how have you been??? im dealing with this currently.. it started a few months back 4 or 5 months back i started feeling like i was having heart problems which scared me because it runs in my family.. that finally stopped but its like it just turned into breathing problems and i tend to convince myself its all kinds of things it's definitely the worst at night when i try to go to sleep it keeps me up half the night which sucks cause i work early in the mornings but even when exhausted i dread night time because i know its going to happen ive always had anxiety but this is the first time its taken control like this ive stopped smoking marijuana ive stopped drinking energy drinks smoking cigarettes i even stopped drinking sodas to see if it was caffeine from them and its still happening. all day long i am fine but night time is always a freaking nightmare...
Hi Natalie,
It's been 4 days since I was rushed to the hospital thinking that I was having a heart attack.
I thought I was the only one facing this issue. My chest feels slightly tensed.
I do force myself to breath as it automatically stops. If I am breathing via my nose I feel like I am not breathing air so I need to breath via my mouth and take deep breathes.
I had ECG, Heart ultra sound, blood, urine test done & CT scan. All my results have come back fine.
I really don't know what has caused this & why I am feeling like this. I do not really have any worries.
I really hate this feeling. I know its my anxiety kicking in. I am so focused on my breathing & it's annoying.
Hi,
How are you coping with this? so for years I've had this thing where I hold my breath and hold it for longer than I should and have to sort of jerk myself out of it to be able to exhale.
I will often exhale lots of little breaths and make a weird noise (typing this makes me sound so ridiculous!) or I have the opposite where I inhale lots of little breaths.
I will also often clench my back teeth on my tongue.
it usually only lasts a few days but it's been over a week now and it tires me out so much and I try to maintime a normal life like still going to work but if someone asks me a questions or I'm in the middle of a sentence I can't speak because I'm either holding my breath or trying to force myself to exhale.
I've no idea why I do it and have not seen a doctor. I don't feel stressed, or at least nothing that I can pin point that I would think was anxiety or stress but it's more a habit. I don't know. maybe I am anxious.
has it worked for you?
You don't have to keep dealing with this. The only thing sustaining it is that it's scary and so the mind finds it interesting to think about. I have had this several times in my life and it always goes away because my brain always loses interest in it and forgets it.
Think of this time as a good thing as it gives you a chance to remove a lot of the fear for the next time it comes around so it will go away even faster!
I also find if i lay down and place my hand on my lower stomache it helps to let my natural breathing take over :)
Don't be so afraid of it my friend. I have had this many times in life and I always forget about it! It get's boring eventually once we stop fearing it so we just forget about it.
it's not really manually breathing you are doing more than tensing up around your diaphragm when you breath creating a sensation and then panicking when you don't feel that sensation... at least this is in my case! :D
Breathing is out of our control no matter how much we try to control it and so no matter what you do your body going to breath haha. all these little worries: -What if I am not breathing enough? -What if I breath too much? -What if I am stuck like this forever!?
None of them hold any truth so you will feel safer to accept that and wait patiently for your brain to get bored of manually thinking about breathing! :D
It is 4 am here and I cannot sleep because of this stupid thing. It all started yesterday when I woke up at night gasping for oxygen. It feels like you are about to die because of not breathing while the reality is that I don't breath because I panic about not breathing. It can be less intense especially when I am busy with work but at nights it happens a lot. it happened like 10 times in the last 30 minutes. when I think about it it can happen every minute actually. I had all these stupid symptoms about 6-7 years ago but they all went away so I am kinda hopeful it will go away again. It is the feeling like something is in my trout hat doesn't allow me to breath to I eventually gasp for oxygen. My mouth gets dry because I try to swallow my saliva repeatedly to make room for breathing. I have general anxiety disorder but nothing crazy like this. The last time I experienced something like this was like 6-7 years ago....To everyone seeing this, I went through this ordeal one and let me tell you it is just stupid mind trick your mind plays like any other OCD. It will go away eventually and we are all in this together and will be fine eventually. Just remember, it is a stupid trick your brain plays. you are not stop breathing, it is the second you think about it that makes you tense up and then make you panicky about being tense. Human brain is such as complex phenomena. I have a lot of homework to do tomorrow :(((( I don't want to go to bed feeling this way :/
I hope one day one time these will go away on its own.... It's been 5 months for me since I started experiencing this thing, my baby is 5 months old and since I gave birth have never stopped focusing on my breath and it has affected me in many ways, at times I feel like something is stuck on my throat, my chest being heavy and mostly affects me when maybe driving am unable to breath in and out properly I find myself controlling my breath.... These has been too much for me.. I hope I'll overcome these because it has affected me and my little baby since I can't focus on her I focus more on my breath....
