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Er... What's the relationship between breath, speech and emotions? How come it feels like juggling when you are suppressing overwhelming emotion, that you can't either breath normally not speak normally? You know, when you are channeling your inner strength into forcing your system not to react physically to your emotional state, you can't speak not breath other than in really quick and very planned intervals? You know what I'm saying?

A1fredo 8 Sep 6
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2

Happened to me in martial arts practices when I focused in really hard on a stance or a movement, or during sparring. My teacher noticed and often reminded me to breathe.

I think it's the nervous system's sympathetic response hijacking the body's functions.

Quoting from the following webpage,

[begin excerpt]
Inability to Speak

Your fight-flight-freeze-fawn response is a reaction to an event your brain automatically perceives as life-threatening. To respond swiftly, the part of your brain that initiates your threat response knocks the thinking part of your brain (the prefrontal cortex) offline. This makes it difficult to think clearly, and for some people, speak or communicate effectively.

“I feel like I’m trapped in my own body and not able to communicate,” shared Mighty community member Sami S. “I feel like I’m screaming inside but show no response to simple questions, then the tears start falling from my eyes. That’s the only way I can show that I need help, it’s a real life awake nightmare.”

“It’s weird and I don’t understand why but I go mute,” added Stacey S. “It’s like I forget how to talk and just end up not reacting to a lot. It’s only worse case scenario type thing but it happens when I’m in a bad situation.”
[end excerpt]
[themighty.com]

2

Here is a major example common to many people.
Stage fright

Stage Fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, whether actually or potentially (for example, when performing before a camera). Performing in front of an unknown audience can cause significantly more anxiety than performing in front of familiar faces. In some cases, the person will suffer no such fright from this, while they might suffer from not knowing who they're performing to.

In the context of public speaking, this may precede or accompany participation in any activity involving public self-presentation. In some cases stage fright may be a part of a larger pattern of social phobia (social anxiety disorder), but many people experience stage fright without any wider problems. Quite often, stage fright arises in a mere anticipation of a performance, often a long time ahead. It has numerous manifestations: stuttering, tachycardia, tremor in the hands and legs, sweaty hands, facial nerve tics, dry mouth, and dizziness.

When someone starts to feel the sensation of being scared or nervous they start to experience anxiety.

According to a Harvard Mental Health Letter, "Anxiety usually has physical symptoms that may include a racing heart, a dry mouth, a shaky voice, blushing, trembling, sweating, lightheadedness, and nausea".

It triggers the body to activate its sympathetic nervous system. This process takes place when the body releases adrenaline into the blood stream causing a chain of reactions to occur.

This bodily response is known as the "fight or flight" syndrome, a naturally occurring process in the body done to protect itself from harm.

In trying to resist this the body will begin to shake in places such as the legs and hands. Several other things happen besides this. Muscles in the body contract, causing them to be tense and ready to attack. Second, "blood vessels in the extremities constrict". This can leave a person with the feeling of cold fingers, toes, nose, and ears. Constricted blood vessels also gives the body extra blood flow to the vital organs.

In addition, those experiencing stage fright will have an increase in blood pressure, which supplies the body with more nutrients and oxygen in response to the "fight or flight" instincts. This, in return, causes the body to overheat and sweat.

Breathing will increase so that the body can obtain the desired amount of oxygen for the muscles and organs. Pupils will dilate giving someone the inability to view any notes they have in close proximity; however, long range vision is improved making the speaker more aware of their audience's facial expressions and nonverbal cues in response to the speaker's performance. Lastly, the digestive system shuts down to prepare for producing energy for an immediate emergency response. This can leave the body with the effects of dry mouth, nausea, or butterflies.

Etc, etc, etc.... none of this is pleasant and none of it is done by conscious choice.

I feel so guilty for your big answer, as this is not what I'm talking about. I hope you didn't spend too much time on it 😟 But seems like you did... Almost wanna pretend I do have anxiety now heh heh

1

Actually, I think I do. Anxiety and tension can affect our breathing, and some people will subconsciously hold their breath or effectively hyperventilate when emotionally stressed or experiencing increased anxiety. I used to be a tension breath holder as well as a breath holder when I was very mentally focused on something. I started using breathing exercises to combat this, as I would actually hold my breath long enough to pass out without even realizing I was doing it as a child. It has worked wonders. I still will find myself subconsciously holding my breath in times of stress or extreme focus, but I am now able to recognize it before it becomes inhibiting and haven't passed out in decades. Next time you find yourself in this state, try taking some slow, deep breaths, and focus on letting go of every bit of air you have taken in. It also helps to focus on areas of your body where you feel the most physical tension when doing this and imagine releasing it as you exhale.

