sedatives (I hadn't had to take one in 2 months) just to relax my body enough to breathe deeply. It's like the breath won't hit the back of my lungs, and I start freaking out. If I can trick myself into yawning, i can get that deep breath, but sometimes I can't even do that. My mother is saying that I am getting anxious and tensing those muscles in my chest and back and therefore the breath won't come. My boyfriend freaked me out by suggesting I should get an asthma screening.

I read online that this is all due to hyperventilation and that the harder I try for a breath, the less it will come. i started practicing some breathing techniques last night to balance out my breaths but I was still struggling. Its upsetting that I had to take a sedative just to relax me enough to be able to catch a deep breath. What would I have done if I were out and about somewhere and didn't have any sedative on me?

Do any of you all experience this? Any tips on how I can breathe deeply during these moments without resulting to the medication?

[PanicCured]

Hello all! So, my overall panic attacks have been mild lately (and few and far in between) except one night last week. I was lying in my bed reading, when all of a sudden I tried to get a deep breath and couldn't. I tried to relax so that the breath would come naturally, but no luck. I ended up hyperventilating so badly that both of my arms went numb. I had to breathe into a paper bag, then I finally started winding down a little bit. I lied down, and tried to get a control on my breathing.. finally I was OK again. I also took my magnesium supplement to further relax me.

This week I'm having trouble again. Last night I ended up having to take one of my more stronger sedatives (I hadn't had to take one in 2 months) just to relax my body enough to breathe deeply. It's like the breath won't hit the back of my lungs, and I start freaking out. If I can trick myself into yawning, i can get that deep breath, but sometimes I can't even do that. My mother is saying that I am getting anxious and tensing those muscles in my chest and back and therefore the breath won't come. My boyfriend freaked me out by suggesting I should get an asthma screening.

I read online that this is all due to hyperventilation and that the harder I try for a breath, the less it will come. i started practicing some breathing techniques last night to balance out my breaths but I was still struggling. Its upsetting that I had to take a sedative just to relax me enough to be able to catch a deep breath. What would I have done if I were out and about somewhere and didn't have any sedative on me?

Do any of you all experience this? Any tips on how I can breathe deeply during these moments without resulting to the medication?

I had this hyperventilation searching for deeper and deeper breath for a long time! I learned about Buteyko breathing and I fixed this problem. What I found was the more I breathed the less oxygen I would actually get. In reality, the more you breathe the more CO2 you release which screws everything up. I bought this ebook and MP3 called Anxiety Free by Patrick McKeown who is a Buteyko breathing practitioner and practiced the techniques.

If you buy his book or not, please read this entire page and it will explain to you the proper mechanics of breathing. Read and understand this page. It is so basic yet so few people understand this:

http://patrickmckeown.net/panic-attacks.php

[jessed03]

Well, yeah, getting on top of hyperventilation will make a massive difference.

As far as the mental side of it goes, simply reminding yourself if isn't dangerous - at all; isn't harmful - at all; and won't make you faint or collapse - ever; can help. Then you can just work on distracting yourself, not paying the symptom much attention, until it goes away.

Anxiety is often about stubbornness. If you have a stubborn case of anxiety, to get better you need to be MORE stubborn. If you're caught short, lots of positive affirmations along with comforting self-talk can help a lot. When anxiety tries to trick you and make you think you're in trouble, dig your heels in even more and keep reminding yourself that you're ok, that the symptoms are only unpleasant, nothing more. Keep doing this as much as you need to.

[alex42]

Well, yeah, getting on top of hyperventilation will make a massive difference.

As far as the mental side of it goes, simply reminding yourself if isn't dangerous - at all; isn't harmful - at all; and won't make you faint or collapse - ever; can help. Then you can just work on distracting yourself, not paying the symptom much attention, until it goes away.

Anxiety is often about stubbornness. If you have a stubborn case of anxiety, to get better you need to be MORE stubborn. If you're caught short, lots of positive affirmations along with comforting self-talk can help a lot. When anxiety tries to trick you and make you think you're in trouble, dig your heels in even more and keep reminding yourself that you're ok, that the symptoms are only unpleasant, nothing more. Keep doing this as much as you need to.

I totally agree.

