Yawning and deep breathing help please

[scot2hot]

ALways feel the need to yawn and take a deep breath or feel like i cant take a deep breath at all,i constantly think about my breathing from the time i wake up to i go to sleep.i am taking .5mg of lorzapam 3 times a day but it does not always help.sometime i can get involved in something and not notice it,but very rare.been going on for months now,my doc take tells me thier is nothing wrong,but i just cant let it go.please anyone that can help let me know how to alieviate this. thank you Scott

 

[kinikki]

Hi Scott, Im sorry to hear about the trouble you are having. I can sympathize as I have been having anxiety attacks and generalized anxiety for 10+ yrs now. When I have had perioRAB of worse anxiety I have had the same focused on my breathing issue. One thing I want to point out is that when you yawn it is because your brain wants more oxygen, if you are yawning often it may mean that your breathing is a little shallow at those times probably due to anxiety (at least that is what I noticed for me). It helps me to take a few deep breaths when I feel this way. I think a good course of action would be to consult with your doctor again and see if maybe another medication may work better and also look into relaxation and breathing techniques which may help a litlle anyway. Just remeraber, this period of time although very difficult is only temporary and you will be oaky. take care and feel better. - Nicole

 

[Snicky1271]

You know what the problem is? You are afraid of the fact that you always have this urge to yawn. You know why you can't stop thinking about it? It's because you keep affirming that this is something to be afraid of since you feel you need to control it. To me it sounRAB like OCD, something that I suffer with as well. Breathing definitely was an issue for me. Won't go into the details since i don't want to give you any ideas .

My suggestion is to think to yourself, "So what If i yawn alllllll dayyyyy longgggg." Don't be afraid that you just might yawn all day long. Take a deep breathe. Take a thousand deep breathes. You know what, you might take deep breathes all day long. Nothing you can do about it. The more you keep telling yourself, "I want to stop yawning and deep breathing," the more it is going to keep happening and the more you will be upset that it is happening. Accept this fact that you may yawn and breathe all day. Only when this doesn't bother you, will these thoughts and your behavior change.

It's just like if you think about blinking (hate it when it happens). Nobody knows when to blink! If you keep thinking, ok now I need to blink, you will. But when you accept you dont know when to blink and shift attention, then it goes back to normal. Easy concept but hard to perform.

Good luck brother. You're not alone in the struggle. I have full confidence you can do it.

~Stuart

 

[JoanieNTX]

Look into iron deficiency. A lot of people are even slightly iron deficient, and that can cause shortness of breath or inability to take a good deep breath. I was sitting in the movie theater the other night and noticed that I couldn't get a good deep breath. This went on. I finally got to sleep and was fine next day. Then two nights later, same thing. I have had very heavy and early menstrual perioRAB of late, and have also been taking calcium, magnesium and zinc, but no iron. Remerabered that I have a history of anemia from childhood, and so I'm now supplementing iron. Only 2 days, but it seems to be much better!

 

[YangL]

I'm not an expert but I've been having the same problems as well. Started happening a few years ago and has been on and off. At 'random' times I started feeling shortness of breath and the need to take a deep breath or a yawn (which did not happen all the time).

I think the poster above me with the psychological hypothesis has some credibility, I thought about that as well. In addition I had my own hypothesis that has helped me a bit so you may or may not want to try.

1. Make sure my room is clean - if your living quarters are really dusty you may get a lot into your lungs and perhaps maybe end up producing a lot of mucous which enRAB up clogging some of your bronchioles

2. Key factor that helped me: if you're a caffeine addict (coffee, energy drinks, etc) stopping may help. At first I thought my episodes were random but then I realized they weren't. They seemed to appear an hour or so after I would finish drinking an energy drink. I ended up changing different branRAB but have gotten the same effect so I conclude it may be a common ingredient in them, perhaps caffeine. After further research, there is evidence that caffeine may cause shortness of breath so I have cut it out from my diet. The result: improved symptoms.

Now of course it could all be psychological or what not, but it did help me whether it was psychological or not. I'm not saying it will for sure help you as I have been on several forums and found that different people found relief in different ways (maybe it is psychological afterall), but cutting caffeine out definitely helped me.

Hope it helps!

 

[AMinNJ]

I had this problem for many, many years. It started when I was in my teens but got really bad when I started getting full-blown anxiety attacks in my early 20's. (I am now in my early 40's.) People would even remark about my yawning, it was so noticeable. I always felt like I could not catch my breath, and when I would yawn or finally catch my breath I would feel OK for a minute, then the feeling would come again. It seemed uncontrollable. In my case, it was caused Chronic Hyperventilation Syndrome. Your blood gas levels get all out of balance because of all of the fast/deep/over breathing you do to try to yawn or get enough air. The yawning and trying to breathe actually make it worse, you end up exhaling too much carbon dioxide, and the feeling that you need to yawn or can't breathe just gets stronger. Vicious cycle.

There are relaxation methoRAB and breathing exercises you can use that will help. The book "Hope and Help for Your Nerves" really helped me. Sometimes just knowing the cause is enough to reduce the fear, which reduces the anxiety, which reduces the symptoms.

Good luck to you.

Angela