Hyperventilation syndrome

Today I was diagnosed with hyperventilation syndrome which has supposedly lead to the 4-5 anxiety attacks I've had over the last month. Let me tell you that those attacks fucking suck, dreadful experiences - like I'm dying. But I'm positive, so I'll be good. I'm supposed to undergo psychomotor physiotherapy, which should be interesting.

I hope people around here don't have to experience these kinds of attacks, they really do your head and body in. OK, just wanted to share and ventilate. Thank you for reading.

Is that the same as this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_response (which I've had luckily only twice in my life)

Do the doctors feel it's psychological in origin or is there something about your physiology that is making you hyperventilate?

Sucks man, hope it gets better. Panic attacks are awful

It's not exactly the same pete, but it's related. I don't know what the doctors think is the origin, we'll see.

I've never had a full blown panic attack, but I've witnessed a few in full pelt and they look horrible. I hope you manage to get on top of this.

Sounds like good ol' GAD to me.

Feel better bro

I've had hyperventilation once. Thought I was going to die.

I get panic attacks fairly regularly.

The mild ones involve me feeling like I'm choking, and I have to loosing any clothing around my neck because I feel like throwing up.

The severe ones involve me going blind. Apparently it's caused by a blood surge to my eyes or something.

Hyperventilation sounds awful.

  On 10/10/2011 at 4:54 PM, impakt said:

Today I was diagnosed with hyperventilation syndrome which has supposedly lead to the 4-5 anxiety attacks I've had over the last month. Let me tell you that those attacks fucking suck, dreadful experiences - like I'm dying. But I'm positive, so I'll be good. I'm supposed to undergo psychomotor physiotherapy, which should be interesting.

 

I hope people around here don't have to experience these kinds of attacks, they really do your head and body in. OK, just wanted to share and ventilate. Thank you for reading.

Hey impakt sorry to hear about the diagnosis---at least you know what the hell is causing the anxiety though... that's a great start. I just quickly read 3 diff studies (one was a meta-analysis) of treatment methods for HVS and it looks like the one proposed to you seems to work fairly well for most participants of the studies.

this is very out of my area of expertise but after having read the studies I recommend spending a few minutes each day in some sort of breathing meditation. Basically you just want to get very good at slow, relaxed breathing so that should hyperventilation hit you suddenly you can immediately start reducing your breathing rate which will return your system to normal. Count out your breaths so that you're following a 7-11 rules... 7 seconds inhale, 11 seconds exhale.

It may sound like a silly thing to practice but it should really help.

Also, when you're done the therapy report back here in or a PM if you can remember. I'm quite interested in how it goes as I work in a related field.

Yeah, I'll be doing some breathing exercises. I'll let you know how it goes!

So you have hyperventilation because you are too stressed out, or?

When I had it. I quit my job shortly after, and I've had it since. That job was killing me. Hyperventilation is your bodies telling you that you just can't take it anymore.

I'm not telling you to quit you're job your anything like that. Just think about what you are doing. Sometimes you just need to say stop.

I had panic attacks in 2003. Then in 2004 I cried for an hour straight while focusing on all the thoughts that triggered it and I haven't had any attacks since

Questions for you guys with panic attacks: Do you have the feeling that you could "provoke" an attack by deliberately putting yourself into an uncomfortable situation, or thinking about things that triggers the anxiety? Could you get an attack right now if you tried to? Also: do you have any prevision (not sure if it's the right word) before the panic attack starts? Do you believe that you somehow could learn to know the symptoms before an attack starts, and then avoid, or at least lighten the attack by giving yourself some kind of positive feedback? "Ok, I know this, I've been here before. Just let it pass by"

Sorry if these question seems stupid or ignorant in any way.

Dropp, I might be overworked. Mort, I think it might be possible to provoke it but I don't want to try. I can definitely feel the symptoms as it starts(adrenaline rush giving me lockjaw is usually how it starts), so I'm gonna try controlling it from now on. Legit questions.