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the experience of breathing and its effects
Absolutely crucial to successful CapnoLearning™ is
exploring the phenomenology of breathing, the personal consciousness
associated with breathing as an experience.
This consciousness is about emotions, thoughts, sense of self, and
relationship to people and environment.
Changing breathing changes consciousness. The “psychology of breathing” includes: Breathing experiences serve as discriminative stimuli (SD) that trigger operant behaviours, and as conditioned
stimuli (CS) that trigger emotions and physiological changes. In the first case, breathing experiences
(stimuli) may trigger other learned behaviours such
as gasping. Gasping, a reinforced
operant behaviour, may then be interpreted as symptoms of a condition such
as asthma, rather than as a consequence of learning based on the presence of
asthma. In the second case, breathing
mechanics (as a stimulus) may trigger classically conditioned emotions such
intense fear or panic without any intervening thoughts or interpretations,
much as in the case of a phobia.
Breathing experiences (stimuli) might include: ● Experiencing breathing behaviour
itself, e.g., the effortfulness associated with chest breathing ● Experiencing the learned responses to the experience of
breathing, e.g., fear triggered by “failing to exhale completely” ● Experiencing the direct physiological effects of breathing
(hypocapnia), e.g., loss of ability to focus ● Experiencing the learned responses to the physiological
effects, e.g., feeling out of control Symptoms and deficits associated with hypocapnia set the stage
for further operant learning, where secondary
gain may provide for learning the role of “victim.” The breathing-induced symptoms and deficits
become the basis for visiting healthcare practitioners, as well as sympathy,
support, and attention from family and friends. And significantly, these symptoms, of
course, are real, not imaginary.
Overbreathing serves as the gateway to accessing a collection of these
learned behaviours, emotions, and thoughts that
together comprise an “alternate” personality.
This personality, decorated with the effects of hypocapnia, may offer
up an improved support system, including social attention and financial
gain. This is an excellent example of
how state-dependent learning may
be mediated by learned breathing behaviour. Misinterpreting the
experience of breathing behaviour can itself
increase the likelihood of overbreathing.
Fast breathing, for example, is easily misinterpreted, consciously
or not. Fast breathing is not
overbreathing. It is not inherently
good or bad by itself. It may,
however, lead to overbreathing because of the psychology associated with
it: ●
It can “seem like” like you are having difficulty
getting air. ●
It can make breathing seem urgent, which may
introduce worry and anxiety. ●
It can lead you into chest and mouth breathing,
which make fast breathing easier. ●
It can make you feel like “something must be
wrong, “I’m breathing too fast.” ● It can lead you into negative thinking, “I’m anxious, I can’t
get my breath, there’s not enough air in here.” ●
It can lead to into a place of distrust of your
own physiology. Copyrighted by Behavioral
Physiology Institute, |