I only recently discovered that I never actually understood what hyperventilation is.
The instinctive model is something like, “you’re panicking -> breathing too fast -> (?) not enough oxygen?? -> bad??”
But the problem is closer to “exhaling too much -> not enough CO2 -> bad”
The instinctive model is something like, “you’re panicking -> breathing too fast -> (?) not enough oxygen?? -> bad??”
But the problem is closer to “exhaling too much -> not enough CO2 -> bad”
I’m still making sense of this, but here is my makeshift understanding:
When you inhale normally, you take in oxygen into your lungs, and it enters your bloodstream
but for this oxygen to go from your blood to your cells, there’s a “trade” process. Oxygen is traded for CO2
When you inhale normally, you take in oxygen into your lungs, and it enters your bloodstream
but for this oxygen to go from your blood to your cells, there’s a “trade” process. Oxygen is traded for CO2
When you exhale too much too quickly, your blood might be full of oxygen, but that oxygen doesn’t make it into your cells- because there’s not enough CO2! 
the reason that “breathe into a paper bag” works as a remedy for hyperventilation symptoms is that you’re *recycling the CO2*.
It seems like you can also achieve this by holding your breath for a few seconds between inhales and exhales
It seems like you can also achieve this by holding your breath for a few seconds between inhales and exhales
I’m about 3 days into practicing “box breathing” - too early to be too confident about any findings - but it has calmed me down tremendously in a way that “regular deep breaths” never did. The “secret” seems to be in the holds between breaths
Doing this makes me realize that I might’ve been living in a state of chronic hyperventilation without realising it. I don’t particularly breathe fast or anything. But pausing between breaths seems to be giving me a mental alertness and calm I haven’t had maybe since I was a kid
Anyway this is more of a tentative “I’m trying to make sense of this” thread rather than a “listen to me I know what I’m talking about” thread. I am likely wrong about a bunch of stuff
