Panic and hyperventilation

It is perfectly natural and necessary to rapidly increase the automatic breathing pattern in times of stress, such as when faced with a charging bull, because in times of physical danger you need extra oxygen to be delivered to your leg and arm muscles so that you can run fast.

At the same time the muscles are making extra carbon dioxide and water along with heat generated by the oxygen delivery, and so breathing strongly and rapidly is needed right now. Once the danger passes, then the breathing pattern automatically returns to its normal relaxed pattern.

People who have panic or hyperventilation attacks find that their breathing revs up as if they are facing a charging bull, but mostly they are not anything very physical at the time. This means that instead of being a life-saving activity, the extra breathing causes the following common symptoms:

• Respiratory system:  Shortness of breath, chest tightness, extra sensitive airways, excessive production of mucus, sneezing, blocked or running sinuses, coughing, excessive yawning and sighing.
• Nervous system: Feeling light-headed, dizzy, or unsteady. Having poor concentration, numbness, tingling and coldness (especially in the hands, feet and face).  In severe cases, loss of memory or loss of consciousness.
• Heart      Racing, pounding or skipped heart beats.
• Psychological: Degrees of anxiety, depression, tension, apprehension or feeling ‘spaced out’.
• General:  Dry mouth, abdominal bloating, belching, flatulence, poor sleep patterns such as insomnia or vivid dreams, excessive sweating (especially underarms, palms or feet), repeated throat clearing, itchy skin, chest pain (not heart-related), headache, frequent urination, general weakness and chronic exhaustion, cold hands and feet. 

Sometimes people are not even aware that there is a connection between their symptoms and their breathing, or they are so conditioned to believe that breathing deeply is calming, that they deliberately breathe more forcefully when they feel the symptoms coming on, and unintentionally make them worse.

The main source of the symptoms is the rapid drop in carbon dioxide, which leads to the body being unable to regulate itself properly and less oxygen delivery to the tissue cells. When less oxygen is delivered to tissue cells, this results in fatigue and malfunction, such as an inability to think clearly or muscles being abnormally weak. When tissues do not receive sufficient oxygen then they become more stressed, further increasing the breathing.

While your heart is beating frantically and your mind is focussing hard on the most feared symptom as well as wildly trying to think of ideas to stop the world so that you can get off for a moment, it is hard to remember that a hyperventilation attack is generally not as serious as it feels.

Your automatic breathing pattern can be re-set by using the Buteyko Method, and this will greatly reduce the incidence of these events. You will also learn strategies to get you through your next attack should one occur. In the meantime, the exercise described here is simple yet effective and will help to give you a little more control.