I suffer with panic attacks and anxiety, to the point now where everyday day unless I'm sleeping I watch my breathing, taking deep breaths even thought I don't need to, am I the only one who has this problem? And what do you do to stop this?
Jordan,
Panic attacks and anxiety are very very hard. I know you will get through this.
Have you talked to your doctor about this? Or a therapist or a psychiatrist? That is the first thing you need to do. They would be able to recommend plenty of things to help.
The one thing that helped the most for me was reading a particular book. I have already got in trouble for stating the name of this book, but what I did was I looked up highly rated and reviewed books about panic attacks on Amazon.
I read a few pages a day, and honestly if you pick a good one, it will teach you how to change your mindset. It will help you combat panic. It has helped me so much. I rarely have panic attacks anymore. I still have general anxiety disorder, but a huge step was that panic was gone from my life.
God Bless you on your journey Jordan!
Hi Jordan,
This is extremely common with anxiety. I am going through the same thing at the moment, i cannot stop obsessing over my breathing which ultimately makes me feel like i can't breathe, then the fear starts and the thoughts arrive and im stuck in the loop. Making some progress though.
I used to do the same thing. I have asthma so one of my big anxieties was breathing related. We often give ourselves nervous ticks as coping mechanisms... For me I would pull my hair... Unfortunately some of these ticks can make our anxiety worse. (pulling on my hair gave me a tender scalp.. Which made me think there was something wrong with my head) my therapist had me wear a rubber band a snap it lightly on my wrist instead... For whatever reason that helped me tremendously.
Also I recommend doing breathing techniques three times a day. You can Google them your find walk through on YouTube.
Hope this helped! Good luck!
Is there any way you can give me the book name through a message or something? I'm struggling with this, I think I've overcome everything else it's just this breathing and a bit of pain in my chest but I've been doctors so many times I know that I'm okay. So it's just this last stumbling block..
How are you making progress, what are you doing differently? I try so many things, one thing that doesn't help is my job.. I'm a post man so I'm always active so my breathing is up and down due to running up and downstairs and stuff.. it's difficult
I have also been doctors they offerd me tablets but I declined them because I suffered 10 years ago and they went for 10 years.. my son was born 4 months ago and bang they came back.. I'm going to a therapy session Monday and I'm also looking into hypnosis..
Slow progress! I recommend reading the book DARE by Barry Mcdonagh. It helps you to understand whats happening and how you should be dealing with the thoughts and feelings you get. I listen to the audio book most days at work. I've stopped drinking tea and have been drinking more water which is an easy win - it helps. I've had a few days where i have completely forgotten about the symptom so it has completely disappeared - that has helped me realize that i am the reason it is so bad. Take care and don;t be too hard on yourself, it will eventually pass and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.
You need to know the proper way to breathe to reduce anxiety. Go to YouTube and look up Mindfulness breathing Guided meditation 10 minutes . It's short and important to know. Use earbuds if you have them.
In addition, there are other meditations on YouTube including ones for panic attacks, sleep, anxiety, etc. 🙂
Its called D.A.R.E. I guess it's fine if I'm not spamming the book on the forum. Oh wait so you don't experience panic attacks anymore? Just have a hard time breathing?
I hope it helps. Please update me.