[Alyssaash1]

When my anxiety first started that is the first thing I noticed, that I wasn't able to catch a deep breath. Then panic ensued and it seemed to get worse and I experienced chest pain which I thought was a heart attack (I was 20/21 at the time). I am not sure if it was related but I couldn't sneeze either... My mom sent me to the doctor because of how crazy and hypochondriac I was and I got medication which I never did take because I didn't ever want to go on anxiety medication. I eventually stopped paying attention to the breathing and it eventually went away, I know yours will too.

[PanicCured]

Please just read this. It explains it:

http://patrickmckeown.net/panic-attacks.php

[glimmer2525]

THANK YOU!! For all of your replies. This has been driving me insane! I was struggling so much with my breath last night that i was having chest and back pain too. PanicCured, I will absolutely read what you recommended.

I called my doctor (naturopath) and told her I'd been doing worse this week with my anxiety. She wanted me to stop one of my supplements and report back next week on how I'm feeling.

The minute I catch myself "manually breathing", I know I'm in trouble. It puts such a strain on me to try and forcefully breathe the way I *think* I'm supposed to be doing it. It's like a deep breath will hit me every 5 minutes when I really want it much more often than that.

My mother is a nurse and since she knows my health anxiety is always at an all time high, she brought me an asthma screening kit just to rule it out for my own peace of mind, and she listened to my lungs with her stethescope and told me everything sounded absolutely fine. I can only imagine how hard it is for a parent to deal with an adult hypochondriac for a child :/

[PanicCured]

THANK YOU!! For all of your replies. This has been driving me insane! I was struggling so much with my breath last night that i was having chest and back pain too. PanicCured, I will absolutely read what you recommended.

I called my doctor (naturopath) and told her I'd been doing worse this week with my anxiety. She wanted me to stop one of my supplements and report back next week on how I'm feeling.

The minute I catch myself "manually breathing", I know I'm in trouble. It puts such a strain on me to try and forcefully breathe the way I *think* I'm supposed to be doing it. It's like a deep breath will hit me every 5 minutes when I really want it much more often than that.

My mother is a nurse and since she knows my health anxiety is always at an all time high, she brought me an asthma screening kit just to rule it out for my own peace of mind, and she listened to my lungs with her stethescope and told me everything sounded absolutely fine. I can only imagine how hard it is for a parent to deal with an adult hypochondriac for a child :/

Please just trust me on this one. I know it's bold but just give what I am telling you a shot. Read that link I sent you above from Patirck McKeown, so you understand the concept of CO2/O2 balance. It is so simple yet so many people were never taught this, including me, until I discovered it. It changed my life! People tell you to breathe more thinking you will get more oxygen but they don't get that you need to consume CO2. So read that page, then follow my Quick Guide EXACTLY as I wrote it here: http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showthread.php?9512-The-Quick-Guide-to-Stopping-Panic-Attacks

Since you have been diagnosed as no problem just anxiety, or I assume you have, I am asking you to just try this for right now. Read that page, follow my Quick Guide, read more about Buteyko breathing. Give yourself 5 days. Ignore every other advice except an MD or qualified therapist, and just do my Quick Guide. In 5 days if you see no results you can rightfully tell me to fuck off!

[jessed03]

What supplement did she tell you to stop taking?

[glimmer2525]

Please just trust me on this one. I know it's bold but just give what I am telling you a shot. Read that link I sent you above from Patirck McKeown, so you understand the concept of CO2/O2 balance. It is so simple yet so many people were never taught this, including me, until I discovered it. It changed my life! People tell you to breathe more thinking you will get more oxygen but they don't get that you need to consume CO2. So read that page, then follow my Quick Guide EXACTLY as I wrote it here: http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showthread.php?9512-The-Quick-Guide-to-Stopping-Panic-Attacks

Since you have been diagnosed as no problem just anxiety, or I assume you have, I am asking you to just try this for right now. Read that page, follow my Quick Guide, read more about Buteyko breathing. Give yourself 5 days. Ignore every other advice except an MD or qualified therapist, and just do my Quick Guide. In 5 days if you see no results you can rightfully tell me to fuck off!

I've been reading up on all of what you've recommended here and am definitely taking notes! Anyone who has cured their own panic can give me advice anytime lol! Thank you, I'll keep reading, and I'll keep posted on how I'm feeling after a few days.

