What is a breathing pattern disorder?
Breathing is essential to life and occurs naturally with very little or no thought. There are many reasons why our breathing can lose its natural rhythm (see diagram). These triggers cause a disturbance to our breathing which could lead us to experience unpleasant symptoms including breathlessness which may be out of proportion to whatever you are doing.
Having a breathing pattern disorder means we could be using the wrong muscles to breathe, using the upper chest rather than the diaphragm and mouth breathing rather than nose breathing. Breathing could be fast or the breaths too large.
Breathing too much; also known as hyperventilation occurs when we breathe more than the body needs which can cause a chemical imbalance due to a lowering of carbon dioxide. This loss of carbon dioxide causes frightening symptoms which can trigger anxiety and worry leading to a continuation of over breathing.
Over breathing is a normal reaction to stressful stimuli, once this has passed your breathing should return to normal. If there is a prolonged stress or may be a repeated trigger this continual pattern then becomes your new normal and your breathing does not return to how it should be.

How do I know if I am over breathing?
Frequent yawning
and sighing
Feeling breathless after
relatively minor exercise
Difficulty co-ordinating breathing
and talking and/or eating
Pins and needles in
hands/arms/around mouth
Palpitations
Feeling permanently exhausted
and unable to concentrate for no
apparent reason
Muscular aches and tension
around the neck/shoulders/jaw
Bloated feeling in the
stomach
Light-headedness

Test your breathing
To become more aware of your breathing pattern try this short
questionnaire: