Excessive Yawning and Constant Need to Breathe Deep

Your surgery is going to good

It sounds like bad news. I hope everything turns out all right. But at least you have a dignosis.

Hi, I have been suffering with this exact problem for the last month, and I was convinced I was the only one, it was all in my head etc. So it's a great relief to find out I'm not alone. I have to say my blood pressure remains the same regardless of whether it's happening.

My doctor prescribed me Sertraline for anxiety, which I have struggled with for years, but I'm only on day 4 of this medication and haven't noticed any improvement yet. But like the rest of you, my doctor didn't seem to have the faintest idea what is causing this..

All I know is that it's stopping me from being able to relax and concentrate and is slowly driving me insane so will be looking up the breathing techniques as soon as I get home today. If anyone comes up with any more suggestions it would be greatly welcomed as I'm struggling to carry on like this!

Hi Geewil0,

All i can say is.. dont take those anxiety pills, you dont need them and it makes it harder to get rid of this problem i think. as Will said, we are just breathing wrong and if your docter has no clue about that and gives you ani anxiety pills that is not a permanent solution but temporarely. You need to get rid of this without pills man. i started reading about buteyko and applying it. And it helped me alot. And the most important thing is to remain calm... if you get nervous about it you only make it worse and you get into a vicious circle. Good luck with it man, you dont need anxiety pills

Hi all, I currently suffer from this problem too.  From what I can tell through random Internet articles, we are suffering from chronic hyperventilation.  We are taking in too much oxygen, and our oxygen-CO2 balance is off.  Practicing long, shallow breathing is pivotal to re-training your body how to breathe.  We yawn because it gives us mental relief from the feeling of a full breath, but in reality, it is only exacerbating our hyperventilation due to the influx of more oxygen.  

Try breathing with your mouth closed with good posture.  Inhale shallow breaths over ten seconds (filling your belly, not your lungs) and then exhale through your nose slowly (deflating your belly).  This will be uncomfortable at first because our oxygen-CO2 balance is off and we have trained our bodies to breathe incorrectly.  The key to this is shallow, small breaths; this is counter-intuitive because it seems like we need more air and a complete breath, but we really need less oxygen. Commit to this method for a day and see if your breathing improves.  The goal is to re-train your body to breathe like this unconsciously.  Another trigger to our hyperventilation is being so conscious of our breathing; practicing correct breathing will help make it automatic and will further decrease our symptoms.

I have been using this method over the past hour and feel great relief.  Every few minutes, I still feel the need to take a large inhalation of air with my mouth open, but I have stopped feeling the need to yawn.  I have suffered from this for a little over a year now and was previously very healthy and not anxiety-ridden.  However, when I began a full-time Master's program while working full-time, I began having these breathing problems and have had them ever since.  Doctors have prescribed Zoloft and Xanax which helped, but I don't like taking prescription medication.  I hope the relief persists and I hope it helps some of you out there.

Hey meljohn was wondering how this has been over the past 8 months ? Has it gone completely away? This just started happening me a month ago I woke up in the morning and went to take a deep breath and didn't get the satisfying feeling we all speak of and kept forcing deep breaths until I was sure something was wrong. I went to the ER and they told me all was fine. Of course though since this happened every day there after I keep "making sure" or "testing" my breaths to ensure I'm getting those deep ones that a yawn would give. The problem comes when I don't get the deep breaths. I've heard of this method before and it works when I try it but I'm not sure if this is something I can pay attention to everyday as breathing should just be natural. I woke up this morning and tried three deep breaths which were a fail and I noticed when I'm relaxed and not thinking I can so slightly breath and get that satisfying breath. It's such a strange feeling and condition and I do think it's very mental after being to 3 specialists in 1 month. However how do we break the mental cycle if we have to remember to breathe through our nose? So sorry for the long post but I guess what I'm getting at is once the oxygen co2 balance was restored did you stop trying to deep breaths? Once your body was retrained did it completely go away including the urge ? And how long did it take?

Thank you

Thanks meljohn and to the others with great info on this subject. I was starting to think I was crazy. My wife would take me to the ER and they would tell my oxygen level was fine but I felt like couldn't breath. I've been dealing with this for years but lately has really been getting bad. I will definitely try these breathing techniques. Have been doing them tonight and seems to help. Thanks all for the info and for letting me know I'm not alone or crazy.

As an update, I've had relief now for almost a week.  As I observe my own now-normal breathing, I see that I only take in a very small amount of air and I actually wait a little bit before inhaling after exhaling.  I don't even need to focus on the belly-breathing. I think the key is just small portions of air over longer periods of time.  My breathing is almost completely unconscious now.  I hope you feel relief soon!

In my (uneducated) opinion, I think this is normal.  As I've responded to others in this thread, I think the key is taking short shallow inhalations, waiting a little bit, exhaling that little inhalation, waiting a bit, and then inhaling another little breath. This is what my normal breathing looks like now. I don't think you even need to focus much on the belly breathing.  Just short, calm breathing with little air.  Too much oxygen is our problem for chronic hyperventilators.  I think the problem arises from stress and is exacerbated by focusing on the problem and by inhaling too much oxygen through yawning. Now that you're inhaling less oxygen than you have for the past year, I'm sure your body is just trying to get used to the lesser amount. Hope you feel total relief soon!

Thanks for the reply i think your so right. 

I have suffered from this for 4 1/2 years and researched for years these symptoms, and I ran into *HYPOTHYROID* I was desperate and went to have my TSH levels checked out, and sure enough it came back hypothyroid. general doctors will try to give you a basic standard "T3 and T4 and FREE" thyroid tests. unfortunately those dont give you numbers but TSH one does. request that with doctor. I almost prayed I had it before my results came back so I knew what was causing this. I haven't started meds yet but can't wait and put a stop to this excessive starvation for oxygen!!!!!!! also read that post. hope this helps! And best of luck.

Beverly.

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