[glimmer2525]

What supplement did she tell you to stop taking?

She wanted me to stop taking (for the time being) a Licorice supplement she had me on (intended for adrenal fatigue). It's called Licorice Plus, the supplement also has ashwaghanda in it and a couple other Chinese herbs.

[PanicCured]

Anyone who has cured their own panic can give me advice anytime

Finally a guy here with a brain!

[jessed03]

Finally a guy here with a brain!

Glimmer's a girl.

[gypsylee]

Glimmer's a girl.

So it's not such a surprise she has a brain ;)

[jon mike]

Hi glimmer, in regard to paniccured, this is good advice to take on board, there are many ways to deal with it, this may sound silly when someone said to me, ''what is the worst thing that you think will happen if you cant catch a big breath''? the answer is probably that you will feel uncomfortable for a while until it disappears on its own.
This i know sounds like bullshit and you are probably thinking i am not on the same wave length as you but its actually true.
ask yourself - what will really happen? are you going to feel any worse than you already do in that moment of panic?
exercise is also a great way to deal with over breathing, when your exercising your breathing has changed, how does this affect you? the answer is it dosent. your body will do what it wants to do, education i found was the way out, i over breathed daily for about 15 years when one day i hit a new low being introduced to derealisation/depersonalisation. which of course disappeared once i was educated on breathing. When you feel a moment of relief and dont feel anxious try to take an interest in what is happening to you, you'll probably be fascinated what was happening to you, hope you feel better soon, x

[glimmer2525]

So it's not such a surprise she has a brain ;)

LOL! Thanks for the good laugh guys (and girls of course ;)).

So I've been delving deep into getting my situation under a better handle again, per Panic's advice. And yes, like him, I have full ambitions to actually get this shit cured, and then hopefully I can be of help to others as well. I have to report that I had a setback today though. My dog (who is the absolute love of my life!) had an unexpected and unexplainable seizure this morning and I absolutely flipped. I wanted to be able to remain calm for him, and for me, but I was absolutely freaking terrified. It didn't help that I had family members nearby screaming at me to "get a grip". I gotta say, I still have people in my life who absolutely do not get it and I don't think they ever will.

I was in such a tizzy that I thought I was going to lose consciousness, no shit. It was one of those "Ok, this is the real one, the real deal, I'm either going to faint or die, or possibly shit myself." We had one person on the phone calling the vet, one person screaming at me to calm down, and another one running to get me a paper bag to breathe into. I was sobbing so hard that I couldn't form sentences, it was bad.

The good news is that my dog is OK. he's making me nervous just because I'm scared as hell of something like that happening again, but other than that, he's just a little tired. I'm taking him into the vet for a full check up tomorrow to make sure he doesn't have something else going on, per the vet's advice.

I had to take one of my meds today to get me to calm back down. Between that and the way I was so worked up, I had to take a nap after all was said and done, and ended up having the most unpleasant dreams :(

Another annoying thing is that I've had heart palps for the past 3 nights. I swear I was doing SO good and then this big shit-vortex hit me again.

*sigh*...but I will not give in. Will keep you peeps updated, and again, thank you for reaching out :)

[PanicCured]

If you have what I had, this is how it works: Your respiration center in the bran stem regulates the breathing rhythm and CO2/O2 balance. When you over breathe, it offsets this, so at some point the respiratory centers try to get you to stop breathing so much. So you feel that you can't take in a deep breath anymore because your brain is trying to get the CO2 back. If you read that page I linked you, than you understand that oxygen travels through the red blood cells but it is the Carbon Dioxide that bumps the oxygen out of the cells into the organs, brain, tissues, etc. So when you over breathe and release too much CO2, less oxygen is being released from the red blood cells. You feel tingly hands, dizzy, all the symptoms of hyperventilation.

This was the main driving force in my anxiety was this overbreathing thing. Once I learned this, and practiced reduced breathing exercises, 5 days later my anxiety cut in half! Then I had the rest of the anxiety to cure, but it was night and day once I got a grip on the breathing thing.

I am saying this to you assuming you have no lung problem, and that you have what I had which is chronic overbreathing. So when you say you can't take a deep breath, do you mean you lack a satisfactory breath, but yet you are indeed breathing appropriately?

Patrick McKeown told me normal breathing at rest you should barely see movement in the body.

