Why Your Breath Changes When You’re Overwhelmed?

Sometimes the breath changes before you realise you’re under stress.

I used to think this meant I was overthinking. In reality, the body responds first, and the breath is one of the clearest indicators that the system is under pressure.

Paying attention to it therefore offers a direct way into understanding deeper patterns.

It becomes very useful data for me, and can be for you too.

From what I see in clients, this is remarkably consistent. Someone who lives with ongoing overwhelm will often sit or lie in front of me breathing almost entirely into their chest. The belly barely moves. The ribs are stiff. There is often subtle breath holding. They are not trying to breathe this way. It is simply how their system has learned to breathe.

You’d think gently connecting your breath for an hour would be easy, right? It’s not….

Overwhelm is usually described as a mental or emotional state, but it begins physiologically i.e. in the body. As pressure builds, the autonomic nervous system shifts toward sympathetic activation (fight or flight). This prepares the body for action and automatically changes breathing mechanics. The diaphragm becomes less available, the chest takes over, and breathing becomes faster and more restricted. This response makes sense when the body needs to act, but it becomes problematic when it turns into a baseline state.

At the same time, the endocrine system (network of hormone glands) is involved through the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. When stress is perceived as ongoing, the adrenal glands release adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline increases heart rate, muscle tone, and breathing speed, shifting respiration higher into the chest to support faster reactions. Cortisol helps maintain this state by keeping energy available over longer periods. Together, these hormones create internal conditions that favour alertness and readiness rather than rest.

Breathing does not just reflect this internal state, it helps maintain it. Changes in breathing feed information back into the nervous system through pathways such as the vagus nerve, influencing heart rate variability and overall regulation. Over time, this creates a feedback loop where stress physiology shapes breathing, and breathing reinforces stress physiology. Eventually, this pattern starts to feel normal (when it is not).

This was my experience for most of my life. My breath rarely moved into my belly, my chest felt tight, and even during quiet moments my system never fully settled. I was in talk therapy at the time, which helped me understand myself cognitively, but my breathing did not change. The tension was not coming from my thoughts alone. It was held physically, through patterns that had developed over years.

Breathwork became a turning point because it made these patterns visible and gave me a way to work with them directly. When breathing patterns are brought into awareness and supported rather than forced, the nervous system can begin to reorganise. As sympathetic drive reduces, the diaphragm becomes more available, the breath travels lower into the body, and the rhythm of breathing slows naturally. This shift happens not because the breath is controlled, but because the body no longer needs to stay on high alert.

If your breathing feels tight, shallow, or difficult to access, it does not mean something is wrong with you. It shows how much your system has been managing.

Understanding why your breathing changes when you are overwhelmed makes it easier to work with, the knowledge and awareness, coupled with some courage, will be the start of change for you.

Thank you for reading,

Will