Anxiety Disorder Symptom – Hyperventilation

A young client of mine had been given an important assignment, which she saw as a hugely important step up the career ladder and of course she was keen to do well.  When the day finally came for my young client to give a presentation in front of her colleagues, she had a major panic attack and totally fell apart.  Her head began pounding, she had difficulty in finding the next breath and her heart was beating so loudly that she was convinced the whole room could hear it and were in fact laughing at her dilemma.  By the time the room started to spin, she had had enough and fled the scene.  Afterwards, it turned out that her colleagues were in fact very sympathetic of her plight and encouraged her to present the assignment the next day, which apparently she did very well and with no anxiety at all.

Recalling the incident in our next session, the strongest memory of the whole event, was she felt that she was fighting to catch her breath.  This is hyperventilation and over half of all attacks are accompanied by this horrid symptom.  It is important know, that although hyperventilation often feels as if you cannot get enough oxygen, the opposite is in fact true. Your body is getting too much oxygen.

Whilst hyperventilating, your body does not have enough time to retain the amount of Carbon Dioxide that it requires.  That means that you cannot use up all of the oxygen that you are taking in.  During an attack, some symptoms you may experience are:

Giddiness

  • Shortness of breath
  • Confusion
  • Clamminess
  • Chest pains
  • Heart palpitations

How to Cure Hyperventilation

  1. Breathing in and out of a paper bag you will be able to inhale the carbon dioxide that you just exhaled and this will help to calm down your breathing
  2. Holding your breath for around 10 seconds or as long as you find. comfortable, will help to stop the dissipation of carbon dioxide. Repeat a few times and you will find that your breathing returns to normal pretty quickly.
  3. Practice breathing deeply, check that your shoulders remain still and that you take the breath into your stomach area and not your chest.  Think of blowing air into a balloon and watching it fill from the bottom up.  If you place your fingertips facing each other on your tummy, as you inhale, your diaphragm should expand and push your fingertips apart.  Be sure to exhale fully, as this is when the relaxation really kicks in.

Imagine each inhale leading naturally to the exhale, almost like a circle of breath maintaining a steady, even rhythm throughout.  Practise breathing this way every day, until it becomes second nature and you will find that you have much more control over your levels of anxiety.  The more you are able to relax, the less your body will produce stress hormones and so the less stressed you will become.  And it all starts with something as simple as breathing!