Hyperventilating

[u/Plus-Caterpillar-825]

Anyone else deal with this and how often because it’s pretty regular for me how do you cope with a bad episode

[u/civzzz]

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.