Are you afraid of breathing?

Now, before you say, of course not,

and move on to something else,

let me tell you a quick story.

Back when I was in my PhD program for psychology,

I was driving home on the long but beautiful drive that I

had for my commute along the California coast and I realized I felt weird. I was

slightly lightheaded. My fingers were a little bit tingly and I felt like I wasn't breathing right

Like I wasn't getting enough oxygen or something just wasn't working the way it was supposed to

Now I'm no stranger to breathing issues. I have had significant asthma since I was a child. I have allergies. I found out recently I have a big old

deviated septum. Breathing isn't necessarily my strong suit,

so having trouble with that, even wheezing is a common experience for me.

So I did what I would normally do.

I took my inhaler, I rolled down the windows for a bit to get some

fresh air, but I didn't feel better. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more symptoms

I noticed. Eventually, on that ride I got home but this continued to be an issue day

after day especially that I noticed while I was driving and it was starting to

freak me out because obviously I didn't want to pass out and veer off into the ocean

while I was driving or into oncoming traffic. It got bad enough that I actually went to the

pulmonologist, so a specialist in breathing and respiratory issues.

They had me do a bunch of different tests like sitting in a closed off chamber while they

measured my pulmonary function.

...