I’ve been hyper aware of my breathing to the point my body doesn’t want to breathe anymore

Hi J nope your body is not telling you to stop breathing its your anxiety doing that and it can be really scarey, Breathing is an automated response in your body so the very worst case would be you would faint, that lets your body breath normally again, your not even hyperventilating as such your just trying to control your breathing, try and find something to completely occupie yourself as this will distract you from the OCD your suffering from, are you active, im obviously older than you but mad as it sounds i started going gym and swimming, i cant believe how much it helped, tell me your age and are you right weight

Jonathon I have been there with having hyperventilated . Just know that you are probably needing some antidepressant. But you definately need to activate your parasympathetic nervous system through breathing. I now take some time to do some breathing exercises using my abdomen and not my upper chest. It's ok we all breath different ways but taking time to breathe in a way that rocks our nervous system helps so many things. You are probably hyper aware of your breath. I hope you try this exercise and look more into activating the parasympathetic nervous system. This is somethingbibhave done my self. You breathe slowly in to a count of 5 expanding your abdomen out with the breath in then hold for a couple seconds.. Then exhale to a count of 10 slowly. The more you do the easier it will be . This rocks your system helps to ativate parasympathetic nervous system . You'll begin to feel more relaxed the more you do this . Maybe you been upset about something or stressed . I don't know but if you think of a special place . A stream a field anything relaxing and do this breathing it does help. Also mindfulness helps. Think about your self your body how does it feel. Is it tense try relaxing your muscles through progressive muscle relaxation or just visual meditation. Berry Eisen on YouTube has a video for stress relief or sleep i cant remember but its one of the two. Look into that if you like . He has several videos . I don't do hypnosis ever but his video is mild and no quirky stuff . It just relaxes you. I don't do deep meditation either and won't. I don't suggest it and would I keep it light . Your going to do just fine and your going to get through this. Please ask Dr if you coukd benefit from an antideoressant. Remember to exercise too to combat depression if you are having any. One day you'll break this cycle more than likely you'll just forget about how your breathing but until then please take some time out to slow the way you do your daily activities to. If you catch yourself being tense when doing them slow down and take your time. With chores , video games tv or whatever . You might want to do muscle relaxation when you feel you are breathing alot during a movie etc. . In following this discussion. Please Let me know how you are doing. I might be able to suggest more to you.