Reverting Anxiety

With a Buteyko Breathing Course

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is the distress or uneasiness of mind caused by the fear of future danger or misfortune. Anxiety as a disorder can come in various forms, for example generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder.

A person may feel naturally anxious at times without having an anxiety disorder. If the anxiety is unnaturally high and takes over one's life, it can be classified as a disorder.

Cause of Anxiety

Anxiety is a multidimensional response to both internal and external events. Considering Buteyko theory, one's breathing habit can significantly augment the natural anxiety one might feel in a given situation in the following way:

Overbreathing leads to less oxygen supplied to the brain (how).
A decrease in oxygen supply leads to increased excitability of brain cells and the nervous system.
Anxiety becomes unnaturally strong and dominates your outlook on life.

When you breathe too much, carbondioxide levels go down, blood vessels become narrow and less oxygen is released by the blood, leading to a decrease in oxygen supply to the brain. When brain cells (neurons) receive less oxygen they start behaving erratically, destabilizing the mind. The mind can then grow more pessimistic and experience thoughts and emotions of anxiety.

Scientific research:

“The brain, by regulating breathing, controls its own excitability” - Balestrino & Somjen (1988)
“Hyperventilation leads to spontaneous and asynchronous firing of cortical neurons” - Huttunen et. Al (1999)

Revert Anxiety with a Buteyko Breathing course

Anxiety disorders can be gradually reverted with a Buteyko Breathing course. You'll also learn techniques that can provide immediate relief during an anxiety attack. Good and stable results can be attained within 1 to 3 months of practice under guidance of an experienced teacher. Before reaching good and stable results, there will be signs of initial progress and ups and downs in symptoms. It is essential that these are dealt with appropriately by following the additional instructions carefully. Final results are dependent on:

Severity of symptoms
Students' compliance to instructions and guidance
Students' level of practice (basic, intermediate or advanced)
Frequency of sessions for additional guidance
Other factors (for example: age, general state of health, other diseases and activities.)

Doing our Buteyko Breathing course and keeping in touch with us over the course of several months of practice, students can experience initial signs of improvement in the first few weeks and get stable and optimal results after 1 to 3 months of Buteyko practice.