What should I do if I end up crying, and I find myself struggling to breathe?

I have been through this a lot. First find some calm thought or person to considerate on, and then either sit down or find a comfortable position. Then focus on your breathing and try to slow it down. Find a good rhythm, at your own pace, and only focus on your breathing. If that doesn't work try laying on the ground or doing something that calms you down.

Take a seat. Then, place your hand on your chest. Take deep breaths, counting to three, then releasing after a 3 count. Feel the weight of your hand, the thump of your heart. Try to focus on slowing that beat just a little. Don't focus on anything else around you. You can do this. You are safe. You are strong. If your lungs are still too tight, raise your arms and put your shoulders back. Deep breaths in and out. Feel them rise and fall. Continue this until you have calmed down. Best of luck. You can make it through this.

Take a deep breath and try to think of something positive. Why do you feel that you will end up crying and find yourself struggling to breathe? It sounds like you have some anxiety. I understand why you are feeling scared but just know that I am here for you if you need anything. This is only a stepping stone and you'll be okay. I can't give you any advice but I can always be here to listen. If you need any other assistance, 7cups hotline can definitely help you out with anything you need. Let's schedule a time every week to discuss more.

Breathe in and out slowly. Doing this can calm your nerves. When you cry, you have no control, doing this will help you gain control.

It depends on how hard you are crying. If you still have some control, you could try a breathing exercise called coherent breathing: First make yourself comfortable. Then inhale trough your nose while slowly counting to 5 and exhale through your mouth while also counting to 5. This way you manage about 5-6 full breaths per minute. Do that for a few minutes. It will lower your stress level and increase your heart rate variability (HRV). It takes a little time to notice an effect, but you will feel better soon. The more often you practice, the easier it will be and results will come quicker.

It's perfectly fine to cry and that is way better than bottling up emotions and also it's quite normal that crying makes it a bit more difficult to breathe. If you get a bit panicky and really start to struggle you might want to try some breathing techniques. Mine is breathing in through nose and out through mouth (if crying it might be easier through mouth only), breathe deep down into the abdomen rather than the chest and breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 1, out for 6 and hold for 2. You can work up to that slowly in steps and you should start to feel better soon once you get there.

This happens frequently for me if I have breakdowns, but I have perfected some great ways to help you to get your breathing back under control! 1. Try to name the first 10 things that catch your eye. If you can say them out loud, then that helps even more, but if you can’t, then even just thinking them should help. 2. Try counting up to ten, then back down to one. While you are doing this try to take a breath in on odd numbers, and breathe out on odd ones. 3. Feel your heartbeat. I know this one sounds weird, but for me it helped remind me that I am in control of the situation. Hope this helped!

Everyone is different. There is no one fits all answer. But you have to try to find what works for you and calms you down. Whatever that may be. If you don't know , then make yourself a list. The next time it happens you may know what to do.

Take deep breaths, do it until you've calmed yourself. It's not easy I know, but you can do it! Hope this helps!

You need to ask you need to isolate yourself from your thoughts. Sit stare at a wall or space and focus on that. If you're actually doing that you should find that you're breathing is slowing down and you crying will stop. You can even sing a song with the wall and don't think about it whatever it is

It is important to breathe in and out deeply, in through your nose and out through your mouth. This will make breathing easier

take deep breaths, and if you can then tell somebody about it that you trust. try to do something that calms you down, like talking to a friend, cuddling a stuffed animal, playing music etc. it always tends to help me :)

I always find that certain breathing techniques are very helpful and can be used anywhere. There are some really great techniques online, and so finding some that you can use whenever you feel like this could really help ease it. If you can and you feel safe to, let someone who's around you know how you feel, and how they can help. Sometimes having someone there to help you through makes all the difference. Just remember, focusing on your breathing and becoming calm first always helps solve any anxieties much better than if you aren't in the right frame of mind!

Try to do the 4-7-8 exercise. Inhale for 4 seconds, then hold the air in your lungs for 7 seconds and exhale for 8 seconds. Repeat this exercise as many time you want. This helps you to calm down and to breath. It can also help you before a test or a important event, it helps you to feel more secure and confident about yourself. If you feel like it could help close your eyes while doing the 4-7-8 exercise, so you can fully relax and concentrate. After this exercise try to control you breath for a couple of minutes.

