You ARE thinking about it. You can't stop yourself breathing, unless you actually want to kill yourself. Even then I think you'd have to try REALLY hard not to. Thinking about it for a week is a bit extreme. Perhaps try finding something more time consuming to occupy your mind with rather than chewing gum, etc.

I would not worry so much about your respiration system-the ventalation aspect of it is done with a totally different area of the nervous system(involuntary),the same one that controls your heartbeat- so don't trip...

reading your problem made me start thinking about my breathing, now i can stop thinking about it either. thanks alot lol

Nothing to worry about. If you want you can stop breathing. You'll just pass out and start breathing again. That should start the cycle up.

you just cant stop breathing no matter how hard you try, it is a function that will go on even if you try to stop it. you can just hold your breath for so long..

well now is the time that you put a pipe in front of that mouth, that way your controlled breathing means bigger breaths. and you know what that means? of course get fucked up then you go find one of the chicks on teh board that are all oh im depressed and FUCK EM ot all works out in the end trust me

i have the same problem but its when i try to swollow my food, i think about it and then i have to force myself to swollow it.....i hate it :(

loon

Yeah, I do that to, but usually I forget all about it and go about normally. I know exactly what you mean. It's not that you want to stop or you think you can stop. It's just the fact that it's annoying because it feels like you have to make yourself. Then you think to yourself. God, blinking and breathing is hard to do at the same time. Damn! Now I can't stop thinking about it.

What you need to do to solve this problem is study Qi Gong (chi kung) if you truly study the correct mental and physical methods on how to master your breath you will be much better off for the rest of your life.

I recomend a specific author who has an imense knowledge on these types of studies. His name is Dr. Yang Jwing Ming. I recomend starting with a book he wrote titled "The Root of Chinese Qi Gong"

Maybe you´re just so stupid that you barely have the brain capacity to breathe.
(-:

I have the same problem with some sorth of pain... like headaches and some muscle tensions! I guess thats all that...its all about the thinking, if you manage to get your mind of it you'll do it right... its all about not fighting it and not worry about it! well im talking yoga shit now.. good luck

That exact same thing happens to me also!
but then sometimes i forget to breathe...
and if i do that long enough, i'll start breathing again, only circular. (one lung at a time, switching)
But I haven't passed out yet!

hey i do that too sumtimes

My second year highschool class once did an experiment where we monitored our breathing, and as soon as we started everyone slowed down there breathing, this is your bodies natural way to conserve oxygen. Although controlling it for a week is an extreme.

So Far am stuck with it for a year now! sometimes everyday, sometimes everyweek. it's just annoying. also it pops in my head when i want to watch a movie :(

I have had this problem too, I have a theory that people who have this problem do not have good bodily awareness.
I have a theory about a solution too: rather than trying to distract yourself, don't panic about it, and instead try to focus on some other kind of sensory awareness. For example, try to sustain attention to a rythymic background noise like air conditioner, heater, wind, (my computer makes a very slight hum, which I can only hear over the normal background noise with some effort).
I got this idea from this website: http://www.nlp-now.co.uk/softeyes.htm their method involves visual attention. I don't know anything about these people or endorse them or anything along those lines. I just stole noticed that they say in this e-blurb that paying visual attention slows your breathing down, and that triggered this theory of mine.

Holy shit this happens to me to!. Usually in winter!!!!

what kind of idiots are you guys lol

If you slow your breathing, your body will calm down and adapt. If you consciously stop breathing, once your blood CO2 level reaches above a certain height (above 45mmhg), your brain stem (pons) will kickstart the breathing to hyperventilate and blow off the excess CO2 in your system and regain homeostasis of the blood gases.

So if your thinking that since you can control your breathing (in which you can..to an extent) you can't just consciously stop breathing and die from it. Your body will not let you. Such like drownings- your body is starved of oxygen under water, your brainstem will force your lungs to inhale once the CO2 level has reached a height, and furthermore your lungs will fill with water thus still starving your vital organs of oxygen which leads to death.

My point being- even though you think your controlling your breathing, don't worry about it and don't think about it too much...your body's got it under control.

(future respiratory therapist)

Yea I've been doing this every day for five years
now. Every breath I take is concious and controlled. I have had OCD since I was young and this is just another type of anxiety. It has already ruined my life and for the past couple of years I have barely been sleeping at all. Basically its just confusing voluntary control of breathing with involuntary or normal breathing ie. you become aware of your breathing, then you become anxious about it so your natural reaction is to "do something" about it, then you start controlling it, then you feel like you cant let go or stop controlling it, then you become more anxious and it just continues. Most people will forget about it when they are distracted or fall asleep, however if like me you have OCD or other anxiety problems it can be very hard to just forget about it!!!!

I always do that.

Now I think about it I'm doing it now.

I hope you're happy

DAMNIT, I JSUT GOT OVER THIS PROBLEM..


Damn you to all hell, I just got over having the same problem, and had forgotten about it, and now I am becoming self conscious again. Whoever made this story should be very sorry... Damn you

I do this sometimes as well.
It's really anoying, but it's a mental thing.
After you start doing something else you won't have to think about it.

All the people who are saying this is stupid are simply too stupid themselves to comprehend what is being said here.
I've had a mild case of OCD for years, and I just got this problem myself today.. while driving! I'm so pissed off. I'm hoping I'll be able to distract myself and forget about it. Good to see I'm not alone, and others have survived having it for so long. If this stays with me though, I'm gonna kill myself. And indeed its winter... but what could that have to do with anything? Having a dry throat maybe?