Health: Hyperventilation – Anxiety & Panic

Hyperventilation – Anxiety & Panic

Written by Joanne King

I have written in past articles about shortness of breath. Hyperventilation is somewhat different to shortness of breath. Let me explain.

Shortness of breath is shallow short quick breaths. Hyperventilation is quick “deep” breaths. The biggest cause of hyperventilation is anxiety. Of course there can be other underlying causes; an emotional outburst can cause hyperventilation.

I experienced hyperventilation a few times in my anxiety and panic days and I can assure repparttar experience is quite frightening. It was usually triggered by a thought, often in fear that I was unable to breathe.

In repparttar 138483 old days hyperventilation was treated with repparttar 138484 old “paper bag” trick. In some places this method is still practiced. I have read many contradicting arguments on repparttar 138485 “paper bag” method and personally I just prefer not to use nor recommend this method to anyone.

I do have a much simpler method of calming hyperventilation down and it doesn’t require carrying anything around.

Now first off, if you are repparttar 138486 person witnessing someone hyperventilate, try to reassure and comfort repparttar 138487 patient. If you can remove repparttar 138488 “fear” or anxious” provoking thing, do so. I have a mate that is absolutely petrified of cockroaches, every time she would see one she would begin screaming and hyperventilate. Simple fix, I’d remove repparttar 138489 cockroach from her sight.

Shortness of Breath – Anxiety & Panic

Written by Joanne King

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most common symptom of them all with anxiety & panic is shortness of breath; some also describe it as a smothering sensation, or feeling like they are suffocating, like there is no air around them.

This is often repparttar 138471 first symptom that will trigger off a panic attack. As soon as repparttar 138472 sufferer feels they cannot breathe then repparttar 138473 heart begins to race 50 to repparttar 138474 dozen, then you begin to feel dizzy like your going to pass out and that’s when repparttar 138475 fear of death hits you dead in your tracks.

Or of course, you could feel short of breath, then dizzy (or light-headed), then racing heart beat then scared to your wits end that your going to die or pass-out.

If you’ve ever felt this sensation before, then you should be aware that this is classic symptoms of a panic attack.

It can hit anytime, anywhere. Heck, I used to get this one a lot while driving in my car. And anyone who can relate to that knows that is dam frightening! Because now you’re afraid you’re going to have a car accident with it!

The most important thing in this scenario is to deal with repparttar 138476 first symptom. The shortness of breath. I will begin by explaining to you why you feel repparttar 138477 shortness of breath.

The blunt of it is obviously poor breathing technique, which apparently majority of repparttar 138478 world does not breathe properly. But for repparttar 138479 anxiety sufferer it’s usually much more predominant. The anxiety sufferer takes very short quick breaths, therefore not allowing sufficient amount of air flow to your lungs and body.

Here is a quick test you can perform right now on yourself to see if you are breathing correctly. Place your hand between your chest and stomach area, as you breathe in is your chest and stomach area rising? As you breathe out does your hand fall with your stomach and chest?

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