What is chronic hyperventilation?
What is hyperventilation to begin with and what causes it?
Hyper is "too much", and ventilation is "breathing". Hyperventilation means not breathing as a function of what is good for your body. As a result, the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide (CO2) in the blood becomes unbalanced.
There are two forms of hyperventilation:
The first is acute hyperventilation (attack). Quite suddenly, you start breathing heavily. You gasp for oxygen. You lose breathing control and have a hyperventilation attack, accompanied by panic. Not a nice feeling. This can occur due to anxiety, fever, tension, complaints, ...
In addition, there is chronic hyperventilation. In chronic hyperventilation, a person has cultivated the habit of constantly breathing incorrectly. And then we don't have enough supply of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the body.
Like everything else, it's all a matter of balance.
Hyperventilation cause
Breathing normally comes naturally, we don't have to think about it. However, breathing can become disrupted by psychological stress or anxiety. The body then produces the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. It prepares for the upcoming pressure, as it were. This causes you to inhale and exhale faster and also your heart rate to rise.
Hyperventilation and its relation to HSP and RTT
Many hypersensitive people struggle with their breathing and suffer from chronic hyperventilation. Since, as an RTT therapist, I mainly counsel highly sensitive people and get a lot of questions about breathing and chronic hyperventilation, I wrote this article. Despite the many trainings I have taken, I keep learning every day. I also continue to study yoga, various sports and, of course, breathing, the hyperventilation symptoms of hyperventilation and the causes of high sensitivity.
What is HSP or high sensitivity?
If you are highly sensitive, you process stimuli in a profound way, making you perceive differently from people who are not. About 15 to 20% of people are highly sensitive. For them, experiences are very intense. Both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. And they need more time to process situations.
Hyperventilation vs emotions & negative feelings
Generally, unprocessed emotions (e.g. anxiety), tensions or stressful factors are at the root of hyperventilation. When we experience stress, anxiety, great pressure, our stress mechanism kicks in. All kinds of processes are triggered in our body to deal with this situation at that moment. This stress mechanism is triggered spontaneously from our autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system consists of two branches (control systems), each with opposite functions. The symphaticus and the parasymphaticus. It regulates all kinds of processes in our body automatically, such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, ...
The Symphathicus
This is the 'fight & flight' mode or the accelerator of your body. This is the branch that allows us to survive in life-threatening situations, fight, flee and perform. The substance involved is adrenaline and the key word is: ACTION
In this phase, your specific symptoms such as heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate increase. In this mode, your body consumes energy.
The Parasymphathicus
This then is the "rest & digest" mode or the brake pedal and "battery charger" of your body. This is the antagonist of the sympathetic, and is responsible for recovery, repair, accumulation and rest. When the parasympathetic is active, your heart rate drops, your blood pressure falls, your muscles and organs get enough blood and oxygen. This part of the nervous system is responsible for regeneration, physical relaxation, repair processes. The key word for the parasympathetic is: REVIEW
We feel good when there is a healthy balance between the throttle & brake pedal.
But what if you stay on the throttle? What if you feel like you are constantly weighed down by stress, sadness, fear, anger, hatred and disgust? What if you feel like you constantly have to perform? Or when setbacks pile up? This is when stress and its concomitant symptoms arise. Then we can say the following about stress: "Stress is a physical and psychological tension that arises when the difference between should and can is great for a long time." This tension can be caused by several factors:
- Deadlines at work, pressure at work, perfectionism, setting the bar high, work-home combination,...
- But even when we have experienced intense events, this can cause our stress mechanism to work overtime today.
- Worrying: we often think up all kinds of worst-case scenarios in our heads. This can trigger our stress mechanism.
Specifically: why hyperventilation?
In chronic hyperventilation, the respiratory centre is disrupted. We are no longer breathing as we should. What does that mean? It means that the respiratory centre has a low concentration of CO2 as normal sees. It tries to cling to that low concentration. A person breathing calmly has about 40 mmHg (mercury pressure) of carbon dioxide in the red body fluid. Someone who has chronic 'HV' is well below that.
Note .
The respiratory centre is still working fine. It's just that it's set at far too low a value.
Chronic hyperventilation symptoms
During hyperventilation, oxygen levels are too high and carbon dioxide levels too low. As a result, you may experience the following (common) symptoms or complaints:
- a feeling of tightness (e.g. in the chest)
- dizziness, nausea
- shortness of breath (intense breathing through the mouth)
- tingling around mouth or in fingers
- fatigue
- excessive sweating
- palpitations
- sore throat
The symptoms can be frightening, but are (usually) not dangerous.
Chronic hyperventilation and stress
Chronic hyperventilation can result from (chronic) stress. All kinds of complaints and situations can cause unpleasant tension. That tension affects the breathing centre, we have seen. Your respiration speeds up, but also slows down again once the tension factors have dissipated. With chronic tension, this is not the case. You can then constantly have accelerated breathing.
Remedy chronic hyperventilation and excess stimuli
Because chronic hyperventilation often arises from psychological symptoms (e.g. anxiety), it is important to address these symptoms. Also, the stimuli that affect your breathing and thus hyperventilation. Together, we can determine where the symptoms come from and find a solution. It usually starts with self-care. For example, when chronic hyperventilation is caused by trauma and unprocessed emotions, we offer an RTT session.
Need help?
Are you highly sensitive? Can't handle the many stimuli? Do you suffer from chronic hyperventilation? Or do you have other specific complaints? Or more questions? Call or e-mail us. Or visit our website.