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Why do we learn deregulated
breathing behaviour? Like other behaviours,
based on the same principles, overbreathing can be quickly, easily,
unintentionally, and unconsciously learned, but can like other habits be
challenging to disengage, manage, modify, or eliminate. Deregulating breathing may be learned based
on some of the following behavioural principles: Secondary
gain, resulting from unexplained symptoms and deficits, may lead
to 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. This is also a
case of operant learning. Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning, also an underlying biological learning principle, may lead to the
development of phobias about “getting your breath,” which may develop at an
early age, or at any time, as a result of conditions such as asthma. The experience of the physical sensations
of breathing itself may, through classical conditioning, trigger emotional
responses. And, overbreathing itself
may become a classically conditioned response to specific emotional, social,
and physical experiences. Stimulus
generalisation, basic to biological learning, means that although
overbreathing may be learned under one set of circumstances it may “generalise”
to similar but different sets of circumstances. This may be true not only perceptually but
also metaphorically, where it may become embedded in seemingly unrelated
comprehensive patterns of coping behaviour. Vicious
circle behaviour may develop, where the
solution to a problem, becomes the problem.
Depleting bicarbonate buffers through chronic overbreathing, in
predisposed individuals, may mean that even during aerobic activities there
are not adequate buffer reserves to manage lactic acidosis. Thus, even minimal effort, such a walking
through a supermarket, may result in lactic acidosis. Overbreathing, a contributing cause to the
problem, now also becomes its solution. Cognitive learning involves misconceptions,
misinformation, inaccurate beliefs about biological self, experiential
unfamiliarity with breathing, misinterpretation of physical sensations,
distrust of the body, defensive thinking, self-talk, and intentional breath
manipulation all contribute to setting the stage for learning deregulated
breathing behaviour. State
dependent learning may be the consequence of overbreathing, where radical shifts
in brain chemistry and associated states of consciousness may provide the
context for learning new behaviours, as in the case
of drug dependence. Alternative
cognitive styles, emotional postures, and senses of self may then become
dependent upon the state changes brought about by breathing behaviour. The
consequence may be chronic overbreathing
behaviour, especially in cases of emotional
trauma, where dissociation may
provide a gateway for disconnecting from emotional vulnerability and
traumatic memory, and then set the stage for learning an alternative
personality, one based on defensiveness and safety. Avoidance learning involves both classical conditioning
and operant learning. Fear of “waiting
between breaths” (classically conditioned), for example, provides motivation
for taking quick breaths (the operant), which is then reinforced with fear
reduction. The result is
overbreathing, the consequential effects of which may then confirm the false
belief that “I can’t get my breath.”
The self-defeating solution becomes reaching for more air. Vicious circle behaviour
may then be the consequence. Adverse
physical conditions, e.g., injury, can often set the ideal stage for learning
to overbreathe. Copyrighted by Behavioral
Physiology Institute, |