When this happens to me, depending how deep in the panic I am, I try to focus on something, anything. Touching something to focus is especially good because it puts you back in the current moment and grounds you. Try to get the deepest breath you can but don’t stress if you can’t get as deep as you want, we’re working on that. When you breathe out pretend you’re blowing out candles across the room. Exhale for a good 6 second. Now hold it. Repeat. Now that this is temporary and you WILL breathe ok again. Take it one second at a time until you feel you are stable.

Personally, I can really relate to this question. Growing up I would come home from school and start crying and had difficulty breathing. I would talk to my therapists about it, and they gave me some ideas of things I could do. I started meditating, I would download some relaxing piano music on my phone, and whenever I would have a hard time with my breathing I would simply plug my earbuds in. It took a while for me to adjust to this technique, I was hesitant at first because in all seemed very very clique to me. It took a long time, but eventually, meditation began to help me with my anxiety attacks.

Take deep breaths in and out. Count as high as you can as you breathe in and count as high as you can as you breathe out. This is something that they have you do in a yoga class, and it helps in the fact that it takes your mind off what is making you so upset, and making you focus on something that isn't causing you any harm. You can also try taking a hot shower. Taken a hot shower has been proven to help relieve stress and help with depression, also the steam from the heat will help clear your sinuses and make it easier to breathe.

If you are struggling to breathe then drink water. Calm yourself down and then close your eyes and take deep breath. In your mind repeat these words given below: "I know my importance and I love myself. I know myself." Then open your eyes slowly. If you are still feeling sad then write your feelings in a personal notebook or a diary. That's my personal way to deal with people who are crying or deal with myself when I cry. Smile and stay positive. You know your importance. You know who you are. Good luck. Remember happiness is within you. 💛

I have had times in my life when I ended up crying and couldn't breathe. It was a really tough time when I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now things are back to normal and don't cry as much. Crying is a good thing as it lets out the emotions and the experience feels ever so real. So, what to do well you could accept the crying and experience it as possibly after you finish you'd feel better. You could write things down so you can think back to how you are feeling after you have cried. What do you think?

3 words: Deep Belly Breaths! Focus on your breathing. As obvious as it seems, when we’re struggling to get a decent amount of air into our lungs, it’s important we try our best to slow down and soothe ourselves. We can achieve this by taking slow, deep breaths through our belly. Our chest only really allows for shallow breaths. You can tell where you’re breathing through by which part of your torso is moving. If your chest expands and deflates, you are not taking belly breaths! Seems intuitive, right? ♡ Because it is. It just takes some practice while we’re panicking. I wish you the best! You are never alone.

if you are having trouble breathing because you are crying, try taking deep, slow breathes. do something that might help you calm down, like hug a stuffed animal or pillow, basically something you can squeeze. breathe into a bag if you have one around. try to distract yourself from whatever is making you cry, watch a funny video or play with a pet, or even hug a friend or family member, or even a pet if the pet doesnt mind you hugging them. not being able to breathe while your crying can be scary but it will pass on its own eventually

You're not alone in experiencing this and people have different ways of coping. During such an episode, I preferred exposure to as few people as possible. Concerned stares only made it worse for me. Then I needed space, either outdoors or a spacious room. A bathroom cubicle seems private, but I'd feel like the walls were closing in on me. Sitting upright also eased the tightness in my chest. After the fact, I found it helpful to understand why I reacted this way. I'd struggle to breathe because I'd hyperventilate. I'd hyperventilate because of panic. Particular things triggered my panic. While hyperventilation is not dangerous in itself, it does feel really scary in the moment. It's simply your body's way of informing you of your excessive worry about something. It helped to identify my triggers, then come up with a plan to solve or cope with them next time. This worked for me. I hope you find a way to cope too.

When I find myself crying and struggling to breathe I find it very grounding to lay flat on my back and put weight on my body (like a heavy blanket or jacket on top of me) and/or recite a song that calms me down or a phrase that I find comforting or soothing over and over again quietly to myself. Once I can breathe just a little easier I focus on the steps I have to take to get up and continue on with what I was going. So I lay there and list out step by step what I need to do(ex. 1. Deep breath 2. Feel my feet , legs , arms, 3. Move my hands 4. Sit up 5. Breathe and so on and so forth. Once I’ve listed everything off I slowly start carrying it out in that other after saying it.

