trouble doing deep breathing for relaxation

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.

Your in a constant state of “ OMG “

Of course you will have trouble learning coping skills.

So basically stop panicking over the inability to do them correctly right off the bat , you were just given this particular tool to “ try”

It takes some time to use them correctly.. just because your having trouble with this one doesn’t mean you can’t try others on you own. You can learn some on your own without your T.

Google coping skills and you will find hundreds of ideas

Hugs !

I can’t do deep breathing either. I get the same feelings when I try. I’ve just written it off as a coping skill that doesn’t work for me. Not all of them work for every person. Christina has some great advice as she often does.

I know I need to use online resources more. You can find just about anything on YouTube. I always forget about it. The progressive body relaxation seemed to work when I did it years before, so hopefully, I will have better luck with that one and keep trying the deep breathing, maybe one of these days. I got close, but just couldn't without panicking. I guess, too, the #1 symptom of my panic attacks is not having enough air to breathe. Then, all the other panic symptoms quickly follow. But the breathing is the first one every time.

I had a hard time with various relaxation exercises but was able to work through it in therapy. Two things helped: one, finding certain exercises that work best for me (I do best without focusing too hard on breathing or I start doing it backwards and gettting upset instead of relaxing) and 2nd I recorded my therapist guiding me through them and practiced at home. I still can pull out the recording if I need it and the sound of his voice helps me relax as well as the familiar, safe exercise.