Excessive Yawning and Constant Need to Breathe Deep

i know how you feel I'm only 22 and this whole breathing issue is very very stressful and horrible

I'm slowly starting to accept this too. If it goes away it goes away. Its unbelievable how not one person has found how to deal with this issue. Its at least comforting to know that we're not alone.

I know that it would be hard for us to accept that its PANIC ATTACK, you can control it without any pills or medications by just changing your life style as i did. I had this problem when i was 26 and with gods grace i am not experiencing SOB since last year April 2019 until now

a panic attack that has lasted for 6 years straight and is there when i wake up and go to bed? im not so sure Bout that

The more you start thinking that you have got Panic Attack, the more deep you fall into it. Change your thinking pattern, read something good before going to bed, ignore the things that make you scare, wake up early morning and go out for a walk, you would for sure feel the difference in you. I hope to see you with a positive reply by next week. Wish you come over it very soon.

was it as easy as just forgetting the breathing issue? you said a panic attack was your cause. did any anti anxiety meds help your issue?

It wasn't easy at all, also i was prescribed to take anti anxiety pills, but i knew that would just help me temporarily and not permanent. I tried to focus more in books when i have nothing to do, divert my thoughts when i feel like losing breathe, hitting the gym and ect. finally i got used to it and since then i never experienced any of those symptoms, all these without taking a single pills.

Yes it is definitely related to anxiety about your breathing - you just need to accept it - almost like the way they treat OCD. Think of the ritual as being taking the deep breath to relieve the compulsive urge which is the need to do it. You are just going around in circles. Say to yourself so what I breath a bit strangely - lots of people do strange things with their bodies etc and my strange thing is breathing. When you say to yourself I'm going to have this forever say yes I am so what. It's a hard thing to do and takes time but you will eventually take the anxiety out of it and you will stop thinking about it which leads to not doing it. Google and watch you tube videos about OCD and you'll get the gist. Also you have to keep doing everything you normally do and put yourself in situations that you are not comfortable with such as doing a spin class or going for a run. Again as with OCD you need to take the anxiety out of it all - once you know you can do it you'll do it again and again. If you avoid things because of your breathing you will again create a pattern of anxiety that will just go around in a big loop forever. It's a hard thing to say just accept it but trust me it does work.

i thought that the only way you can get excess seratonin is by taking medications that cause you to have too much. you are saying that an excess can occur naturally? i heavily smoked marijuana for many years straight and im wondering if this played a role in seratonin levels. im gonna talk to a phych about it. so after you took it the feeling of having a constant tightness in your chest went away?

how'd you get to that conclusion? i would've never thought to think of that

very interested in this ... do you have a fb ....would like to ask more questions .. I did take cymbalta (duloxetine) (1 of the drugs listed as possible cause)..are you still on the cyproheptadine or did it 'cure you' and do you have side effects ..thanx for posting:)

It definitely lowered the symptoms by 90 percent !!

There are many people who suffer from high levels of serotonin at one level or another for many reasons and not necessarily because of drugs that increase serotonin

For 25 years I have been suffering from yawning and done all the possible tests (except brain fluid serotonin test - and no doctor approves) and tried lots of medication which is the only thing that helps !!

Ciprocytidine is not an addictive drug and its side effects are weight gain in the first period

I'm not a doctor, but what's the problem with trying Cymbalata?

According to what's on the internet, it also activates norepinephrine

And it certainly lowered all muscle tension including chest pressure

Cymbalta makes me nauseous and dizzy ... I took it several yrs ago but can't now .. I understand it is one of the drugs that c/possibly cause too much serotonin on brain.....I'm already 15-20 lbs overweight so guess my dr thinks gaining w/be worse ... don't think the drs know how dibilitating this can be...I feel sure thats my problem as I am low b-12 and dr insist I take b-complex but I keep telling her the b-6 makes breathing worse ..well in researching I see where b-6 enhances serotonin production...I also see that hypothyroidism causes too much serotonin and I have lot of the symptoms but dr says I don't need meds (my tsh is eradic) .. Its so frustrating .. thanx so much for posting ... believe this has answered lots of questions for me

I took cyproheptadine and it did nothing at all to help my breathing at all - if anything it made it worse the side effects were terrible - blurred vision and a spinning sensation. Also affected my sleep to the point I was prescribed sleeping tablets. I'm not taking any more drugs for this problems - I've come to the conclusion it's a form of compulsive behaviour (OCD) - I have basically cured mine myself in the past 6 months after 18 months of doctors, tests, pills. If you've been tested for everything and nothing is showing up as wrong start looking from a different angle it's not always something medical it could be psychological.

how'd you cure yourself? id try anything at this point.

