Hyperventilation - Anxiety, Depression, Sleep Disorders

[MC Paul Barman]

I hate snake oil BS....
I tend to be very skeptical of anything that 'cures ya quick'.
But wow.
Has anyone here heard of the Buteyko Breathing Method?

This focuses on how much a person with anxiety, asthma, depression, sleep disorders or various other issues tend to hyperventilate.

The method stresses something called "Control Pause"; which is how long you can hold your breath after exhaling until you need your next comfortable breath. Holding your breath for as long as you can until you feel the slight urge to breathe.
Not holding it so long that your eyes are rolling into the back of your head.

People who don't suffer from asthma, anxiety (and the other symptoms mentioned above) have a long Control Pause. Those that do have a much shorter one.
I tested myself and I only got to 11 seconds.
My wife, who's always very calm was able to comfortable go 30 seconds.

The method focuses on how important CO2 levels are in your body. That so many breathing techniques focus on increasing your oxygen levels with deep breathing. But these deep breathing techniques tend to be counter productive because of the impact they have on CO2 levels that are just as important.

Check out the video. It's very interesting.
And since working with this in just the past hour or so I already can feel my asthma symptoms letting up.

 

[Benoco]

Be interesting to see if people who suffer from any of those agree. I don't and I was comfortable for about 30 seconds too. I imagine that's pretty normal.

 

[MC Paul Barman]

Be interesting to see if people who suffer from any of those agree. I don't and I was comfortable for about 30 seconds too. I imagine that's pretty normal.

You don't have any of those issues and you were able to hold for about 30seconds?

I check with a friend of mine who has constant anxiety and hers was only 7 seconds.



Also, an interesting side effect of holding our breathes and trying to breathe more shallowly is that our nasal cavities cleared up. I always have at least one nostril cavity swollen shut.... now I don't

 

[csroster]

I'm sure it works.
People have been using breathing control techniques for ages.

Always cool stuff to look at.

 

[MC Paul Barman]

I'm sure it works.
People have been using breathing control techniques for ages.

Always cool stuff to look at.

Very true.
It's just interesting though that this is saying don't breathe deep and that most people over breathe and that it's the over breathing that is the root of many of their problems.

 

[Titmouse78]

This is pretty interesting, I am wrestling with a big life event and I averaged 7-9 seconds.

I also have a bad deviated septum which further decreases my air intake. I have for most my life sleep very poorly. To the point where I can actually remember the number of times where I have actually awakened refreshed (less than 10).

Thanks for the insightful video.

 

[Benoco]

You don't have any of those issues and you were able to hold for about 30seconds?

I check with a friend of mine who has constant anxiety and hers was only 7 seconds.

7 seconds, Jesus Christ that's crazy.

 

[JuniorSonGoku]

There is a reason why meditation and breathing exercises have been successful for so long.
Stopping that "feedback" loop of anxiety requires either adjusting the thoughts or the emotional response. Breathing is one way of doing that.

I believe all the pills being sold (or even modern capitalism's effects in general), media and the advancement of psychology has made everyone think it costs a lot of money to solve any of your mental problems, where as some problems really cost very little or nothing to solve.

 

[MC Paul Barman]

This is pretty interesting, I am wrestling with a big life event and I averaged 7-9 seconds.

I also have a bad deviated septum which further decreases my air intake. I have for most my life sleep very poorly. To the point where I can actually remember the number of times where I have actually awakened refreshed (less than 10).

Thanks for the insightful video.

Best of luck, titmouse.
I've been working on shallow, calm breathing and expanding my Controlled Pause for only over the past 2 hours and I have to admit, I feel pretty relaxed.

 

[MC Paul Barman]

I'm going to sound like I'm peddling something here....

But for the first time in a long time I've been able to just zone out.
I found myself staring out my computer room window.... zoned out, nothing thinking about much at all or anything.
It's been a looooooong time since I've been able to do that.
My mind is usually racing way to much to get those moments.
Might sound goofy, but it's pretty cool for me.

 

[That209]

I have bad anxiety, but it's definitely calmed down a lot but it took about a year. I still get really hot and red ears which used to always happen before I was going to have an attack, but breathing is down fine now thankfully.

I haven't had an attack in a long while now, sadly, I wish this anxiety stuff never happened.

 

[CynthiaFoy]

All Discussion points are good. I glad to read this thread. Do you know how to fight depression.

 

[A Very Serious Cat]

My life in general has gone to shit in general lately so I guess not surprisingly it's not very long.

 

[Michael13]

I suffer from extremely bad anxiety and i was able to reach 20 seconds.

Hmmmm.

