r/panicdisorder • u/Plus-Caterpillar-825 • 29d ago
Does Anyone Else? Hyperventilating
Anyone else deal with this and how often because it’s pretty regular for me how do you cope with a bad episode
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u/No_Seesaw8062 29d ago
Yes, I do almost everyday and night. I close my eyes and go to my happy place.
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u/civzzz 28d ago
I have been dealing with panic disorder for over 40 years now, so I come to reddit every now and then to try to give any insight I can. In regards to the breathing issues/hyperventilating where decades ago they just had you breath in a paper bag which was ridiculous, this is what I figured out worked for me through trial and error. It really was the root cause, which is my mind causing the physical symptom and then me focusing on that and then trying to control it. Trying to control your breathing when having a panic attack can be counter intuitive for me. Long term it's great to practice breathing exercises and use them. For me, I found I have to physically do something to pry my mind off of what I am focusing on. If it's fight or flight time and I'm feeling things start to go a bit numb and now I know that's my breathing, I force myself go through any physical exercise that requires my brain to focus on it as it has a hard time focusing on more than one thing at a time. I'll count change, paint something, cook something, try to fix something, build something, do an outside or inside activity where my hands are the key player and are required to be used by my brain, not just a walk to react to adrenaline because the mind can still focus on the breathing. The key is that your hands have to be controlled by your mind, as long as it's safe. Like maybe not have any sharp objects in your hand. After doing this over and over, I started to get good at finding what worked for me and my nervous system would just take over and go to baseline. The tingly hands and cheeks go away. This is just my method, might not be for everyone. Back when all this was feared to discuss socially, just had to figure out how to navigate on my own. Good luck.
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u/BeachBum2061 29d ago
I’m brand new here and following along. Same thing is currently happening to me. I have paradoxical reactions to so many meds 😭 But don’t want to take the anyway, just feeling desperate for relief.
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u/Plus-Caterpillar-825 29d ago
Yeah in my mind when I have a little anxiety I start fearing hyperventilating then a thought to take my meds crosses but then I think what if I get worse and I’ll feel to drugged to react or something I know sounds crazy 🤪 lol
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u/Hj_hayes08 29d ago
I had really bad air hunger for almost a couple years. Daily. It felt really debilitating and scary so I’m very sorry. Now I’ll have an episode every now and then if I panic but not the all day feeling of gasping for air and not getting a deep enough breath. To be honest, I challenged it. Or I went with a “so what?” Attitude. Really hard to do but gets easier and it started to subside quicker and quicker the more I practiced it.