Let's say it

Anyone with vitamins and medicines gets worse (and there are many)

To try taking Zipoprotein

It's an allergy drug

A non-addictive drug

Suffering enough to give it a try

i cant find any drug thats called zipoprotein are you sure you are spelling that right? lol

This is Google's translation

apologetic

Ciprocytidine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyproheptadine

After trying absolutely everything (including hypnotherapy, acupuncture, psychologist just to name a few), having every test known to man (including xrays to my lungs, stress tests, MRI's to my heart and head just to name a few) and trying to find a magic drug that was going to magically 'cure' me (and none of them did and just led to other issues) I finally had enough and just had an epiphany that there was nothing physically wrong with me it was actually all in my head!!! I started researching about OCD as I believe this is a form of it. It is that feeling of anxiety (feeling like you are suffocating) which is the "obsession" and then having to take a deep breath or yawn to get rid of the anxiety which is the "compulsion". When you narrow it all down it doesn't matter what sort of compulsion you have (washing your hands, cleaning, blinking, breathing) the compulsion may bring some relief to the worry/anxiety but the obsession returns and the cycle repeats over and over. I basically just decided to accept it and overtime I took the anxiety out of the compulsion (which in my case was breathing) and it amazingly went away. I also started doing things I was previously avoiding such as running/exercising/socialising. I still do take deep breaths which everybody does but it's not constant (and I'm not thinking about it) and because I'm not doing it all the time every time I take one I always get a satisfactory deep breath (whereas previously I was basically borderline hyperventilating because I was trying to deep breath all the time). It really has been amazing how I feel as if I have basically talked myself out of doing it. I was in a vicious cycle of feeling like a needed to take a deep breath and then getting anxious about it and then stressing until I did - this was constant every minute of the day. I would get maybe 1 minute if I was lucky relief after the deep breath until the feeling came back again. This process has taken me 6 months so it won't happen overnight. I urge you to start researching OCD - there is so much information out there - breathing OCD is specifically called sensorimotor OCD. Good luck.

This explanation from a website really helped me ............

Sensory obsessions can be treated quite successfully by decoupling any sensory awareness with reactive anxiety. In other words, sufferers must ultimately experience their sensory hyperawareness without any resulting anxiety. Anxiety, as is the case in other forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, serves as the glue that binds particular thoughts to conscious awareness. Once a thought is linked with anxiety, the conscious mind keeps it ever present. This occurs because anxiety is part of the brain’s alarm system for danger. The mind clearly does not want us to forget about any danger that may be lurking around. If a particular idea scares us, we tend to think about it over and over. In sensory obsessions, sufferers repeatedly attempt to shift their attention for fear that their sensory focus will become “stuck” and they will not be able to concentrate fully on the task at hand. Here, the thought that “I’m never going to stop thinking about this” leads to immediate fears of impaired functioning. As a result of the pairing between this thought and a feared outcome, the mind holds on tightly to the very awareness that the sufferer is attempting to rid. In many ways this is much like “white bear syndrome,” where attempts by individuals to think about anything other than a white bear lead to many more thoughts of white bears (Wegner, 1989).

In order to disengage from sensory obsessions, sufferers must learn “the art of self-awareness.” Sufferers must learn how to invite in the sensory awareness with a relaxed and accepting posture, very much like the focus on diaphragmatic breathing during mediation.

Psychoeducation

The first stage of treatment focuses on teaching patients that selective attention to previously automatic or unconscious bodily processes or sensations is not dangerous in and of itself. Patients are reassured that once their anxiety dissipates, the sensory awareness will shift. This reassurance often sets the stage for “inviting in” the sensations as a means of reducing anxiety.

