Aa
Can't stop thinking about my breathing
Hey, I haven't been able to stop thinking about my breathing for the past two days. It all started when my teacher mentioned about involuntary breathing. I had experienced this before, but this time I have trouble sleeping, and the moment I wake up I think about it. I tell my parents about it but they think it's a small matter. Someone pls help me, I want my sleep. Btw I'm 16 this year
i go through this all the time. sometimes i concentrate so hard on my breathing that i pass out
Hi everyone – Hugs to you all, but the good news is that you're not alone and this is a real, treatable mental issue. It's consistent with what's called sensorimotor OCD (it's considered a "pure-O OCD" – meaning the main compulsion is just obsessing about the obsession, usually something that we did involuntarily before we started overthinking it). I have this, as well – it's terrible but there is a way to treat it, which is via ERP (exposure-response prevention) which basically teaches you to learn to live with the anxiety since resisting it makes it a lot worse. Please seek out a therapist who can help you – there are lots who specialize in this specifically. Good luck. You are not alone, and you will get through this :)
See if telling him to purposefully focus on his breath as much as he can helps and let it be basically. I'm still suffering from this kind of problem but I have noticed a massive decrease in anxiety from doing so and hopefully it will go away soon altogether as well as the symptoms and awareness.
My son (11) goes through this. He is in his second month of daily panic attacks, especially in the evening.I feel like no matter how I explain to him what is really going on (anxiety and not a real health problem) he does not understand. He had a few sessions with a psychotherapist already, but does not seem to improve anything. We took him to the family doctor for a check up to reassure him. Nothing we try seems to help and the problem is getting worse. How do you explain this to an 11 year old completely frightened about what is going on with him?
Very helpful comment YourSavior! And honestly all of you made me feel better knowing im not alone. I've had this for 3 years now and no one was able to understand me, so i just stopped trying to explain.
Wow, I feel terrible that I haven't found this thread sooner. Everybody please read my entire post thoroughly (ENTIRE POST). I will provide insight on exactly what it is that's happening to you and how to solve this problem.
First off lets go over exactly what it is that's happening here. Before you began to have this issue, your mind functioned in what seemed to be a completely normal manner (it is still functioning completely normal - I will explain). You used to go about your day with your mind drifting from reality to daydreaming and back to reality. In the past, when something was stressing you out, it would sit in the back of your mind and cause elevated stress/anxiety levels. You would watch TV or try to do something to get your mind off it. This would help at times but it never completely got rid of what was bothering you. Your anxiety levels would temporarily subside until you went back to thinking about your problem and the stress would come on again.
So now think about a stressful situation you've had in the past. Think about how you went about solving that problem and removing the stress. There are two ways to do this successfully.
1) Take action to fix the problem (Example: Lost Job > Feel Stressed > Find New Job > Stress Alleviated)
2) Reassess the way your mind is perceiving a situation (Example: Divorced by Spouse > You Feel Stressed and Believe You Will Never Be Happy Again > Realize This is Not True By Any Means and Things Will Be Fine > Stress Alleviated)
(we will be focusing on method #2)
Now lets see where this breathing situation falls within all of this. The first moment you breathed manually, it slightly surprised you. It was surprising that you lived your entire life not realizing you can breathe manually. Then you intentionally wanted to stop focusing on your breathing and get back to your regular flow of thoughts. This was not so simple. The more you tried, the more difficult it seemed. This vicious cycle repeated itself until your anxiety/stress levels were elevated. Your mind then perceived manual breathing as a threat. Each of us have a part of our brain that assesses threats (known as the fight-or-flight center). Whenever a threat is perceived by the brain, this area of the brain takes over and raises your anxiety levels. We need this part of our brain to survive. If a lion leaps in front of you, it is this part of your brain that has you sprinting away as fast as possible. This part of the brain is what is at the epicenter of your breathing problem.
So now that you have a better idea of what it is that's happening, I will now teach you how to get past this. I know what you're thinking, maybe this won't work. Maybe what he is about to say worked for some people, but it won't work for me. Well, let me assure you - I, as well as thousands of psychologists and cognitive behavior therapists, are one hundred percent sure this will work if you follow through with it and trust us. If you end up having issues taking these steps on your own, I would strongly suggest seeing a cognitive behavior therapist to assist you with this process. You won't be the first person to come to them with this problem, and certainly not the last either.
