Breathing For Anxiety

Often when a person experiences anxiety they notice changes in their breathing.

These changes can include breathing faster, feeling a tightening or pain in the

chest area and feeling dizzy or light-headed.

When we breathe, we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide.

Typically the average person takes about 10-12 breaths a minute. How many

breaths per minute do you take? Set a timer on your phone or laptop, try not to

change your breathing from normal and then count your breaths. One breath is

counted as breathing in and out.

If you’re breathing more than 10-12 breaths per minute you may be subtly

hyperventilating. When we breathe too much air in, the balance between oxygen

and carbon dioxide becomes disturbed. We end up with too much oxygen and

too little carbon dioxide.

If you’re breathing more than 10-14 breaths per minute you may be subtly hyperventilating.

This reduction in carbon dioxide signals to our blood vessels that they are

getting more oxygen then they need. The blood vessels try to help us by

constricting and narrowing so that we don’t get too much oxygen in our brain. A

side effect of this narrowing of the blood vesicles in the brain is that we feel

dizziness or light headed. You may feel like you cannot get enough air in. In fact,

the problem is you have too much oxygen. Although this feeling is unpleasant

and intense, it is completely harmless.

Although for the most part breathing is automatic, the good news is we can also

control it consciously. For instance, think about the fact that you can hold your

breath whilst underwater. The unpleasant (but harmless reaction) will go away

once the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide are rebalanced.

The following strategies can be useful for reducing hyperventilation: