Pegasus Post: November 15, 2016

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Tuesday [Edition datE] November 15 2016
PEGASUS POST
Anxiety and breathing
– are they related?
When good breathing goes bad
Have you experienced any of these
breathing difficulty symptoms?
• Disturbed sleep
• Erratic heartbeats*
• Feeling anxious and uptight
• Upset gut/nausea
• Chest pains*
• Shattered confidence
• Tired all the time
• Achy muscles and joints
• Dizzy spells* or feeling spaced out
• Irritability or hypervigilance
• Frequent yawning and sighing
• Breathing discomfort*
• Pins and needles
• Feelings of ‘air hunger’
*Check with your doctor if you experience these symptoms.
These questions are asked on the website
www.BradCliff.com. BradCliff was started by
North Island physiotherapists Dinah Bradley
and Tania Cliffton Smith, who specialise
in hyperventilation and anxiety treatment.
Their website notes one in 10 people
experience some form of breathing pattern
disorder or chronic over breathing at some
time in their lives, resulting in a range of
disturbing or frightening symptoms puzzling
to you and your doctor.
You feel unwell because of overbreathing,
and overbreathing makes you feel unwell.
A vicious cycle is established, which is a
major stress all by itself. This is experienced
currently by many Cantabrians, says Ietje
van Stolk of Physical Sense Gym & Physio.
As she explains, it is normal to breathe fast
and in the upper chest when we are in danger
and fight or flight is needed. We know all
about that here, due to the earthquakes.
Normally, once the danger is gone, our
breathing should restore itself within a
couple of days. We would then be using the
diaphragm for our normal nonstressed
breathing. We have been having a hard
time restoring our breathing pattern here
in Canterbury because every time our body
tried to achieve that, the next aftershock came
rolling in. Even though the aftershocks have
significantly diminished, some people’s fight
or flight mode breathing has become chronic,
or habitual, Ietje says. And, as she points out,
using the wrong muscles for breathing means
these overworked muscles cause headaches,
neck pain and jaw pain.
With fast upper chest breathing, sighing
and yawning, the resulting disturbance of our
oxygen and carbon dioxide levels can give us
the feeling we are not able to control our own
body. One moment you are are feeling fine,
next moment your chest feels tight, you feel
out of breath, your heart beats erratically and
you may even experience dizziness and/or
tingling. Very scary if you do not understand
what is happening. No wonder this causes
anxiety. Not being the boss over our own
body makes us anxious, anxiety feeds the
faulty breathing pattern, and so it goes on.
The BradCliff physiotherapists have
established a national network of practitioners
that regularly train together and can help you
overcome this problem.
Physical Sense is part of that network.
To make an appointment phone 377 2577.
A vicious cycle is
established, which is a
major stress all by itself.
This is experienced
currently by many
Cantabrians, says Ietje
van Stolk of Physical
Sense Gym & Physio.
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