Constantly aware of breathing and hot air.

[AT_1]

For the last 2 years i have been going through near constant medical episodes related to my health. I feel like I've not had a break and I'm so tired. This year i was hoping that, with all of my health problems over and/or dealt with (chronic constipation, prediabetes, ringing in ears, eye floaters, ADHD diagnosis, and more) i could finally move on and live my life again. I do everything the doctors tell me and have had noticed improvements in my health prior to last a few days ago.

But last week i for some reason woke up and noticed some hot air in my room, and it took me turning the AC on and standing near it to get a breath of "fresh" air. Ever since then I've had nothing but a growing, and now a complete, awareness of my breathing and how hot the air is. Breathing is now entirely mechanical and i can't breathe without make an effort to. I feel light headed, my chest is tight, I have a pounding headache and nothing distracts me anymore. All i think about is that the air is hot and not fit to breathe but i also have to breathe.  I can't work anymore and i have so many other appointments i've made that i have to keep but now can't keep.

Anything i do physically causes me to overheat and become exhausted, if I'm not doing anything its like torture noticing how much im breathing. I can't sleep but im so tired. This is so painful, it feels like a never ending panic attack. Has anyone else experienced this? how do you fix it? please help.

[Croix]

Dear AT_1~

Welcome back, it's god to hear from you again and I was glad for you when you said that overall your health was improving.

I'm sure it must be a most worrying and unpleasant situation to think that every breath is an act of conscious will, and on top of that you have become sensitive ot air temperature.

While logic might say you breath successfully when as-leap I'm not sure that thought give as much comfort as you might expect.

Can I suggest you approach this in two ways, the first being to have a medical checkup to discount any physical condition that may be causing this. It may be somewhat unlikely but the possibility cannot be ignored, even if only for your own peace of mind.

Then if that comes back negative then please seek assistance from a psychologist or other health professional who specializes or at least understands  how someone can be fixated on something that their body would normally do wihtout thought. I"m not a doctor but believe this sort of condition is not unknown.

If faced with similar circumstances, in addition to the above, I would try to draw my attention away for periods of time using mindfulness, which can concentrate the mind on something outside yourself, even something like a leaf.

I can't do this unassisted and so use a free smartphone app called Smiling Mind. This takes a bit of practice to have an effect but can then get to be surprisingly successful in drawing the mind away.

I do hope this condition gets better quickly

Croix