Thank you, I appreciate your input. I don't think that's what I'm talking about though. I'm not talking about being in some state. This is something you can consciously do if you want to. You can prevent your body from physically reacting to an emotion if you catch the stimuli mentally before it "hits you." You know? I guess that takes a lot of practice. What seems funny to me is that if you want to keep the effort going, you have to limit your breathe and your talking. You could breathe or talk, but you would lose it like losing concentration, and then get "hit" by the emotion. What I don't get is why breathing and talking. I don't see the connection of why those two particular things. Your breathing system is not affected by the emotion yet when you're doing that.

@A1fredo Breathing is something your body does automatically. If you tried to stop breathing you'd simply pass out and start again.
Talking is a choice... obviously breathing regularly helps with talking normally.
[beyondblue.org.au]

What anxiety does to your body?
Immune system
Anxiety can trigger your flight-or-fight stress response and release a flood of chemicals and hormones, like adrenaline, into your system. In the short term, this increases your pulse and breathing rate, so your brain can get more oxygen. This prepares you to respond appropriately to an intense situation.

What are the 6 types of anxiety disorders?
6 Major Types of Anxiety Disorders
Separation Anxiety Disorder.
Specific Phobia.
Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia)
Panic Disorder.
Agoraphobia.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Can anxiety damage your heart?
The effect of anxiety on the heart
Rapid heart rate (tachycardia) – In serious cases, can interfere with normal heart function and increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. Increased blood pressure – If chronic, can lead to coronary disease, weakening of the heart muscle, and heart failure.

Is it my heart or anxiety?
People who suffer from panic attacks often say their acute anxiety feels like a heart attack, as many of the symptoms can seem the same. Both conditions can be accompanied by shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, sweating, a pounding heartbeat, dizziness, and even physical weakness or temporary paralysis.

What is Cardiac Anxiety?
Heart stings, palpitations, shortness of breath – patients with cardiac neurosis believe they feel symptoms of a heart attack but are physically completely healthy. Where do the complaints come from? Heart (anxiety) neurosis is also called Kardiophobie or Da Costa's syndrome. It is one of the anxiety disorders

As you can see, any number of these forms of anxiety can be physically very disruptive and distressing.

@A1fredo If you are using some technique to try and prevent an emotion from 'hitting you' and causing a physical reaction, I suspect you may be underestimating the involvement of anxiety in that process. You may not be aware of it, but both extreme mental focus and tension from anxiety can easily affect your breathing, and breath is very much connected to speaking. Still not really sure what you are talking about, though, so that's all I have got.

@Amzungu No, I don't use any technique. I am already capable of doing that. I don't do it often at all, I don't like to because preventing feeling emotions is not healthy. It is helpful however for situations like, let's say, you have an open wound and you're bleeding a lot, so you lock yourself away from any emotions to calm down your blood pressure. Just a silly example, but it can be done with anything as long as you have that ability of being able to foresee an impending emotion. As you probably know, there's this little lag in feeling, like the bran take this second or so to process the information and conjure the emotion. That's the window of opportunity to prevent it. And actually if you manage to prevent it all the way, you can discard it completely according to my personal experience. It's like a sneeze. If you can manage not to sneeze for those ten seconds or so, you will lose it. It works the same way. At least it has for me. Not sure how healthy that is, but oh well... No, I know anxiety is awful and all, but anxiety has nothing to do with any of this. It isn't involved in doing this. You need to be somewhat over anxiety in order to have the clarity of mind to react quicker than your limbic system I guess... I thought somebody else would have experiences with these as well... Haven't heard from anyone tho...

@Amzungu, @Lightman I appreciate your elaborate answer, man, but as I said in my previous answer, this has nothing to do with anxiety. Appreciate it tho. Thanks. My question is out of mere curiosity. I don't have any issues with this at all, I just don't get what the connection between these three things are and hence don't get why they interact how they do when I do this thing I'm talking about. But that's all, just wondering.

1

Ummmm ... no.
I have no idea at all.
It sounds like you are describing an emotional overload or something ... if you can’t breathe, its damn hard to talk.
If thats what you’re asking ... why?

No. You could breathe and could talk, except that you would lose the emotional control and your body would start reacting to your emotions then. I'm not questioning what's happening, that's something being done consciously. What I don't get is the connection between making that emotional effort with breathing and talking.

@A1fredo I'm pretty sure you'll find the physical reactions are not conscious.

0

In his 8 years as POTUS Obama did everything he could to create division among Americans, and the Dem party and leftist media have continued it.

This is like my one post not about politics. Are you a bot?

@A1fredo
Actually GM seems to have at least derived some tangential “reason” out of your post to create a response.
I’d be grateful were I you.

@Bay0Wulf I don't see the connection, do you?

@A1fredo
Well no ...
Simply because I see no connection to be made ...

@Bay0Wulf Well I think A1f is simply talking about anxiety... after all he put this topic in the General category not a political one.

@Lightman
Mayhaps ... You might be right.
I don’t tend to have to deal with anxiety much

@Bay0Wulf Lucky you 🙂

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