Exposure and Response Prevention

In short, sensory obsessions can be outsmarted by voluntarily paying attention to the relevant bodily process or sensation. Patients are instructed to allow the sensation to be present and to invite in any such awareness (exposure) with a casual, dispassionate focus. By purposely focusing on the sensations (exposure), patients stop relying on distraction (response prevention) as the tool for reducing anxiety. Repeated voluntary exposure to the sensations leads to diminished anxiety as patients grow accustomed to embracing any awareness without attempts to avoid or escape it. Imaginal exposure to particular feared outcomes (e.g. “my life will be ruined,” “I’ll never have peace of mind,” “I’ll never be able to get rid of this problem,” or “this obsession will never go way”) may be employed to enhance exposure. Additionally, patients may be asked to invite in the sensations and accompanying fears throughout the day. This is accomplished by having patients place reminders (such as Post-It notes or stickers) at home, in the car, and at work. These reminders help to cue patients to engage in repeated exposures throughout the day, thus increasing the likelihood of successful habituation.

You need a prescription for this where I live!!

thank for the info i kinda believe i have this because i notice my breathing too much and i also have other ocd tendencies. im gonna try my best to beat this on my own but do you know of any medications that may help this form of ocd? if this is what i have then i have it reallyyyy bad, and i would try anything that may help

thanx for all the info ... I am not going to take the cyproheptadine but may try a natural herb to level out serotonin ... I have said for mos that I am not getting enough oxygen to brain ..I came to realize that I could breath normal if my head stayed lower than body (I have a back inverter) I read that too much serotonin restricts blood flow to brain so feel like this may be my answer .. also hypothyroidism causes too much serotonin and it is not easy to diagnose as all kinds of med (even antihistimines) can alter tsh test .. especially if on metformin (diabetes med) ..frustrated w/drs ....You have given a lot of useful info so hope it helps as I think maybe various reasons for this insanity:)

Maybe try and find a doctor/psychiatrist/psychologist who specialises in sensorimotor/hyperawareness OCD who can help you with some form of cognitive/ behavioural therapy and with maybe prescribing something if they think you need it. Once you get your head around 'accepting' the feelings and removing the anxiety you'll be amazed how quickly you start to feel better. The main problem on this page is people throwing out medications that might have worked for them but could cause series side-effects for others. I don't think there's anyone on here who has cured this via medication either - it's something you need to work at with your thinking and not get discouraged even if you feel like you are getting nowhere.I know OCD can't be cured with medication alone you need to put the work it. Here's another extract that really helped me - particularly the bit about the compulsion becoming a habit. I'm sure the deep breath/yawn is a habit I formed - if I couldn't breath I'd be dead by now it's just that I liked the feeling of the deep breath because it momentarily relieved the anxiety (which had manifested itself as feeling like I couldn't get a deep enough breath!!!! It is a vicious cycle!!!

E&RP consists of gradually confronting your fearful thoughts and situations while resisting the performing of compulsions. The goal is to stay with whatever makes you anxious so that you will develop a tolerance for the thought or the situation, and learn that, if you take no protective measures, nothing at all will happen. People with OCD do not stay long enough in feared situations to learn the truth. I try to get my patients to stay with fearful things to the point where a kind of fatigue with the subject sets in. Our goal is to wear the thought out. I tell them, “You cant be bored and scared at the same time.” Compulsions, too, are part of the system and must be eliminated for the recovery process to occur. There are two things that tend to sustain compulsions. One is that by doing them, the sufferer is only further convinced of the reality of their obsessions, and is then driven to do more compulsions. The other is that habit also keeps some people doing compulsions, sometimes long after the point of doing them is forgotten. The cognitive component of CBT teaches you to question the probability of your fears actually coming true (always very low or practically nil), and to challenge their underlying logic (always irrational and sometimes even bizarre).

I think if you weren't getting enough oxygen to your brain you'd be having pretty serious symptoms like passing out and turning blue dee! i don't mean to be rude but i think you are way overthinking the whole thing!!

