I Can't Breathe

[intothelight]

Hi Everyone,

I need some suggestions for what I believe is anxiety (I am checking w/ my doctor today).

Every time I have stress (good, bad, minor, etc.), I feel like someone put a large rock on my chest. Add a few rocks and I can't breathe. When I feel like I am suffocating, the adrenaline pumps and I end up hyperventilating, shaking and feeling like I am capable of "jumping out of my skin".

Before the PTSD diagnosis, I was prescribed anti-anxiety drugs. But the anti-anxiety drugs triggered depression and it was basically a vicious cycle. I don't want to be an experiment any more.

The things I do now to reduce the intensity are no caffeine, exercising (cardio and weights) for an hour a day, and deep breathing.

Any other ideas?

Thank you.
Intothelight



If anyone has suggestions, I am willing to try.

 

[Mary]

When I am having panic attacks, I feel like my chest is caving in because my shoulders are slowly pressing forward with each shock. Over time, this is really painful on my muscles. It feels like I am being stabbed, and the powerful fear in my head tries to tell me something very physically serious is going on, so it is important that I know in my heart that I am not really being stabbed/having a heart attack/dying/etc. Are your "rocks" muscular knots/tensing?

Three things I do to directly influence the effects anxiety has on my muscles:

1) Practice gentle, relaxing yoga. Practice (to develop my habitual body-understanding) gentle, relaxing yoga (as opposed to some of the more intense "power" or "hot" yogas which does a different kind of work).

I attend class once a week with a professional guide and then intermittently practice on my own at home, sometimes for just a few minutes, perhaps with the help of a tape or video. I have been doing this for several years and now can relax most muscles on demand even during my worst stress.

2) Professional massage therapy. Professional massage therapy with a trusted woman from my community increases my body-aware of where I hold tension. I have massage more often during really bad periods, because it is much harder to release all of those muscles myself. There are just so many. My massage therapist has the training to really release all of those muscles. If I am having a lot of simultaneous panic attacks for days on end, this is the only release my muscles may get. For me, having that relief is really important during a very difficult time. I am now also able to do limited self-massage using my hands and a Thera Cane.

3) Trigger points. From my visit to a chiropractor and time spent with a friend with training in massage, I have learned several trigger points I can hit (sometimes with the help of the Thera Cane or a tennis ball) to release certain muscles that bind up over and over again. I worked on my jaw first and cured myself of stress-clicking within a year. Now I get stress-headaches maybe 4 times a year. I used to get them as many times a week.

Finally: if I control the breath, I influence my panic system, so I use deep belly breathing to control my breathing and influence my panic system. My counselor prescribed practicing deep belly breathing for five minutes daily while picturing a little hill. On the in-breath, I envision a ball rolling up the hill, where it pauses, and then falls to the other side on the out-breath. Over and over. Any simple visual will serve the purpose, but that is an easy one. Fortunately, the physical movement of belly breathing is taught in my yoga class, so I get extra help on this there, and then just add the visualization.

For all of these copes, practice has been the way. I have seen tremendous progress over the last couple of years.

Hang in there.

Mary

 

[intothelight]

Hi Mary,

Thank you for the good advice. I signed up for Yoga at the Y today.

Intothelight

 

[Mary]

You're welcome. Enjoy stretching and breathing. :)

Mary

 

[Tinyflame]

Hello intothelight,

This may not be helpful, but I have found for me the reverse is also true: when I (physically) have a hard time breathing (in a hugely strong wind, etc), it feels like it's going to cause/ does cause me an anxiety attack.

If you are having an anxiety attack and hyperventilating, it's actually exascerbated by too much oxygen. Breath into a paper bag (put it over your mouth only, as I recall (nose out).

If you can't get 'air' or have chest pains for any reason or feel like the anxiety is increasing, try deep-breathing: breath in your nose, out your mouth, let your 'belly' stick out. You get 5x the capacity per breath than shallow breathing. -Reduces anxiety.