Diaphragmatic breathing

[Blinkyrocket]

Peat has recommended diphenhydramine (which is component of some forms of Benadryl in some contries) and cyproheptadine, both older antihistamines, as safer than some of the more recent ones. If you can avoid the allergic stressors, maybe even better.

I think all kinds of stress, as well as posture can affect breathing. Even with allergies, you may be able to get your nose to clear enough by keeping your mouth closed - at night it might take tape or a chin strap.

If you are having trouble getting your diaghragm moving regularly, there are other exercises that I gather can help, if you don't want to use the belt method. For instance, lie on your back on the floor in a warm place. Relax as fully as you can. Put one hand on chest and one on belly. See if you can breath so that the hand on your chest stays still, and you can feel the hand on belly rise and fall gently. Or put a book on your belly. Whenever you think of it, straighten your back, relax and exhale, aand deliberately make the next couple of breaths diaphragmatic.

Any time you notice yourself feeling stressed, you can relax, breath out, and hold your breath for a few seconds, one or more times.

The breathing exercises are not from Peat. He recommends bag breathing briefly several times a day. If you haven't tried that yet, you could give it a go too.

I might be curious to try cyproheptadine for its anti-sertonergic properties. But, I don't really like taking medications or drugs. I definitely mouth breathe because taped my mouth shut the other day and I woke up and the tape wasn't on my mouth anymore, somehow my jaw was strong enough to rip it off. Also, I'm somewhat relaxed right now and pleased to find out that the paper bag I found is only .8 liters in volume and that my nasal breaths barely move the bag so obviously I'm not breathing too deeply and might be going overboard with thinking and worrying about my breathing.

The thing that confuses me is that I have more heart palpitations when my breathing rate and volume decreases.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

Just had 2 cups of tea brewed for a long time and am currently drinking an energy drink (no ginseng or weird stuff like that, the brand is Blu Frog, not well known but it's supposedly healthy) and my underarm temps are 98.7 but lately it seems my underarm and tongue are getting the same temps with the thermometer I'm using so idk whether that translates to 99.7 or just 98.7 but either number is good, so I'm jumping back on the caffeine bandwagon cuz I got off for awhile cuz I have a life long fear of my heart beating too fast that I'm trying to overcome so I can experience the benefits of caffeine.

I also think its necessary to say that my heart rate has actually lowered by drinking all this caffeine.....

 

[tara]

I also think its necessary to say that my heart rate has actually lowered by drinking all this caffeine.....

Nice.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

I should probably rename this thread to hypochondriac questions or something like that because of my next question: when does hypokolemia happen? Because, all I've been drinking is milk, no OJ and it never occurred to me that because of this I wasn't getting very much potassium, and now today I've run out of milk and have been drinking energy drinks and green tea and eating plain sugar and eggs and some ice cream and a bowl of cereal this morning, and my heart beat just feels kinda funky. The hypochondriac in me doesn't know what to do because I have some cream of tartar here but there's always the war inside my head trying to figure out if it's hypo or hyper, cuz I'm reading horror stories about ppl taking too much cream of tartar -_-.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

I also think its necessary to say that my heart rate has actually lowered by drinking all this caffeine.....

Nice.

You're an idiot. I guess I should've actually asked why the caffeine lowered my heart rate but I'm insecure or bipolar or really emotional or something so I felt like calling you an idiot and it made me feel better.

 

[tara]

Whether you agree with me or not, no need to be abusive. Especially if you want people to spend any time trying to help you figure things out. Feel free to edit your own post.

My initial guess was that the caffeine was doing something useful to lower your stress hormones, revealing an underlying low heart rate. I could be quite wrong about this - there could be lots of other explanations. I have trouble if I drink much coffee, so I don't.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

My initial guess was that the caffeine was doing something useful to lower your stress hormones, revealing an underlying low heart rate. I could be quite wrong about this - there could be lots of other explanations. I have trouble if I drink much coffee, so I don't.