I'm sure I am overthinking ..I have made list and kept records of foods that make better / worse ... after hearing the serotonin post find ironic that I had already culled calcium, Vit d, Vit b-6 and iron ... all of these make my problems worse .. now I can't find any thing on iron/serotonin but the other 3 seem to enhance serotonin (I do have 2 high iron genes) I also have v b-12/folic acid deficiency -and when I am at worse my o2 drops to 94/95...I can get on the back inverter and find relief in just a few minutes but short lived as slowly starts back when upright ...salty/spicy foods, tuna, ginger, cabbage, vit b1, vit e and some of the natural alzheimer's drugs seem to help however the b-1 and alzheimer's have a short span (huperzine a/ginko) ..so I'm sure I have been obsessed w/this ..I also have fam members w/this (theirs was only a short time usually at bedtime where mine is 24/7) and was given anti anxiety meds ... several have died w/alzheimer's complications and or dementia ..one of my daughters in her 40s has bouts of this occasionally so am very concerned .. feel I have to get answers .. I am open to the OCD theory, just wonder at my age (71)w/have surfaced b4 now ....going to try though and wishing all good luck

it sounds life consuming. i'm no expert but i don't think thinking about all that information can be healthy in itself!! would definitely be classed as health anxiety. the mind is a very powerful thing and you'd be amazed how once you start down the rabbit hole of researching symptoms etc you can 100% believe you have them! i've done it myself. if i was 72 i'd be embracing life - you're not going to change anything good or bad by ruminating on what vitamins you're lacking or what foods you're cutting out. life's way too short.

Another very interesting article and comments

adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/ocd-physical-sensations-and-urges

Thank goodness I'm not paying for the advise

thank you so much for your response and I'll definitely look at sensorimotor OCD. its so weird I didn't ever have ocd tendencies or anything but ill look through this. did any medication help? for like ocd did you find a psychologist etc that worked with this or did you just treat yourself by researching this? thank you again

Everyone's OCD starts somewhere!! You're not born constantly washing your hands or checking light switches. It is basically another name for anxiety and in our case it's anxiety regarding our breathing. At one stage we've felt like we needed to take a deep breath and couldn't and our sub-conscious has held onto that fear which has manifested into where we are now!!

For 18 months I tried everything medically (drugs (anti-depressents, valium, sleeping tablets and was prescribed stronger drugs I didn't take) until I exhausted every tablet, scan, option - they could find nothing wrong with me. Around this time I started to think it was psychological (I've never had anything wrong with me before) so decided to see a psychologist who of course was basically useless. I told her I was 99% sure I had a form of OCD as there was nothing medically wrong with me and she looked at me as if I was mad. I went for two sessions where she basically said I needed to relax and proceeded to do body scans for the entire session - which I was paying for!!! She was totally useless.

6 months ago I decided that basically all doctors are totally useless and I haven't been to see one since. I started researching and researching about somatic OCD and put everything I learned into practice and as of today I can say I've cured myself. I actually get great pleasure now even thinking about having to do that bizarre deep breathing and that terrible feeling of suffocating and LOVE the feeling of the fact that I'm now the one in control (not the OCD) and it can go and get stuffed!!

I feel strong, happy, grateful, healthy, calm and look back over the past 2 years like it didn't really happen (but it definitely did). I must also say that although this did consume my every thought and was a constant feeling (and affected my sleep and day to day life terribly) I still got up everyday and went to work etc - I was never bed bound. I was starting to withdraw myself from social situations and exercising but as soon as I worked out what was going on I could see myself going down the rabbit hole and made a very conscious effort to not do it. I was also constantly searching for an answer online what was wrong with me and spending hours every night reading other people's situations and suggestions which was also just exhausting (I'm only on here as I get an email notification that someone has commented and I'm hoping I can somehow help somebody). I also think that exercising has really really helped. I do high intensity spin classes and when I first went back to them I was constantly taking deep ridiculous breaths during the class but it really did help regulate my breathing and also the fact I got through the class was another dent in the control OCD has because I could then say to myself when if I can do that my breathing can't be life threatening.