 

[ocean size]

I dunno about all the details but learning to control your breathing and take nice slow breaths can do wonders for anxiety. I saw a shrink and he had me become really aware of my breathing and practice slowing it down especially when I felt anxiety coming on and I haven't had a panic attack again.

They way he explained it is the more your body goes into that hyperventilating panick-y mode the stronger you make that pathway and the easier is for it to happen again, so awareness and having your body default to a different reaction was the fix.

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

I'm a very anxious person and I'd say I'm at about 15 seconds going by the criterion that the guy in the video mentions; that is, the point where your body says "I'd like for you to inhale right now," without feeling like you're actually forcing yourself to hold it.

I could hold it for another 10 seconds or so without feeling too uncomfortable, but 15 is the earliest I start to feel like a breath would be a nice thing to have right now.

 

[Charles Brown]

I don't know, but I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder, OCD, frequent bouts of insomnia, as well as asthma. I couldn't do it for more than about 5 seconds. No shit. Is there something to it? I have no idea. Maybe it's just the asthma constricting my bronchials because it's Spring time..

 

[Turismo]

Very Interesting thread for me.
I suffer from anxiety, depression, insomnia (its 3.30am right now) and a few other weird medical problems including hyperhydrosis and a very high heart rate. I was getting a heart scan and the nurse asked "wow, your hearts beating very fast. Your not nervous are you?" I wasn't. I was about as relaxed as usual. The thing is, I train often and look in relatively good shape.

I read, that apparently we breath fast and shallow when we're in our 'fight or flight' modes. And so by breathing fast and shallow you are convincing your body to go into that 'fight or flight'/alert mode. Constantly being in this state of high alert demands allot of energy and puts allot of stress on your body. And if your being extremely alert and in fight/ flight mode for long periods of time. You're highly alert to stuff like for example, your own imperfections. And then the flight mode makes you worry and avoid potentially damaging interactions.

So your mind connects the dots and before you know it, you're too anxious to be interacting with others because your worried about how your imperfections will cause some sort of damaging interaction with those around you.

Being highly alert, you may find it hard to fall asleep. You may not be able to concentrate, or you may get easily distracted because you're over-analysing everything in your head. You start showing physical ailments because of the stress on your body. You find yourself sapped of energy because of all the constant stress, sleep(recovery) difficulties and anxiety. The stress and anxiety of it all, makes you tired/lazy/unmotivated and eventually depressed.

But I'm no expert on this stuff. It could all very well be bullshit. But I have been a shallow breather all my life. I find it physically difficult to breath any other way. I tried holding my breath as long as I could after exhaling and I reached about 14 seconds before I had to inhale again.

I'll watch the video in full now.

 

[Spoken]

mine's about 20.
I've always been told to get on this kind of shit but i've never really researched. I'd do it now but I have a headache :/... I think holding my breath wont help

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

Very Interesting thread for me.
I suffer from anxiety, depression, insomnia (its 3.30am right now) and a few other weird medical problems including hyperhydrosis and a very high heart rate. I was getting a heart scan and the nurse asked "wow, your hearts beating very fast. Your not nervous are you?" I wasn't. I was about as relaxed as usual. The thing is, I train often and look in relatively good shape.

I read, that apparently we breath fast and shallow when we're in our 'fight or flight' modes. And so by breathing fast and shallow you are convincing your body to go into that 'fight or flight'/alert mode. Constantly being in this state of high alert demands allot of energy and puts allot of stress on your body. And if your being extremely alert and in fight/ flight mode for long periods of time. You're highly alert to stuff like for example, your own imperfections. And then the flight mode makes you worry and avoid potentially damaging interactions.

So your mind connects the dots and before you know it, you're too anxious to be interacting with others because your worried about how your imperfections will cause some sort of damaging interaction with those around you.

Being highly alert, you may find it hard to fall asleep. You may not be able to concentrate, or you may get easily distracted because you're over-analysing everything in your head. You start showing physical ailments because of the stress on your body. You find yourself sapped of energy because of all the constant stress, sleep(recovery) difficulties and anxiety. The stress and anxiety of it all, makes you tired/lazy/unmotivated and eventually depressed.

But I'm no expert on this stuff. It could all very well be bullshit. But I have been a shallow breather all my life. I find it physically difficult to breath any other way. I tried holding my breath as long as I could after exhaling and I reached about 14 seconds before I had to inhale again.

I'll watch the video in full now.

How's your blood pressure? I've had hypertension for most of my post-pubescent life, despite the fact that I'm far from overweight (~ 6'1" 170 pounds), exercise, and eat decently. I'm pretty sure it's genetic, as my father died very young from a stroke brought on by undiagnosed and untreated hypertension, though it's possible that it's just due to my constantly overanalytical, anxious nature.