so......I was just surfing for some advice on the "manual breathing" topic and stumbled on this forum. I am 100% convinced that this is a stress thing however I am also considering the possibility that I am sometimes initiating the process when my heart rate increases after some food and especially the higher carb stuff. I eat ....heart rate gets a little elevated......i get nervous about it and start the breathing thing. i will also add that i am a super anxious person and poster child for ADHD. my stress level is often very high and worrying about that has a snowball effect on my physical and mental health. Here are some of the things that are helping me currently: i have been trying to learn about why am am the way that I am. forums like this are helpful but i am being careful not to get sucked into the doom and gloom theories that can very easily make you feel like you have every infliction under the sun. I have been able to forget about the controlled breathing specifically by just doing something to divert my attention but it definitely requires action..... getting up..... walking even just around the room.....just typing this message has calmed me down big-time. last resort is a xanax. really. This work most times but i don't want to get too used to eating pills for everything and i do feel like i will figure it out once and for all. I'm kinda shocked and truly concerned about the people who are struggling here and even to the point of giving up. i feel all of that from time to time as well so i feel your pain. I was going to apologize for the long-winded response but i guess this is why we are here.....to talk about our issues......to discover that we are not alone and to share some advice and our findings as we take control. i feel a lot better already......for now..... but it's progress. i hope you guys are okay. Charlie
Your automatic breathing probably did not actually stop, if it did, you would have gone to sleep and not woken up. I have been battling this issue myself what will be a year in july with no end in sight. What you are not realizing, is this is actually only happening to you while you are focused on it, but there are certainly times throughout the day when you are breathing, and you dont realize it, because you arent focused on it, but there is a moment where you are holding your breath which happens then you become focused on it and you cannot automatically breathe and it is very scary. There is something called box breathing. It's something the was developed for military use to keep calm in combat, I believe initially it was a Navy Seal thing or something. I dunno the web is full of mis information. IT WORKS. Box breathing is inhaling 4 seconds, hold 4 seconds, exhale 4 seconds, hold 4 seconds. Keep repeating that pattern for anywhere from 1 to 20 minutes. As long as it takes for your heart rate to get to your normal resting rate. Whether that is 60/70/80. Once you achieve that heart rate, continue breathing for one more minute. This will stimulate your vagus nerve and should relax you. if box breathing is too difficult there is a 5;5 breathing pattern. That is simply breathing in for 5 seconds, hold for 2 seconds, exhale for 5 seconds. I find this works, but not as well as box breathing. Also research Vagus Nerve inflammation. You will learn alot of what is happening when your Vagus Nerve is upset and the havoc it wreaks on people. You may need to adjust your diet, sleep, daily routines a little bit. For me its my gut. I dont eat right and that irritation is inflaming my vagus nerve and messing with my respiration and heart rate. When I eat clean for a week or so and drink the right amount of water, guess what, it all goes away.
hello,
i have this annoying thing! i really thought i was the only one. had it for about a year now. started off with my chest (still is sometimes). feels tight, sudden rapid heart rate, feeling faint, sweaty, fear my heart will stop.
then for no reason it switched to breathing. numerous times throughout the day, i will unwillingly concentrate on my breathing and (what feels like) be made to breathe for myself or manually breathe. thing is, its like a habit - i cant not do it, i cant just think oh im doing it again id better stop and it goes. it just happens and for 10minutes to an hour, i feel its necessary for me to manually breathe. only stops when my brain forgets about it by concentrating on something else. definitely worse at night, a million times worse. takes me hours to get to sleep. theres nothing to distract, and its been so long the habit is there to 'manually breathe'. so frustrating. i feel stupid to go to the doctors. i also find it at its worst in loud situations. walking down a busy road is a nightmare as i often feel like i have to hear myself breathe. and now thats a habit, i can barely bring myself to leave the house.