I think if I'd stayed on the doctors route I'd still be struggling with my breathing and also probably by now taking some strong anxiety medication that I would become reliant on and also probably sleeping medication.

If you can find a good psychologist I'd say that would be the way to go but I was able to do it myself and probably just got unlucky with who I went to see. Good luck everyone I really hope you get better it's a terrible thing to have.

Thank you for sharing your story. How did you do it? How did you defeat this ocd yourself? I feel like no doctor in the world will be able to help me. I'm the only one that can cure this for me but how? How do you just take your mind off of it when you feel like you're going to suffocate if you don't take that deep breath? Also did you get tightness in your chest, throat? Sometimes (especially after working out) I literally feel like there's a giant ball in my throat. I have been suffering with this for about 6 months and the last two weeks have been so bad that I haven't been able to sleep. For most people it gets better when its time to sleep but for me its the complete opposite. Its like I'm afraid to go to bed because of how bad it gets during bedtime. I have literally slept 2 hours per night this week because of this issue and its affecting my entire life.

its just weird because it feels soooooo physical, like a constant tightness. but the pulmonologist said they saw nothing and inhalers didnt help. i guess it has to be psychological. i did get really really bad anxiety for years and i guess this may be the culmination of that. but its not going away even tho i have absolutely no anxiety anymore. hoping it fades away over time i cant live rest of my life like this, im only 27. started in my early 20s.

The first thing I did was just try to accept it - you have to get the anxiety out of the breath. I have never been anxious in my life and would say I'm not anxious now but obviously I was anxious about my breathing (it literally started one night when I woke up and felt like I couldn't take a deep breath and from that day on I thought about it every minute - the day before that I was 100% ok).

To accept it I'd say to myself well this is just the way I breathe now and lots of people do weird things and mine is breathing and it's something I'm just going to have to learn to live with. I just constantly thought oh well I have to take another deep breath it doesn't matter it's just me!! You just find that you get less and less anxious about it and don't get that built up feeling of desperately needing to take a deep breath. Mind you this has taken me 6 months to get to this point it doesn't happen overnight. You also HAVE to do everything you would normally do and not not do things because of your breathing - think of it like the OCD is a physical thing you can see and you've got something to prove to it. You also really need to get your sleep under control - I went through a phase where I was really stressed about my breathing which led to me not sleeping. I did take a few halves and quarters of sleeping tablets but also started taking melatonin which I really think helped. There was a good couple of months though where I didn't sleep and that doesn't help at all.

Once I wasn't getting that tight anxious feeling of needing to take a huge deep breath I could start saying to myself that it was OCD and I really didn't need to do it and the feeling would either go or I would forget. In the beginning I did have to physically stop myself from doing the breath because I also thought it had become a habit as well which I needed to break. Now I'm just at the point where I can say p*** off I'm not doing it!!

I also think because I was taking such deep breaths I didn't realise how little you actually need to breathe. It should be very very gentle - you should hardly even notice you are breathing. I do try and breathe through my nose but that doesn't always work. Also once you start breathing gently and not taking deep breathes so often when you do need to take a deep breath (which I still do but so does everyone else) you can always do it - you never get that feeling of not being able to breathe deep enough. Because we are doing it too often we are borderline hyperventilating because we are breathing way more than we actually need to. Hope this makes sense.

You tube some OCD videos and do some research you'll be amazed how much of it relates.

I completely understand I'm 22 and have had maybe a tad of anxiety but noothing bad really just every 20 yr olds anxiety. but i have no anxiety with this breathing issue its separate. I've had so many tests and blood work but nothing comes up. has it ever flared up so bad you went to the ER by chance?

no, for me its like a constant thing. like its really bad and annoying buy it doesnt really get better or worse. its just there...but i do remember a few times a few years ago it getting so bad that i literally had no idea what to do. im switching doctors and trying one more time to find a physical root so ill let you know what happens. if i dont find anything again im just going to assume its psychological and pray it goes away someday, or a proper diagnoses is developed...

please let me know if you find something, ill let you know as well. does tgus breathing issue limit you in any way?

thank you! I'll definitely try this and find someone that works with this type of ocd id try anything now hopefully this helps. thank you again!