how do you stop manually breathing?

[bitanoken]

for a bit now i've been way too focused on my breathing and it's making me feel so much worse. i've looked it up a lot and most everything says its anxiety (my mom says that as well as she also has anxiety). i know i need to calm down but it's very hard. my breathing is better when i'm eating so i know my lungs are most likely fine or decent at least. any tips?

edit: i already asked on another forum but i bought some 5-HTP last night and i'd like to know how well it works. i have both asthma and my other breathing issues so i want to know if it'll interact. i've looked it up but i'm still not sure if i should take it.

[Darryl Partner]

It’s hard. There are things like meditation and yoga breathing techniques but for now, please accept my empathy.

[bitanoken in reply to Darryl]

thank you so much :"^)

[Hidden]

Breathing is autonomous so if you stop thinking about it will occur naturally. I’ve always been a very shallow breather.

[hifiveulation]

This is definitely a classic case of anxiety! For myself, I have anxiety and also OCD, and as part of my OCD I have had times in my life where I become actively aware of my breathing and then I fixate on it and obsess about it to the point that I can't stop focusing on every breath and almost start to convince myself I'm not even taking those breaths properly.

What has worked best for me personally is a combination of mental reasoning and distraction. I have breathed just fine for years and years before I ever stopped to think about it, and I will breathe just fine after I stop thinking about it again. Everyone around us is breathing just fine, too, and most of them aren't thinking about it or manually doing it. Just as our heart beats all day long and our blood travels through out veins without us having to manually think about it, so do we breathe. Sure, we CAN manually breathe, which is different from those other functions that are purely automatic, but we don't have to. Just as we were given a heart with an automatic function in our bodies to keep us alive, we were given lungs so that they can perform the automatic function of breathing to keep our system going. Trust that your body is going to do what it was programmed to do the same as it always has--even when you stop fixating on it. Just know that this really is your head playing mental tricks on you and that you really and truly are okay. Everything is okay. You are alive and well and breathing and it's all going to happen even if you don't think about it. The anxiety wants control and, as hard as it may be, we can take some of that control back in time.

[Odd1]

I feel the same way i think it is anxiety i hope u feel better by now

[yungvera]

try focusing on your breath (or controlling your breath) and something that is happening in the moment and it will eventually go away.