in an ideal world, i feel like the best remedy would be like hypnosis or whatever. if i could be made to forget the habit, it would be gone just like that. assuming inwould fall back into the vicious cycle.
anyone overcome this? like forever? i would really love to hear how. ive tried breathing exercises but they dont work. i mean use manual breathing to combat manual breathing? nope.
i just really want to be free.. i feel like a prisoner.
thanks if anyone replies.
I have gastric problem for nearly a year now and was sometimes facing chest tightness. i recently came in contact with covid patient, and coincidentally my chest congestion increased i thought it could be that i am positive but i didn't had any of the symptoms. i started to fear more and was constantly worrying and searching more online for solutions. i googled and it showed different kind of diseases due to which i was getting mad and then i felt i cant breath properly and then i just kept focusing on my breath. I continuously focused on my breath for two days and got sick of it. I was getting crazy, then i told this to my parents they told me to pray to lord and have belief and dont constantly worry. I tried to not focus on my problem and believed that i will breath even if i dont focus. I realized due to fear my mind was doing this to me. Then i started to focus less on myself and stop thinking about it, soon all my fear shed away and i was all ok. I made this account to only answer this post hope it will help you all because i think all of you may be facing similar kind of problem and nothing worse. dont lose hope and draw your attention to something else, i think its fear which is causing you that you cant breathe automatically, because you are doing so in sleep. hope it will help dont worry all will be okay, and it may take some time so dont give up and believe me shed your fear.
half of my anxiety (i dint even know it is anxiety) is gone just by reading that i am not the only one. I tried breathing technique, really helps. Thanks.
I'v been dealing with this for about half a year now and its completely de-railed my life. I have the same primary symptom that everyone here is describing (unexplained breathlessness) but what worries me is that this happens at night while I'm sleeping (or trying to). Some people with this have reported being able to sleep while others have insomnia because of it... I'm definitely in the latter category. As i'm laying there at night, i feel like i'm being suffocated. This feeling is 24/7. Day and night. Does anyone else experience this feeling of suffocation at night aswell?
Wow, so many people who are dealing with this crazy thing. I have it for 1,5 year. It's excausting. It is less when im busy. But I cant read a book, enjoy the sun or watch a movie (etc) without focusing on my breath. Has anyone overcome this? Did it go away?
Wow, so many people who are dealing with this crazy thing. I have it for 1,5 year. It's excausting. It is less when im busy. But I cant read a book, enjoy the sun or watch a movie (etc) without focusing on my breath. Has anyone overcome this? Did it go away?
Hi there, have you got better yet? Your thread makes me know that I'm not alone, I really appreciate it.
I'm in the exact situation, but whenever I try to explain to doctors/psychologists via online (due to pandemic), they just say that it maybe due to "your thinking" and "there is no way you cannot breathe when you are speaking well like this" even though I try to describe how my body "forget" to automatically breathe. I have felt so lonely and scared, especially when I'm positive to Covid-19 (I'm under treatment and my PCR CT is over 37). I feel that the doctors/psychologists think that I just make it up and take my problem lightly despite my effort explaining the situation. Though I confirmed that the symptom had happened before I knew I got Covid-19, they insisted on claiming that this symptom was the result of me worrying about getting Covid-19.
hope things get better for you, we are in the same ship. I have tried breathing exercises too, but they have not been effective :(
Have you explained this to any doctors/psychologists yet? I tried many times but they thought that it was like a thing that I made up.
Hypnosis sounds like a good idea. I think I'll give it a try. Thank you for this idea, hope we'll get our normal breathing in the near future!
Your reply makes me feel calmer <3 I hope my brain would become normal again if I keep a better lifestyle with nutritious meals, less stress, and regular exercises
Update: I reached out to another doctor and was diagnosed that these symptoms may relate to hysteria.