[jessed03]

Even Charles Linden talks about the importance of proper breathing. I think breathing and posture and two of his 9 pillars.

[gypsylee]

Patrick McKeown told me normal breathing at rest you should barely see movement in the body.

Yeah I'm not sure Patrick McKeown is actually breathing correctly..

[PanicCured]

Yeah I'm not sure Patrick McKeown is actually breathing correctly..

Patrick McKeown, certified Buteyko breathing practitioner, certified by Dr. Buteyko himself in Russia, knows a thing or 2 about breathing. If you look at a body at rest properly breathing you see a slight movement in the belly but not much. Correct breathing is through the nose. The breathing increases as one exercises because the breathing rate matches the breathing metabolism. But it should MATCH it. In extreme exercise there can come a time when mouth breathing is appropriate. I suggest you understand the science of breathing before you criticize a master of the field. Someone who was one of the biggest influences in me getting my anxiety better. He knows what he is talking about.

[gypsylee]

Patrick McKeown, certified Buteyko breathing practitioner, certified by Dr. Buteyko himself in Russia, knows a thing or 2 about breathing. If you look at a body at rest properly breathing you see a slight movement in the belly but not much. Correct breathing is through the nose. The breathing increases as one exercises because the breathing rate matches the breathing metabolism. But it should MATCH it. In extreme exercise there can come a time when mouth breathing is appropriate. I suggest you understand the science of breathing before you criticize a master of the field. Someone who was one of the biggest influences in me getting my anxiety better. He knows what he is talking about.

Ok what I meant was I'm not sure that method of breathing is the best for treating anxiety. It's more for asthmatics no? With anxiety you want deep breaths that stimulate the Vagus nerve (on the exhale). We (anxiety sufferers) don't need to breathe less *overall*, we need to breathe deeper, less often. So all you need to know really is how to breathe with your diaphragm. Deep (diaphragmatic) breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which slows the heart rate - that's all anxiety sufferers need to practice.

[PanicCured]

Ok what I meant was I'm not sure that method of breathing is the best for treating anxiety. It's more for asthmatics no? With anxiety you want deep breaths that stimulate the Vagus nerve (on the exhale). We (anxiety sufferers) don't need to breathe less *overall*, we need to breathe deeper, less often. So all you need to know really is how to breathe with your diaphragm. Deep (diaphragmatic) breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which slows the heart rate - that's all anxiety sufferers need to practice.

I am giving solid advice to help her. I really don't like it when I take my time to help someone with advice I know works, and someone gets in the middle of it. Let me do my thing. I don't just throw out bullshit, I know what I;m talking about. Go study Dr. Buteyko's research and you will understand it. Breath in diaphragm is secondary to breathing less. Breathing into diaphragm and less is the correct combo. But it isn't "less" it is light and calm and the appropriate rhythm which is so light you barely can see it. I explained this very well to the OP and that is what matters. I had extreme anxiety with major overbreathing problems and now I do not. That is what matters. Go read Patrick McKeown's book if you want.

[gypsylee]

I am giving solid advice to help her. I really don't like it when I take my time to help someone with advice I know works, and someone gets in the middle of it. Let me do my thing. I don't just throw out bullshit, I know what I;m talking about. Go study Dr. Buteyko's research and you will understand it. Breath in diaphragm is secondary to breathing less. Breathing into diaphragm and less is the correct combo. But it isn't "less" it is light and calm and the appropriate rhythm which is so light you barely can see it. I explained this very well to the OP and that is what matters. I had extreme anxiety with major overbreathing problems and now I do not. That is what matters. Go read Patrick McKeown's book if you want.

So it's like anxiety forum cock blocking? Lololol :P

[PanicCured]

So it's like anxiety forum cock blocking? Lololol :P

I'm glad you find it funny that someone comes on here suffering seeking help, in which I take time out of my day to help this person, and then you get in the middle blocking what I am trying to accomplish. I will have to PM the OP off the forum in order to further help her.

[gypsylee]

I'm glad you find it funny that someone comes on here suffering seeking help, in which I take time out of my day to help this person, and then you get in the middle blocking what I am trying to accomplish. I will have to PM the OP off the forum in order to further help her.

Chill out PC! I'm sure glimmer can deal with other opinions.