Is the brain really THAT smart?

So weird thing. About 3 weeks ago I suddenly thought "omg I can't breathe!". There was nothing wrong with me. And there is still nothing wrong with me, but I still can't breathe well and I have the urge to yawn but have not yawned in 3 weeks either. Can the brain seriously make you believe that you can't breathe or yawn?! I know it's anxiety (which is strange because I have nothing to be anxious about), but I'm still amazed I can't yawn because isn't yawning a primitive emotion that you can't suppress no matter what? But somehow I am! Does tinnitus have this same power? That because I think I can hear ringing, I can? If I had never thought about it, would it have never even entered into my consciousness? These days I notice every sound. I analyse every single sound and I hear every single sound where I previously did not. For example, I now hear the traffic, the fridge, the aircon, the ticking clock, the washing machine. Prior to tinnitus I noticed none of these things. So I'm a bit annoyed at myself for letting the anxiety win yet somehow feel unable to un-notice all these new sound. I try to just be normal, but stupid things bother me, like the car door slamming, the noise in a cafe, the screams of babies. I've actually gone insane. This is just not normal yet I fail to have any perspective and rational thinking. Anyway, I'm just mad at myself that I'm not able to habituate.

 

you can tell the T to calm down ...calm down ...calm down ...it will get better

 

Don't rush habituation. (Lord knows I should take that advice!) I know in my case it's a very very gradual process.

And as for thinking you can hear things, I totally believe that if I sat in a quiet room and told myself the phone was ringing eventually I would hear a ringing phone.

Pity it doesn't seem to work the other way around for me yet

 

Yer same, I play the violin and have tons of music that I play along with, and so I know which songs come after the other ones, and when I turn the music off, I can hear the next song on the track even though I'm not playing it. Weird!

 

are you sure you are not anxious about anything Neenie? well, i think we both know the answer is YES; YOU ARE MORE THAN anxious because of this tinnitus.and that is why sometimes you have the feeling you can not breathe,i have that too!!!especially when i still had my general anxiety disorder some years ago. during that time i had that so often, i thouhgt i dont get enaugh air but i noticed it came only from my mind cause there was no problem with my lungs at all!

 

and Neenie,please dont be mad at me, but i think the reason that you feel so strange at the moment is because of all this meds that you are taking. you CAN NOT be yourself with all this meds, impossible!

 

my sister inlaw is also a violinist she has 3 babies she teaches violin lessens too ... she also hears buzzing in her ears ,so does my Momma ...though i think I've pissed off my whole family cause i reminded them of there t ...we all hear a little tinker bell now and then

 

Haha, I'd never be mad at anyone! I have been trying to reduce my meds, so far I'm off the mirtazipine completely, I've halved the valdoxan and halved the triazolam. I tried to reduce more but I went crazy so giving myself a break before i continue!

 

Good job Nina, with the meds. But yeah, you need to go careful with the cutting down so probably a good idea to go slow. As for the breathing thing, it's usually due to when you're anxious (you might not even notice that you are) you tense up, your shoulders tense and your breathing gets shallow and you don't get enough oxygen which makes the anxiety worse etc etc. It is, however, impossible to die from shallow breathing, the body would always go into autopilot. Judging from your posts, I definitely don't think you're insane, even if you feel like you are. I firmly believe that very soon your tinnitus will not be so intrusive, and right away you will feel so much happier and saner. And oh yes, brains are weird!

 

Nina, you're not able to breath in fully because you already have too much oxygen in your blood due to the way you're breathing because of your anxiety. Asthma is when you cannot breath out but stress induced asthma is when you cannot breath in because you've been taking quick shallow breaths all the time without realizing it and getting too much oxygen. Breath into a paper bag for a while and you'll be reducing the amount you're getting or hold your breath for a while and you'll find that you can then take a very deep breath.

Coming off the meds (slowly and carefully) will help a lot, you can then start to deal with any emotional problems of which tinnitus is just a symptom. Please never think of t as the problem....it's a bit like walking round with a big thorn in your foot for years and trying to get everyone to help you stop limping. The t is the limp. Start looking at the thorn! X

 

I think it has been proven by now that tinnitus is not something we make up, but it is really in the brain.

I think the keyword here is focus. Even though we have biological needs, our will and consiousness have an effect on our judgement. So by focussing on your yawning, you change the reaction of your body. Ofcourse this can only be done some extent

Same with tinnitus, and everything else in life. Maybe if you didn't have tinnitus you would focus on different problems and you would be just as unhappy. Or when world war 3 breaks out, you wish you could just had tinnitus and you would be happy again. Our situation directs our focus. If every human had tinnitus, we would not care. I feel weird when I wear earplugs, but people wear glasses all the time. Etc etc. So, instead of letting the situation guide your focus, you do it! You can be satisfied, even with tinnitus, even with other things that happen against our will. The harder the situation, the harder this proces will be. Just focus on what you DO have, don't give tinnitus any attention, and live your life knowing things can always get worse.

 

I have lived with on-and-off anxiety & panic disorders for decades. The shortness of breath is a very common symptom of anxiety disorder. Sometimes I might feel alright but the body could still be under stress unconsciously so you can still feel you can't breathe due to the residual effect of hidden stress. Don't worry about it as the shallow breathing can't harm you. I had lived with it for decades on and off and I survive it.

 

I used to take Tylenol 3 and barbituates and some ergotomines for bad headaches years ago. They gave me anxiety and the feeling of not enough air, some agoraphobia too.

 

Breathing problems, yawning and repeated sighing are all anxiety symptoms. I have mentioned this before but will one more time; if you are working with a psychiatrist and/or psychotherapist now, they aren't helping you. You might want to find someone else

 

Neenie I have the same thing when I yawn I can't get a full yawn this all started when I got T before t I use to yawn fully to the point where I would tear up not now just can't yawn weired....I want to yeaw but when I get to the point where I'm about to it just stops ????

 

Yawning is a letting go of excess energies. So you yawn to go deeper in a meditative/sleep state. Sometimes we are just to stressed to let go. So when you learn to relax more and think less yawning will become very easy. Maybe T is just not letting you rest/relax/let go enough to let you yawn. I see no other connection than this.

 

Yer same here! I feel like I need to yawn, then go to yawn, then can't. Ugh. First world problems! Yer, I've got a new psyc, seeing her on saturday, so will see what happens, my psychiatrist is pretty nice, she throws all sort of meds at me, haha, yay...mmmmm......meeedddds!! I know I know, less meds is better. Don't worry, I'm working on it. Had my first day of Audiology today. It's full on! Sigh. Yay, more stress! Just what I need!

 

back Neenie! i just wanted to say that i can not believe it seeing that picture of you ,smiling ,friendly and happy and then the mood under the picture "depressed". what a paradox thing i bet the picture was taken before all that shxxxt with tinnitus started .i mean look at my picture ,thats how i look like after my mri scan,so no wonder im a drama queen right now dont you think?,im just joking neenie, hoping to make you smile a bit.but i am more than convinced that you will smile like in the picture again-free from the heart! if not next month, 2018 for sure !

 

same thinng
its like you will never forgot smth you once new