Hyperventilation, otherwise known as over-breathing, fast breathing, rapid breathing, too much breathing… is diagnosed by the need to take deep breaths in order to feel calmer. Over breathing is a common problem and can cause anxiety, stress, and hyperventilation symptoms. There are many different symptoms of hyperventilation.
How to stop the urge to take deep breaths?
Feeling the need to take deep breaths is normal. However, it may be because of minor issues sometimes but at other times it may be due to something critical. We often get stressed out when we don’t breathe properly. Deep breathing is the best way to reduce your stress and anxiety. In this article, we have gathered all the possible causes which lead to the urge for deep breathing and the home-based therapies to treat this problem.
The breathing pattern your body develops when you’re anxious is the polar opposite of this. Natural breathing via your nose is the type of breathing you should strive for throughout the day to keep your alarms from going off.
Table of Content
Hyperventilation
The urge to breathe deep occurs under any circumstances. Many times this condition occurs due to a condition called Hyperventilation. In this situation, you may be feeling that you are not getting enough air but actually, these symptoms are due to over-breathing. However that’s not the only case, many conditions are responsible for having to keep taking deep breaths all the time.
Hyperventilating people take rapid, loud breaths. Hyperventilation introduces the feeling of the need to take deep breaths while also increasing anxiety. You may have feelings of suffocation, choking, or smothering. If you’ve ever hyperventilated, you must have felt the excess of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your veins.
Thinking about how you breathe might also cause hyperventilation. You may overcompensate and inhale too much air when attempting to control your breathing. Inhaling deeply is noticeable as the initial change in normal breathing pattern.
Constant Urge to Take a Deep Breath Due to Anxiety
Why do I feel the need to take deep breaths? It might be anxiety. Anxiety can cause hyperventilation and creates the sensation of having to keep taking deep breaths all the time. In extreme conditions, anxiety can almost make you forget how to breathe.
Stopping Deep Breathing:
How to Stop the Urge to Take Deep Breaths? Many home-based therapies are available for less critical situations as below. If you are breathing deep and other life-threatening symptoms are evident then contact medical emergency.
Calm Yourself by Activating Your Parasympathetic System:
How to stop taking deep breaths? Even if you’re not hyperventilating, anxiety might affect your breathing. Mouth breathing is a common occurrence when worried, however, it is mostly a survival mechanism. You’re defending your brain’s emergency reaction. Until the threat has passed the sympathetic nervous system will remain at an all-time high.
Activating your parasympathetic nervous system will reduce the sympathetic response, increased heart rate, and breathing issues.
Relax by Breathing Through Your Nose
By avoiding the urge to inhale large amounts of air via your mouth, you may reclaim a calm breathing rhythm. When you breathe through your nose, your parasympathetic nervous system is active. When you adjust your breathing rhythm, your brain gets significant information. If you concentrate on slowly breathing, your brain will switch off the warning.
Breathing exercises reduce the anxiety symptoms in many people. Follow these simple breathing exercises to keep the sympathetic nervous system ( alarm system) from dominating.
Getting Back to Your Natural Breathing Pattern
If you feel the constant need for deep breaths then inhale gently via your nose to fill your lower lungs, then exhale normally. Don’t let your shoulders rise and fall instead it’s the stomach that should rise and fall.
Concentrate entirely on deepening your inhalation into your lower lungs. The breathing pattern your body develops when you’re anxious is the polar opposite of this. Natural breathing via your nose is the type of breathing you should strive for throughout the day to keep your alarms from going off.
Countdown to Relaxation
Countdown allows you more time to concentrate on your breathing and a break from your worried thoughts. If your thoughts are briefly diverted, you’ll have a better chance of overcoming their effects.
- Sit somewhere and shut your eyes.
- Inhale slowly through your nose and concentrate on relaxing.
- Count down to one with each calm exhale, starting with ten and working your way down.
- Imagine the worry leaving your existence and, then open your eyes.
Relaxed, Controlled Breathing
Yogists from older times recognized the ability to achieve serenity by altering the depth and pace of breathing. If you are facing the condition of having to take deep breaths often then every morning and whenever you feel your anxiety levels rising, practice this exercise for up to thirty minutes.