That's my guess too, after the caffeine wears off however, I don't feel anything at all. Idk of its better than stress, I could just sit in my room and stare at the wall and nothing would change. I don't feel BAD at all, and I don't necessarily wanna die, but I'm having a hard time trying to find a logical reason to be alive. It's weird.
I notice this when I relax, for awhile it feels so good because it's relief from misery, but then after awhile I just don't feel anything at all, it feels like a movie with a time lapse that shows someone standing still and showing no emotion and the time lapse goes on until the world ends. Or, more simply, it's just emptiness. I'm dead inside, lol I can actually truly say "I'm dead inside", when you're a kid you kinda joke about that stuff but I now know what it feels like. Now that the misery is gone, I don't wanna die cuz it doesn't seem like a BETTER outcome to me now, I'm already dead, I guess that explains it best.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

Should probably see a therapist huh?

 

[tara]

Only if you know a good one, and preferably one who can recognise when the real problem is lack of physical energy as opposed to primarily emotional causes (seems like you've got both going on). Otherwise you run the risk of having inaccurate feelings of helplessness reinforced.

I think when my motivation is very low and my feelings are flat it usually means I need more fuel or more sleep or more warmth or someone to cry/laugh/talk with.
I feel good when I drink coffee and worse when it wears off. So I currently seem better off with just a little decaf. I'm hoping my tolerance will improve sometime.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

Only if you know a good one, and preferably one who can recognise when the real problem is lack of physical energy as opposed to primarily emotional causes (seems like you've got both going on). Otherwise you run the risk of having inaccurate feelings of helplessness reinforced.

I think my problems are purely emotional in cause, but I'm biased cuz I have a problem that could potentially effect my judgement, so idk. I have been alone physically for most of my life (shut in my room) and alone emotionally for all my life. And idk if I wanna get better because what I've always wanted was a good childhood, all my fantasies involve being in a gang of mischief making kids. I don't wanna grow up but I can't stop it so why even get better if I can't go back in time? I'll always have had a bad childhood so I'll never have a perfect adulthood. And the world looks down on "emo" ppl so it makes it even worse to recover. But just the action of me being the way I am right now can't be changed, even if I get better I will always be the guy who used to be depressed and wasted the first however many years of his life. I think I need a therapist extremely badly because I end up using places or ppl that shouldn't have to deal with stuff like this as my own therapy..... Like a nutrition forum lol

 

[Blinkyrocket]

Or maybe it's that I feel like I don't need to get better, that the world just needs to tolerate depressing ppl and maybe enjoy their company. But that's not possible, everyone needs to be happy, so my journey to happiness must continue :/

 

[Blinkyrocket]

Oh well, disregard all that, I checked out haidut's website with solban, estroban etc. and I bought some of those and am gonna try em out.
And I'm also gonna try socializing with people, however dangerous that may be.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

I'm also just gonna experiment with caffeine since it makes me feel so good that it feels like my life has changed. Might try nixing the tea cuz I think I get a slight allergic reaction to it. Now, I believe we can let this thread die now.

 

[mbarvian]

Before you do, I would second the therapy recommendation if you can afford it. I've had many a bout of anxiety/depression and even though I seek treatment through other means now, it's seriously therapeutic just to be able to talk to someone openly about how you feel. Socializing can be helpful too, but even being around other people without interacting with them can be great as well. Best of luck with this though!

 

[Blinkyrocket]

Before you do, I would second the therapy recommendation if you can afford it. I've had many a bout of anxiety/depression and even though I seek treatment through other means now, it's seriously therapeutic just to be able to talk to someone openly about how you feel. Socializing can be helpful too, but even being around other people without interacting with them can be great as well. Best of luck with this though!

Thanks, I think my parents have already sorta planned all that out, just haven't really pulled the trigger on it.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

Ok, hold the phone, I've been taking L-Theanine ever since all of this started and one ingredient is 100mg Inositol, and I took 2 a day. Inositol increases serotonin or something along those lines right? So that could be something, plus after taking b vitamin supplements and decreasing caffeine to manageable levels I feel calm and at peace and much more resilient to stress, especially after finding out I can reduce my breathing substantially just by relaxing my stomach mainly and also my neck and back. So, unless I'm bipolar and am just gonna fall right back down into that horrible hole, I'm feeling pretty good now. Doesn't hurt that I've started a new job and am meeting new people.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

Hmmm nvm on inositol, idk why someone on the forum said it did something to serotonin.