Hyperventilation and anxiety form a ‘vicious circle’, with one leading to the other. The process may be ‘pushed’ or initiated from either end. Some people will experience anxiety which then leads to hyperventilation. Others will hyperventilate, leading to feelings of rising anxiety and/or panic. One feeds the other in an increasing spiral.
The Buteyko Breathing Clinics programme acts like a circuit breaker by teaching people how to reduce acute anxiety producing hyperventilation thereby reducing the resultant anxiety and panic. It also teaches participants how to retrain their breathing back to a normal level with the result that they no longer have to live constantly in the ‘Fight or Flight’ state. Their body is enabled to return to normal after cessation of the anxiety-causing event.
