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Holding breath

Charlotte
over 1 year ago

Hello. I suffer from anxiety I have GAD. Lately I'm feeling very stressed and anxious every day and it's affecting my daily life. There's just so much stress everywhere it's really horrible. I dread every day and my body aches and feels tight.

When I feel stressed out and the anxiety causes my body to feel like it's alight I've suddenly started holding my breath. I don't know why. It's almost like I get this feeling that says hold your breath and the anxiety can't touch you. It's weird but it does start to help, I feel my body start to calm itself and everything feels light almost like I'm starting to fly. But the problem is I start to feel unwell after a while and get a little dizzy. I realise I probably shouldn't do this but a bit like stabbing my arms with my nails it's a habit and I can't stop it.

I'm not going out at the moment but soon I'll have to with family and I'm worried that I'll hold my breath then and I'm not sure what to do about it. 

Any advice or tips are welcome.

Parents
  • over 1 year ago

    Hi Charlotte, welcome to the community. I'm sorry to hear your situation and what you're going through.

    It's worrying to hear about how you hold your breath when your anxiety gets triggered. It's important that you know that holding your breath for a long time can be damaging to your health and wellbeing. Your body sensors will detect that oxygen isn't coming in anymore and this will cause a number of things like dizziness, if you continue to hold your breath it will lead your body to reset itself i.e you'll pass out, at which point your breathing will return to normal. But doing this can cause issues for your heart and even seizures. You could hit your head as well if you faint.

    The National Autistic Society has a page on anxiety which you may want to take a look at. It has a few resources as well which might help you.

    www.autism.org.uk/.../anxiety

    Finding something else to do instead of holding your breath is a good idea to. Could be a ball to squeeze or maybe an elastic band to pull. 

    I hope this is of some help to you.

    Please take care.

    Luna x

Reply
  • over 1 year ago

    Hi Charlotte, welcome to the community. I'm sorry to hear your situation and what you're going through.

    It's worrying to hear about how you hold your breath when your anxiety gets triggered. It's important that you know that holding your breath for a long time can be damaging to your health and wellbeing. Your body sensors will detect that oxygen isn't coming in anymore and this will cause a number of things like dizziness, if you continue to hold your breath it will lead your body to reset itself i.e you'll pass out, at which point your breathing will return to normal. But doing this can cause issues for your heart and even seizures. You could hit your head as well if you faint.

    The National Autistic Society has a page on anxiety which you may want to take a look at. It has a few resources as well which might help you.

    www.autism.org.uk/.../anxiety

    Finding something else to do instead of holding your breath is a good idea to. Could be a ball to squeeze or maybe an elastic band to pull. 

    I hope this is of some help to you.

    Please take care.

    Luna x

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