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

Take some deep breaths and try to relax. Try to relax until you can fully address what has made you so upset. This way, you can address the situation properly and with a clear head.

You take deep, slow breaths. In through the mouth and out through the nose. Then focus on your senses. This helps calm you down and makes you think about something else. Close your eyes and think about what you're hearing. Then, plug your ears and focus on what you see. Then on what you touch, and so on.

If you are finding yourself struggling to breathe it is most important to calm down. This is however often the problem to begin with. What helps me to calm down is to find five things you can see (a wall, a person, a cup), four things you can feel (your own leg, a table), three things you can hear (traffic, a clock), two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. This makes you feel more in your body and like you have control over the situation. It also distracts you from how you couldn't breathe, which your body will often unconsciously start doing agian.

Try to focus on just getting air in and out, nothing else. Don't think about why you were crying or forcing yourself to stop. Breath in 8 counts then out 12. If this is too long just try your best. To ground yourself, gain more control, find 5 things you see, 4 you feel (physically), 3 you hear, 2 you smell, and 1 you taste. This can act as a distraction task that can help calm your thoughts.

Take and count 10 deepest breath possible, touch five wooden objects, count backward, drink water, and call emergency contact.

Try your hardest to find things in the room which relate to your senses. Find one thing you can touch, two things you can smell, three that you can taste, four that you can hear, and five that you can see. This will help your thoughts expand and focus less on what is making you cry. Breathing in count also helps, breathe in for five seconds, hold for five seconds, and breathe out for five seconds.

From my personal experience, it helps to start counting and visualize the numbers you count. You can do this until you reach number 40 and continue downwards until 0. So the path is 0-40-0. Hope you'll be fine from now over and all my best thoughts to you.

I have experienced this. Grounding can be helpful — finding one thing you can see, one thing you can hear, one thing you can feel, one thing you can taste (tears work if you’re crying!), and one thing you can smell. Focusing on your breath and trying to steadily make your breaths deeper can help bring you out of the episode. I know this can be frightening. Hope that is helpful. ❤️

This is called a panic/anxiety attack. 7 Cups does have a guide to Anxiety Attacks, but in short, you can learn to draw your attention somewhere else. Try turning on the TV and watching a funny movie. Start playing a guitar. Something that involves refocusing yourself always helps.

If you end up crying and find yourself struggling to breathe you should find ways to calm yourself down by watching tv, go for a walk, listening to music and have a close friend near you or family member.