Anxiety: Warning Signs

TeddyJ sent out a test blast of their cell phone text alert system. The only time in fifteen years that I have seen this system used was to tell us the work lockdown had begun. 

On October 4th, the government is testing their wireless alert system as well. 

And wastewater shows the new ultra-mutated Covid is in ten states.

And then, during the latest visit for the clinical trial, I heard -- again -- that my respiratory rate is too high. The phone's been complaining about that since this past summer. This is the first time a human noticed. I was advised to exercise and breathe more slowly. Inhale, hold it, exhale, hold it. Four seconds each. 

But what came first? The anxiety? The rapid breathing? The rapid breathing that will increase my chances of catching Covid? 

I need a reset. 

Comments

[KC]

... now wondering if I breathe rapidly to go with my increased resting heart rate...

I'd love fewer things to be going wrong, though, and not just to relieve the symptoms of ye olde stress-responsive chronic illness. But. Things are better than they could be. (please note that that statement is not intended to be a challenge for people to screw things up more.)

[theQueen]

KC - I don't know how you measure breathing. Count the number of times the shirt buttons move?

[KC]

I haven't figured out how to count my own breathing without affecting the rate. Maybe I could take a video, I guess, and retroactively count?

There are chest bands that measure the expansion and contraction, though, for Science, that are used in things like exercise stress tests.

[theQueen]

KC - I think our nostrils flare, maybe.