Okay, first off I would like you to start things off with a simple exercise. I want you to grab your favorite book or open a webpage with some content you are interested in reading. Now before you begin to read this material, I need you to make a conscious effort to focus on your breathing throughout. That's right, focus on your breathing while reading. Every now and then if you forget about your breathing, shift your focus back to it. The longer you can focus on your breathing while reading the better. See if you can do it for an entire chapter!
Now your going to realize something when doing this. You keep forgetting about breathing and have to bring your focus back to it. Why is this? Well, it's how the brain works. The mind tends to drift on it's own making it difficult to stay focused on your breathing (ironic huh?). But I want you to keep trying to focus on your breathing, and not just when reading. Watch a movie and try to pay attention to your breathing throughout. Get comfortable with the idea that you want to focus on your breathing.
Now after doing this for a while (a few days) I want you to start trying to take full clean breathes while you are focusing on your breathing. See if every minute or so you can fully inhale and completely exhale. Believe it or not most people's breathing mechanics are poor. By focusing on your breathing and making sure you take deep breathes you are actually promoting your health.
Something else you may notice with this exercise, you can focus on breathing while doing things. That's right guys, the brain can multitask incredibly. You can focus on your breath and also do everything you did before - trust me. Personally, I enjoy focusing on my breathing as much as possible. I honestly wish I could remember to bring my focus to it more often. You must view it as a relaxing and enjoyable experience.
You see the issue right now is your brain associates manual breathing with danger. As if it somehow is threatening to your wellbeing. Your goal is to be comfortable with having your attention on your breath. And you will achieve this the more you work toward it.
Now the next thing I want you to do is learn mindfulness meditation. Books are available on it and guided meditations are also available on youtube. This is a game changer folks. Mindful meditation will teach you how to reach complete mental calmness (nothing to do with religious beliefs so don't worry about conflicting with your faith). It is a truly incredible feeling. This step can not be skipped.
Now the last thing I want you to do. This step goes a little deeper. Your life up until this point has probably been plagued with anxiety to a certain extent. I want you to realize something here. This ordeal could end up having a tremendously positive effect on your life. You now have a better understanding on how anxiety can put your life in a chokehold. You should view getting past this hurdle as just scratching the surface on life. Let this motivate you to learn as much possible about the incredible mind you possess and live a more fulfilling life.
I genuinely hope I have helped some readers out there with handling this. Take care everybody!
First off lets go over exactly what it is that's happening here. Before you began to have this issue, your mind functioned in what seemed to be a completely normal manner (it is still functioning completely normal - I will explain). You used to go about your day with your mind drifting from reality to daydreaming and back to reality. In the past, when something was stressing you out, it would sit in the back of your mind and cause elevated stress/anxiety levels. You would watch TV or try to do something to get your mind off it. This would help at times but it never completely got rid of what was bothering you. Your anxiety levels would temporarily subside until you went back to thinking about your problem and the stress would come on again.
So now think about a stressful situation you've had in the past. Think about how you went about solving that problem and removing the stress. There are two ways to do this successfully.
1) Take action to fix the problem (Example: Lost Job > Feel Stressed > Find New Job > Stress Alleviated)
2) Reassess the way your mind is perceiving a situation (Example: Divorced by Spouse > You Feel Stressed and Believe You Will Never Be Happy Again > Realize This is Not True By Any Means and Things Will Be Fine > Stress Alleviated)
(we will be focusing on method #2)
Now lets see where this breathing situation falls within all of this. The first moment you breathed manually, it slightly surprised you. It was surprising that you lived your entire life not realizing you can breathe manually. Then you intentionally wanted to stop focusing on your breathing and get back to your regular flow of thoughts. This was not so simple. The more you tried, the more difficult it seemed. This vicious cycle repeated itself until your anxiety/stress levels were elevated. Your mind then perceived manual breathing as a threat. Each of us have a part of our brain that assesses threats (known as the fight-or-flight center). Whenever a threat is perceived by the brain, this area of the brain takes over and raises your anxiety levels. We need this part of our brain to survive. If a lion leaps in front of you, it is this part of your brain that has you sprinting away as fast as possible. This part of the brain is what is at the epicenter of your breathing problem.
