I DO have social anxiety...but confused about this...

Hey,

I was diagnosed with social anxiety, and did not even really need to be diagnosed as I figured I had it. I tried medication but find that I'd rather deal with fighting it than the side effects of the medication.

However I have another issue that I always believed to be related to social anxiety and now I find is not. Even my past therapist and psychiatrist did not understand this:

I often feel unable to communicate or even think clearly sometimes; even when not in situations that trigger social anxiety.

For example: I am speaking to my sister without any anxiety, yet I feel like I am having a mental block (an extended one). I'll have trouble with really understanding what she is saying and feel unable to have an empathic conversation with her.

I'll go on to try to do a project for my BIO300 class and feel a similar mental exhaustion; I feel easily confused in trying to do the project or even in reading the instructions.

The next day, say the same sequence of events occurs: This time I may feel able to speak to my sister without a problem; we hold a highly intelligible conversation. I go on to work on my BIO300 project and I feel like it is clockwork; I run through it without a problem and end up getting commended for my excellent work on it.

I recently found what seems to trigger this; I naturally breathe very shallowly. When I am having these mental difficulties I realize that I am breathing very shallowly and seemingly inefficiently. When I force myself to take deep breaths by force pushing my diaphragm I feel as if all mental capability is restored.

I have found this to be consistant for weeks now. When I do this I feel like myself again. I still have social anxiety but I am able to push through it when I am not having these mental inconsistancies.

When I stop forcing myself to deep breathe via my diaphragm I return to a state of lowered mental cognition.

With having social anxiety it is very difficult to fight when I am feeling in this lowered mental state. Not only will I be overly self-conscious of what others think of me, but I will not be mentally capable of holding a conversation which leads to further self-consciousness / anxiety / embarassment.

When I am able to force myself to do this I have the anxiety but I can fight through and speak to people without a problem.

This is very stressing having to deal with both at the same time; it is like a double whammy.

I was never able to make perfect sense of my experiences with social anxiety to my psychiatrist or therapist because of this problem. I always thought that this lowered mental state was a result of social anxiety, and thus my confusing many (mental) health professionals.

The only theory that my neurologist could pose upon my explanation to him is that I do not get sufficient oxygen to my brain. This has always been my theory as well. If I breathe very shallow naturally I guess that is a good possibility. I am very athletic, but always become lost for breath VERY easily. I play basketball and run often; I become very fatigued within minutes of full exertion even though I am in excellent physical shape.

I am not asthmatic, have a normal heart and lungs, normal chest x-ray, a normal spine, no abnormal findings in thorough blood testing and no abnormal findings via MRI of the brain.

I have environmental allergies and minor central sleep apnea. I am 20 years old and my doctors are baffled that I am having such difficulties (such as the central apnea) at this age.

I would appreciate any help. I have exhausted all avenues of medical testing and diagnosis. I have pretty much exhausted all avenues (that I could think of) of research to do on the internet. I do not know what else to do.

I am sure there is a logical medical explanation for my lowered mental functioning as a result of shallow breathing, and my restoration to normal functional state upon forcing myself to deep breathe using my diaphragm.

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. I deeply appreciate any help or suggestions that you may have for me!

i think they are both linked, you not being able to breath properley is making it very difficult in a social environment

when you are in a social environment (with people) you find yourself not being able to breath and panic or become anxious (you may not be aware or conscious at the time that this is the reason)

if you were sucking in air every five seconds then no anxious feelings and no "social anxiety" diagnosis would have been given to you.

do you have anything else that you may link to mental illness?
anything at all,

Yeah, that sounds about right to me; they must be linked in some way or another.

I just went to the mall today with my sister thinking that I was alright. I was cool for a couple minutes being in the mall and being able to regulate my breathing; then I started to experience some anxiety and I realized that my breathing was very, very shallow and I had difficulty focusing on controlling my breathing and dealing with these anxious feelings.

Even when I got back in the car and drove home my breathing was difficult to control. I was finally able to control my breathing again, but after some time. However, I began to feel light headed.

I do believe that there must be something I can do to manage this without medication. Even now my breathing is very fast; not shallow, but deep and very, very fast. If I stop paying attention to my breathing it'll go back to shallow and fast and I will prolly experience lowered mental cognition once again

I cannot immediately think of anything else can could lead to mental illness. My mother's sister is schizophrenic and I believe my father to have social anxiety. He, however, does not have these problems that I mention with lowered mental functioning.

When I was younger I believe that I sometimes had this problem with reduced mental functioning as well. I also always ran out of breath very quickly throughout my early years. In the past though I think I just used to ignore this reduced mental functioning or was unaware of it. I used to just think I was tired or needed something to eat.

Perhaps my consciousness of this now is part of what is causing my social anxiety. I cannot think of anything else that could link to this though...

well social anxiety is a form of anxiety after all. i wonder whether it's really the breathing or whether in those moments when you realize you need to understand something you get anxious (not necessarily consciously) and focus more on controling yourself and understanding than on what is actually being said. could this be the case?

I have social anxiety among many other mental problems. I have trouble with my brain freezing--I can't think of anything to say and/or can't think of words, names, etc. My biggest problem with this is the amont of worry I go through before a speaking event. One thing I do is over prepare for talks. I probably prepare 2-10 times as much as I need to.

When people are strssed they tend to not breathe much. One way to test you breathing ability (physical shape) is to see how far you can run in 12 minutes. If you can go about one and one half miles in that time without major difficulties, you are probably in good shape. Note that one can be in good shape as far as being stong, yet be in poor shape aerobicaly. This 12 minute running test tests your aerobic capacity. Today, I can do enough push-ups and sit-ups to gualify for the Navy SEALS, but I can't run due to a back injury. When I was running marathons, I could do about 1.8 miles in 12 minutes.

James