Any success with paced breathing :)

S

sevenroses

Well-known member
Any success with paced breathing? :) For me it feels a little difficult and awkward. But wondering if it works for you guys ;) :)
 
EasySkanking

EasySkanking

1
Huh? What? :) Care to explain?

I think I get it though - you mean controlled breathing to relax yourself?

I had success with it - I would be able to control my breathing and automatically stop my anxiety from happening. Because anxiety and deep/slow breaths are like oil and water, they just don't mix!

The thing is, I found it to be too much work (I used to get anxious a lot during the day and having to work on controlling my breathing just took to much effort/energy from my part because I had to do it very often during the day.) It works - it just takes too much work to do, imo.

What I found that works best (so far), is cognative behaviour therapy excercices before confronting an anxious situation. It makes me think straight and realistically... which lasts a lot longer and works faster than controlled breathing. But that's just my opinion and experience on those things.
 
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sevenroses

Well-known member
Like in high school I went privately went to a councilor because I was terrified of an upcoming presentation. All he said was breath like me and to go out for walks. I don't know if that was such excellent advice he probably wasn't an SA expert anyways.

I do agree that CBT really helps before the event not only that but actually jotting down the coping thoughts so it actually sticks into your brain.
 
EasySkanking

EasySkanking

1
^Yup, that's what I do, write everything down. Thinking things out doesn't work nearly as well!

Yeah, that whole "breathing generalization" that people make is pretty much bull**** (from what they see in movies most likely). Yeah it works, but it takes a lot of time to do it (around 5 minutes) and if you're someone that has SA (how many times do we get anxious from encountering people during the day?) we don't have 5 minutes to contribute to relaxing everytime that we get anxious ;)
 
S

sevenroses

Well-known member
I like the fact that if you keep writing down all these coping thoughts, those thoughts eventually become automatic. Obviously the thoughts have to be realistic and believable.
 
EasySkanking

EasySkanking

1
Oh totally, I love that too! It works so well that sometimes it freaks me out and I'm like "Am I supposed to be worrying right now??" Then I get to thinking "I should be worrying..." So I start worrying lol.... Eventually I'll get used to being relaxed though - and accept that I can be happy and relaxed! :)
 
Ran

Ran

Active member
Is controlled breathing the same as taking slow, deep breaths?

I used to do a lot of meditating to relax (I'll be taking it up again once I'm settled in my flat) so I'm accustomed to 'slowing down' when I start breathing. So now if I'm in an uncomfortable situation, I take a deep breath, hold it for three seconds, then exhale slowly. I tried counting backwards from ten today with each breath when I had to speak to a person at the welfare office today -- I was so anxious I was close to bursting into tears, bah -- I managed to calm myself to a totally acceptable level by the time I got to 6. :)

I've never heard of writing down coping thoughts, but I'm definitely going to try it out now!
 
EasySkanking

EasySkanking

1
Yeah, it's the same thing Ran :). And yes, definately try writting things down - your mind seems to swallow things more easily like that than just by thinking them ;)
 
Ran

Ran

Active member
It's kinda bad that I'm now looking forward to something stressful so I can try the writing, lol. :rolleyes:
 
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