subject: Anxiety Attacks Symptoms - Hyperventilating [print this page] Hyperventilating has been associated with panic and anxiety attacks symptoms for some time. Whether hyperventilating actually causes the panic attacks or whether it is one of the symptoms of an attack is to some extent academic. What is important however, is that learning how to control your breathing can help ameliorate the other symptoms, thereby greatly reducing the full impact of the attack, especially when the technique is combined with other techniques in your repertoire such as acceptance and positive thought control.
A close friend of mine recently said to me 'shifting your awareness to your breathing pattern a good tactic in helping control anxiety attacks', and she always uses 'slow breathing during periods of intense unease'.
Once you become used to breathing using your diaphragm and not just the upper part of your chest, you will find it quite easy to correct yourself when you notice feelings of unease prior to a panic or anxiety attack. Even if you don't manage to correct it in time to ward it off altogether, you can still use it as an effective way to considerably reduce the impact and symptoms of the attack itself.
The process if hyperventilating reduces the level of carbon dioxide in your blood. When this happens, it then becomes part of the mechanism and bodily functions which trigger other panic attacks symptoms. Therefore, some doctors suggest that increasing blood carbon dioxide levels may actually help reduce or overcome anxiety and panic attacks. They recommend placing a paper bag (not a plastic one, please) over your nose and mouth, and breathing slowly and calmly, but not deeply, into it.
As we breathe out we exhale carbon dioxide, so taking back in what we have just exhaled into the bag is meant to redress the imbalance. Continue doing it until your anxiety symptoms subside. I haven't tried this method myself, but my friend Jenny found it very helpful and it was the treatment recommended by her doctor; along with moderate psychotherapeutic help.
She learned how to recognize how she was hyperventilating, and so a paper bag became part of her anxiety and panic attack tool kit. Try for yourself. It might be the missing item in yours.
