Aged 35 and forgotten how to breathe properly!

[alonso713]

For the last two months I've been having what I've been calling shortness of breath but really it's a constant urge to breathe in deeply and catch my breath. Often I'm successful and it's satisfying. More often it's not and I spend a lot of time trying to get that satisfying feeling. I know other people will have this but I just wondered how often. I can stop it for a few hours and think it's disappeared but then I'll try to take a deep breath and it doesn't happen. So the cycle begins again. I went to the docs after a month and she agreed it sounded anxiety related. I can forget about it when busy and I'm not gasping for air when walking. Any tips on how to break what seems to be a habit?

[Zazzel]

I'm 52 and had this issue most of my life at different times. First off, there may be some things your doctors are overlooking like allergies or food intolerances that are causing it in addition to anxiety. I noticed recently I was having a lot more issues. The tree pollen count is particularly high here now. Even though I've been tested for allergies and come up negative on these trees, I'm still having a reaction. Then, when I start having trouble breathing, it gets much worse when I think about it and I feel like I can't get a full breathe in. There are certain foods and smells that also cause this issue for me as I have an intolerance. I don't have an allergy so they aren't showing up on allergy tests so the doctors always told me it was anxiety causing the breathing issues. Certain seasons it's worse. I am slightly allergic to ragweed, so during that season, I can't eat apples or zucchini as they are part of the ragweed family. I eat them the rest of the year with no issues. I often forget that as it happens only once a year so get really anxious when I start having trouble out of the blue. Then, I focus on not breathing and it makes it worse.

In the last year or do, I started doing deep breathing on a daily basis. Take in a deep breathe, hold it for 3 seconds, then let it go. I've also started practicing meditation, reading my bible and being more grateful throughout the day and pray, doing sleep hypnosis and yoga as well as limiting sugar. All of these things have helped my anxiety level and my breathing. Now when I start having breathing problems, I make a mental note of what I've eaten to see if that might have caused the issue. If it did, then I tell myself that the reaction will pass or I take an allergy pill if it's really bad.

If a stressful event brings on the breathing issues and I end up in a panic attack mode, I take deep breathes and tell myself that it will pass. I try to take a time out for myself. Move to a different room or excuse myself if I'm with others and go to place where I can close my eyes for a few minutes and take in deep breathes reminding myself over and over that it will pass, then I consciously make myself forget about it. Now I go longer periods without any issues.

If it's brought on by no apparent reason, than your direction of doing something to distract yourself is a great option. The more you think about it, the worse it gets and the harder it is to breathe. Distract your mind from thinking. Turn it off. That takes training practice on your part to learn to control your mind which can be done using one or more of the methods I listed above- yoga, meditation, sleep hypnosis, prayer, mindfulness, gratefulness.

Check out Ekhart Tolles's book " the Poer of Now."