So now that you have a better idea of what it is that's happening, I will now teach you how to get past this. I know what you're thinking, maybe this won't work. Maybe what he is about to say worked for some people, but it won't work for me. Well, let me assure you - I, as well as thousands of psychologists and cognitive behavior therapists, are one hundred percent sure this will work if you follow through with it and trust us. If you end up having issues taking these steps on your own, I would strongly suggest seeing a cognitive behavior therapist to assist you with this process. You won't be the first person to come to them with this problem, and certainly not the last either.
Okay, first off I would like you to start things off with a simple exercise. I want you to grab your favorite book or open a webpage with some content you are interested in reading. Now before you begin to read this material, I need you to make a conscious effort to focus on your breathing throughout. That's right, focus on your breathing while reading. Every now and then if you forget about your breathing, shift your focus back to it. The longer you can focus on your breathing while reading the better. See if you can do it for an entire chapter!
Now your going to realize something when doing this. You keep forgetting about breathing and have to bring your focus back to it. Why is this? Well, it's how the brain works. The mind tends to drift on it's own making it difficult to stay focused on your breathing (ironic huh?). But I want you to keep trying to focus on your breathing, and not just when reading. Watch a movie and try to pay attention to your breathing throughout. Get comfortable with the idea that you want to focus on your breathing.
Now after doing this for a while (a few days) I want you to start trying to take full clean breathes while you are focusing on your breathing. See if every minute or so you can fully inhale and completely exhale. Believe it or not most people's breathing mechanics are poor. By focusing on your breathing and making sure you take deep breathes you are actually promoting your health.
Something else you may notice with this exercise, you can focus on breathing while doing things. That's right guys, the brain can multitask incredibly. You can focus on your breath and also do everything you did before - trust me. Personally, I enjoy focusing on my breathing as much as possible. I honestly wish I could remember to bring my focus to it more often. You must view it as a relaxing and enjoyable experience.
You see the issue right now is your brain associates manual breathing with danger. As if it somehow is threatening to your wellbeing. Your goal is to be comfortable with having your attention on your breath. And you will achieve this the more you work toward it.
Now the next thing I want you to do is learn mindfulness meditation. Books are available on it and guided meditations are also available on youtube. This is a game changer folks. Mindful meditation will teach you how to reach complete mental calmness (nothing to do with religious beliefs so don't worry about conflicting with your faith). It is a truly incredible feeling. This step can not be skipped.
Now the last thing I want you to do. This step goes a little deeper. Your life up until this point has probably been plagued with anxiety to a certain extent. I want you to realize something here. This ordeal could end up having a tremendously positive effect on your life. You now have a better understanding on how anxiety can put your life in a chokehold. You should view getting past this hurdle as just scratching the surface on life. Let this motivate you to learn as much possible about the incredible mind you possess and live a more fulfilling life.
I genuinely hope I have helped some readers out there with handling this. Take care everybody!
3 Comments
This might help some, but might actually exasperate the issue for others. You are telling people to create a ritual that some already might have because of the issue. If you are thinking about breathing then you are already intentionally trying to control your breathing pattern, which is something you don't want to do. I am going through this right now, and from what I've read and understood is that this is form of OCD, Sensorimotor OCD to be exact. Yes, exposure is the method used to get through it, but you don't want to try and control your breathing! This article by Dr. Steven Seay explains the condition and how to get through it. He even states, " this person must also abstain from any rituals used to prematurely “escape” from their anxiety (distraction, over-controlling breath, counting breaths, analyzing breaths, etc.)." (http://www.steveseay.com/treatment-body-focused-obsessions-ocd/)
This exposure therapy is called Exposure with response prevention (ERP) therapy.
I know that you are trying to help, but I find that our advise to be highly dangerous to someone that is going through the issue like myself.
This exposure therapy is called Exposure with response prevention (ERP) therapy.
I know that you are trying to help, but I find that our advise to be highly dangerous to someone that is going through the issue like myself.
This is the best solution I've come across so far. I have this same problem only I also count my breaths as well. It's very distracting and on my bad days I count to almost a thousand. Do you have any advice on how to treat the counting along with the breathing obsession
Also, look into ACT Acceptance Commitment Therapy.
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