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Does stagnant, warm, still air make you feel suffocated or claustrophobic? Do you need a fan or cool, fresh air to avoid a panic attack? I’m amazed to report that this specific topic is the third most popular post on my blog. Who knew this was so common?!
In this episode, I talk about my personal experiences with warm, still air, and offer some solutions to the issue.
Related Posts on this blog:
- Hot, Still Air Makes Me Feel Trapped, Like I Can’t Breathe
- I Thought I was Better at Parties
- Do Some Sounds Fill You With Rage? Maybe It’s Misophonia
- Overwhelmed by Beauty
- Feeling Overwhelmed when Nothing is Wrong
- The Worst Places on Earth for HSPs
- Finding the “Stasis of Peace”
- Sudden Noises
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Podcast music attribution: Bust This Bust That (Professor Kliq) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
I was so relieved to find someone like me, who is extremely uncomfortable in warm-stagnant rooms. My office is heated in the winter and I’ve actually covered the vents above my desk with manila envelopes. I’ve always attributed this feeling to Rosacea …but your article me realize it’s much more. Thanks for posting!
bjoey4811@yahoo.com
I am the same way I hate the heater, i feel like I am suffocating, can’t breath, i have bad allergies. Coworker puts the heater 85 the whole dam day, i lower it she turns it up, not normal. She’s sick i guess.
I am the same way. Glad I’m not alone. This is a good website.
I feel exactly the same way with no air or if it gets warm while trying to sleep that’s why I googled this was wondering what was going on I jumped out of bed scared to death like I can’t breathe ! My chest feels heavy I thought it was weight gain I just can’t get enough air
I did this last night!! I jolted out of bed screaming for air. I couldn’t breath. I’ve also had trouble being in stuffed cats and buses and needing air flow desperately, but I look around and everyone is just FINE! So I think to myself I’m over thinking, but then panic kicks in and I desperately ask to roll down the window or jump up to walk around on the bus.
It is so nice to hear about other people that have this problem as well. I always wet a wash cloth and leave it by my bed at night just in case I get hot when I am trying to go to sleep or am sleeping and wake up. That way I can grab it and cool myself off when I need to. The only bad part about this is that sometimes I fall asleep with it in my hand and I wake up with a big wet spot in my bed! 🙂
Haha! I hear you about the washcloth by the bed!
Thank you Kelly! ALL of your podcasts are amazing, and so informative!! Like Beth, I too work in an office and it is unbearable. I prefer to have a fresh cool air circulating at all times. The air in my office is always set to 74 degrees – Waaay too warm for me. If I turn it down to 70, my boss complains that it’s too cold. Feeling stifled agitates me and can make it challenging to focus. It only amplifies when I make mistake and/or get nervous when I’m confused or overwhelmed; this causes my body temperature to rise and my face and neck to turn bright red! This is humiliating and mortifying, especially when it happens in front of my boss. Driving to work I blast the AC, to the point where I’m almost freezing. This temporarily off-sets the warm stagnant air that awaits me.
Hi Erica, thanks so much for your comment. Of course I can relate to your story. I think too warm is worse than too hot–when it comes to working in an office! Do you have a desk fan? That could help a lot. I can’t imagine working in such a stifling place! But unfortunately you can’t override your boss so definitely try out a fan! good luck 🙂
I thought I was the only person like this I’ve been struggling with this my whole life and I was wondering if it was a medical condition or what period it drives me crazy I have to have air movement or I’m nauseous. Is there some way to fix this
I glad to find this poste, because today i realized that i am over heated, my litele brother used to tell me that the heat is comming out off me even when keeping distance from him, but now i feel realy like a heat source when there is no air mouvment or air conditionning i can’t stand my cloathes on me and i swet like i am walking under the rain but i don’t get the panic attack . Plz everyone can somme body help
Thanks for these wonderful podcasts! Such a relief that their do exist positive posts about hsp. I do recognize this feeling. My way to deal with it is to change the environment (just like you told us at the end of the podcast). I learned that most people dislike these environments but people who are highly sensitive just sense it earlier. Most of the time I sense that it’s not only a relief for me, when I opened the window, but other people are starting to thank me or start socializing just because it made them feel better :). That’s why I don’t see it as a bad thing :).
hi Kelly i found your podcast, very helpful. i have sleep apnoea and i use a CPAP machine at night. and sometimes at work ( i feel suffocated by sagnant warm air ) your words.
and i now carry a hand fan around with me at all times and if i find i get sufocated by stagnant air at work, i think i will have to use by CPAP machine at work too.
Yes my husband insists on having hot air on in the car when it’s cold and I find it stifling and can’t breathe. So many things on here are true for me
After listening to podcast 2, I reframed an experience from 30 years ago! In a new job, I was very distressed as the sun increasingly heated the office during the day through the south-facing window. I could hardly think! I requested an office on the north side of the building and the problem resolved. After that, I believed a north side office was a necessity for me but never probed why. The podcast suggests a likely answer. Thanks.
so glad it was helpful! thanks for the comment 🙂
I have experienced extreme anxiety when getting on an airplane and the a/c was either off completely or the vents closed and no air movement happening. I seemed to be the only one fighting to get the vents turned on me and opened up so I could breathe. I never could understand why I had this “need” to feel moving air, but after listening to this podcast about HSP’s and warm, non moving air, I totally get it. Wow!!!!
Yes, yes…I feel the same thing Carol. It’s a nightmare when the air isn’t moving. It feels so good to read that other people are having the same issues!
