My last therapy session, my T had me doing deep breathing, or trying to at least for relaxation and calming anxiety. (I had not skipped too much of my lamotrigine when I saw her). However, I just cannot do deep breathing or only just and for teeny bits. When I need to slow my breathing or try to hold my breath 1 second, I panic, get anxious, feel I don't have enough air, am going to pass out and must breathe. Why is this? I never had an incident involving choking. I am able to swim and was in the advanced summer swimming classes with all the different diving tricks and everything until I was around 16 or so. I definitely can hold my breath longer than 1 second. So why can't I do deep breathing and relax?

The T could tell I had a hard time with it. She said next time we will try a relaxation method relaxing one area of the body to another. I have done that one before, but it's been years, and I can definitely use a refresher.