For a count of six inhale through your nose while remaining calm. For six counts, slowly and softly exhale through your nostrils. Each count should last for one second. If you’re worried or irritated, you can employ this method quietly.
Adjust Your Breathing to Diffuse the Alarm System
By adjusting your oxygen levels, you may be able to prevent your anxiety from worsening. When worry makes breathing difficult, you may quiet the alert system by controlling your response. Breathing through your nose activates your parasympathetic nervous system. This will aid in recovering the sense of calmness and redding the anxiety problems.
Consider obtaining the help of an expert counselor or therapist if you need further help to stop the pattern of anxiety. A competent expert can assist you in learning appropriate ways to help you cope with the stress of having an anxiety condition. Please contact us for a tailored strategy to overcome anxiety and resolve anxiety breathing issues.
Other Reasons Behind Shortness of Breath
There are other reasons behind the shortness of breath. The reasons are described below.
Asthma
Wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing are symptoms of asthma that occur at night or early in the morning.
Allergies
People often feel the need to take deep breaths during an allergic reaction.
Choking
A blockage in the throat might make it difficult for the air to travel in and out of the lungs. Airflow is also obstructed when you inhale food or an item into your lungs.
Heart Attack
A blockage that prevents blood flow to the heart might result in terrifying shortness of breath. Contact a medical emergency immediately if you detect this sensation in conjunction with other heart attack symptoms.
Infection
Mucus produced by an illness such as bronchitis or pneumonia can obstruct airflow to regions of the lungs. This can obstruct oxygen delivery to the bloodstream. This condition creates the urge for the constant need for deep breaths.
Injury
Breathing might be unpleasant and difficult if you have a cracked rib or any other serious injury. Anemia and bleeding can reduce the number of red blood cells in the body, reducing the quantity of oxygen transported in the blood.
Medication
Certain drugs might make you feel suffocated in the chest. As a result, your breathing will not be satisfying and you will be taking deep breaths every few minutes. This symptom may be caused by statins (fat-lowering drugs) and beta-blockers, which are used to treat hypertension in asthmatic patients.
Extreme Temperatures
Exposing yourself to extremely hot or cold temperatures suddenly may cause you to have to take deep breaths all the time.
Stress
Stressors are a common occurrence in everyday life. Physical strains, such as being in pain or in danger, as well as psychological tensions, such as those you could have before an exam or a job interview, are examples. Along with other changes in the body, these stressors may lead to fast or rapid breathing known as hyperventilation. This might make you feel out of breath and cause you to sigh more frequently.
Depression
Sighs can be used to express other negative feelings, such as grief or despair, in addition to tension or worry. People who are depressed may sigh more frequently as a result of this.
In a modest 2011 research, 13 people with rheumatoid arthritis were evaluated for sighing using a tiny recording device. Increased sighing was shown to be highly linked to an individual’s degrees of depression.
Lung Conditions
Lung conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Pulmonary embolism, lung cancer, and lung infection are responsible for having to keep taking deep breaths at all times.
Exercise
Muscles and organs require extra oxygen from the body’s red blood cells during physical activity. In persons who do not routinely exercise, even little effort might create the need to take deep breaths.
FAQs
Does anxiety affect breathing?
Anxiety causes shortness of breath and worsens the problem. Shortness of breath, a need for oxygen, and a suffocating sensation are all symptoms of anxiety.
Can anxiety cause breathing problems?
Shortness of breath can be caused by anxiety as well as exacerbated by it. Shortness of breath, a need for oxygen, and a suffocating sensation are all symptoms of anxiety. As a result, being out of breath might exacerbate your anxiousness.
Why do I double breathe sometimes?
When continuous stress from work or other issues becomes a problem, many sub-problems may lead to the paradoxical impact on breathing (sometimes referred to as double breathing or even hyperventilation).
Conclusion:
How to stop the urge to take deep breaths? Anxiety and extreme stress lead to deep breathing in humans. However, medical conditions such as Asthma, infection of the lungs, and many other problems are responsible for heavy breathing. Deep breathing is treatable at home by following a few simple therapies as above.