I find that focusing on your breathing always helps a lot! If you hyperventilate you will have that feeling like you're struggling to breath and your body will get numb. Breath slowly in and out, in and out. Try not to lose your focus, and soon it will be easier to breath! It will also ease your mind, as you won't be worried about anything else. If the feeling gets out of control and you feel the need t go to the hospital, as a last resourse do it. But remember that this feeling will go away with time.

Crying disrupts the regular pattern of our breathing. Crying is a natural response to sadness and grief. It is a way of releasing tension and the flowing of tears actually cleanses our body in a small way. Crying can be good but obviously when one gets so distressed that it interferes with breathing, things can get out of hand. When we cry, it irritates the muscles in our diaphragm and it sort of "gets confused". In addition, we tend to take short little breaths and not deep ones when we cry. This can keep us from getting a good deep breath full of the oxygen our body needs. So what to do? Well, first relax and know that this will pass. Now. If you can, sit in a quiet place, put a cool cloth over your forehead or face. Close your eyes and place both hands over your belly. Now breathe in slowly, counting to 5 and then, breathe out slowly counting to 5. Just concentrate on those slow breathes. You'll start feeling better in no time!

There are several things one can try that can help you regulate breathing at such times. Though it depends on the person and what will help you so you can always explore your options and see what fits you best. What I found helps me is leaving the room/place where I am at, put my earphones on (whether something is playing or not depends on my mood) and just go for a walk. Sometimes we can't breathe is because of the intense emotions we are feeling and getting away from the place helps. Whether you continue walking or just go to a quiet place to sit, cry and just hug yourself, easing the pressure on your chest and shoulders helps a lot in breathing regularly. Othertimes, difficulty in breathing when crying may be due to a rising panic attack. What I have found that works for my friend is that when she has difficulty in breathing it helps to ask her questions that are completely irrelevant to the current situation such as "Name all the superheroes you know from Marvel", "Name all the female celebrities with great hair" etc. So if you are experiencing difficulty in breathing because you were crying it helps to distract your mind which would allow you to calm yourself and breathe evenly. Most importantly, remind yourself that you're safe. When we can't breathe when we cry is because our body's sympathetic nervous system has been activated and it is in "fight or flight" mode. You need to reassure yourself that you're okay. Pat your arms, legs, face and chest, stare at them and tell yourself "I'm okay". With every "I'm okay" take a deep breath in and slowly exhale. You are okay, your body is okay, you just need to convince your mind that you're okay for now and you can talk about what had caused you to cry with someone (like a friend or a listener here at 7cups) until your mind has calmed. I know in those moments it is really terrifying but you are so strong, love. You can do it. I believe in you. Take care of yourself and stay safe.

the first thing to do is calm down. try to breathe deep breaths maybe 5 or 10 and that should immediately calm you down, i know that from my own experience. but other than that drink alot of water as when you exessivley cry you loose a lot of fluid so drinking water will make you feel better. i know how hard it can be and if your struggling please speak to people before it gets to that point for your own mental wellbeing. you're not alone there are people always there to listen. crying isn't a bad thing remember, you're going to be okay Holly x

I always do this strategy. Breathe in through your nose count to five. Hold it for 10 seconds and breathe slowly through your mouth for 5 seconds. It will help you with your breathing and will help calm you down. Drinking water also helps crying as well. Also, do not be afraid to talk to a listener on here or even a therapist. We all want to help you in any way shape or form and we all hope that you feel better very soon because your emotions mean a lot. Hope this advice helps you in some way. Have a fantastic day

Take a lot of deep breaths, do some head space, guided meditation, or write it all down in a diary, to get out all of your emotions a complete train of through will help you identify what it is that is bothering you. Once you have done so let go of the things that you have no control over, and accept the things you can start to formulate strategies that will help you regain control over the things that you can do anything about. Also afterwards, practice self care ; maintain a healthy sleep cycle, look after yourself you have one body to house your mind.

I know this feeling very well. Let yourself cry, but breathe. Seriously, force yourself to breathe. And if you have the chance to, have someone next to you. Sometimes when I can't breathe is because I feel like I'm drowning in my emotions, and it can get very scary. Having someone next to me can be very reassuring and distracts me a lot in those times. Otherwise, you can try and use something called the "fourfold breath". You inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, and hold your breath for 4 seconds. Try and repeat it until your breath calms down, focus on it, and let yourself realize that your emotions are simply that, emotions. If you find yourself breaking down crying again, try and eat something small, a candy, or even drink some water. It lets your body know that everything is fine, and really helps breaking the cycle of negative emotions and thoughts. I hope this helped!