This was such a great episode for me to hear. My close friends have heard me get into their cars for years and no matter the air temperature, I always say “I need air!” I need it to blow on me so I feel like I can breathe. Yes, I carry a fan with me and I’m almost never cold.
Hearing your train story and the wet sheet sounds brilliant to me. I can think of instances in my life where that would have been helpful.
Basically it feels nice to be validated and know I’m not alone in this area (or any of the other HSP traits). Thanks, Kelly!
you’re welcome!! glad my stories rang true for you!! :))
Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that I found your podcasts and your webpage! This is so me in every way! I have listened to the first podcast and now this one and I feel so relieved that others feel the same way! I feel like I can’t breathe when it’s hot and closed in. I know my father feels the same way and now it makes sense. Thank you!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for the sweet comment! I’m so glad you found the podcast helpful!! :))
I have a relative that closes all air flow no windows no fans no A/C. Not even a back safe chair. I call it the house of pain and they constantly trick and force me there try to feed me hot soup and sit knowing I have a broken back I get really sick and now just run away within 5 minutes knowing they have no sympathy and will trap me there for hours. So forget being polite run they think it’s funny
I Ali have baby they keep there. They think she is sick because she sweats forcing them to turn on A/C or use wet towels to cool her down my mother was the same way. Now three generations the same way. This isn’t a joke and it isn’t funny
Thank you you hit the nail on the head
I must be the most temperature-sensitive person I know. Hot, still air drives me crazy, to the point where I will turn thermostat down, minutes after having turned it up. I am also sensitive to cold. I experience Reynaud’s phenomenon, and I can often sense the moment when the AC kicks on at work, immediately feeling the cool, dry air cutting through the warm moist air, right to my skin! It’s especially bothersome in a vehicle in the winter. I am cold, so I turn the heat on, but the space is so small that soon, the hot hair feels like it’s right on my face and I have to turn it down.
I don’t think it’s related to claustrophobia, as I feel this way outside. I live in Missouri, and the older I get, the less I can stand to be outside once it reaches 80 degrees, feeling generally woozy and drained. It makes it difficult to cut the grass! The cold also has it’s effect though, giving me a headache if I’m not bundled up, along with a dizzy feeling once I enter back into a heated area.
My husband has always attributed my sensitivity to cold and heat as “being uncomfortable”. He says I have no toleration for being uncomfortable, but it is more than that. Kelly described exactly how I feel, like time stops, and there is a weight about still air. It is more the feeling of the air than the temperature. And, it’s not exactly claustrophobia, but rather a building panic that there is not enough air. I have had this feeling outside, as well as in a building, or even on an airplane. It’s like there is a thickness to the air. I have recently been introduced to the HSP trait, and it explains so much! Thanks for talking about it.
Wow I can’t believe it’s not only me! I’ve had episodes on a airplane when the air is off where I couldn’t breathe and now when I’m restrained to ride a ride at the amusement park. I wish you guys could have another podcast regarding this subject. I’m so glad I found it.
I need to run fans in my apartment 24/7. The still air, no matter the season makes me feel like I am suffocating. Any overwhelming odors hang in the air after the fans are off for awhile, contributing to the stuffiness. Fortunately I keep my apartment pretty odor free. It is a relief to not feel alone as highly sensitive person. I’ve always thought something was wrong with my brain!
This is so true. Something that I describe as “lacK of oxygen” I realized that whenever i welcome someone to my room, the fitst thing i set straight is the air, the smell, the density, the temprature.
Just finding this now! But I definitely agree! When the hot air is blasting on me in the car I feel like I can’t breathe and feel like I am going to have a panic attack! I am glad that I am not the only one out there who doesn’t like this feeling
I’ve just come across this post and it made me laugh because I too was in a situation where I was in a hostel in Beijing and one person in my dorm turned the air con off.. I immediately felt the panic set in and as there was no where else I could sleep, I felt trapped and like I was going to suffocate. I actually went to the shared bathroom with my sheet and wet it to cool myself down. I also left the sheet in the corner so the cleaner would see it last when they took the bed sheets. I searched this problem as I get the same feeling when I breathe in hot steam when I’m in the bath and most recently I’ve been trying to get fit and join a gym. But as soon as I get hot and there’s no airflow in the gym, I start to feel the same panic and can’t carry on exercising. Does anyone else have this when they exercise or know how I can get past it?
I’m the same way Claire. Especially when the bathroom gets steamy while I shower. I always make sure to have the central air on in the house so that the bathroom doesn’t get too hot. I wish I had advice but I’m in the same boat.
I really identify with this, I’ve always struggled with hot still air, it makes me feel panicky like I can’t breath. I have a fan in my room which I’ll use even if it is cold and I have a hand fan with a mister that I use when I travel. I’ve gotten a few funny looks but it’s better than panicking on the tube!
Thanks for sharing. I started have this issue last year. I can’t breath most of the time in the car, especially sit at the back seat, i feel trap, can’t breath cause by the still air.
There is one incident I am driving, stop at the traffic light and suddenly i can’t breath and panicky I search for nose inhaler to cool down myself.
When I take a lift, I wish it would not stop at every floor or too crowded in side the lift, the longer I am inside the lift, i will be breathless.
I found this today when I got told that fans are banned at work. I was trying to find some way to get people to understand that I don’t just want a fan, I need one to stave off a panic attack. Thank you for making me feel less crazy. Off to get a doctor’s note so that I can have my fan.