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I'm very happy to hear that you are feeling much better and the protocol was helpful for you. These types of conditions are well treated with acupuncture and appropriate point selection/point areas are crucial to a quick and deep response.

With regards to the breathing, yes, that can definately cause many issues with your system - not least of which is to make your nervous system more active. It is very easy to overdo and/or incorrectly do these breathing exercises. They need to be done very naturally and never forced. Over a longer period of time the breath will regulate and with practice will become very deep, but forcing this in the beginning creates a condition known as the "running fire" within the qigong circles. The signs of this are psychological conditions, anxiety, breathing problems, headaches, etc. usually worsened or at least contributed to by incorrect practice.

The hard thing about this condition is that many people come to these practices (breathing, meditation, tai chi, etc.) because of feeling anxious and then they end up not helping themselves as much as they could due to improper technique. In our tai chi/qi gong classes we rarely teach the breath coordination until later stages - basically at the point where the students are almost doing it correctly naturally.

For you, the breathing exercises may not be helpful, which doesn't mean you shouldn't do them. You just have to do them naturally. You can use the diaphragm, but do not force it, just let it deepen naturally. Some days will be better than others in your practice but over time your breath will go deeper and deeper and you will feel very calm.

For the panic attacks, you need to first eliminate things which are stimulating your nervous system into the fight or flight response and the breathing exercises could easily be contributing. In addition you can focus on the huatuo area of C2, GB 13 (right side), massage KD 1 to descend the energy, and the huatuo of T5 (left side) for the heart rhythm.

The heaviness in the chest is a common occurence with anxiety. Basically your energy is not descending for whatever reason so it accumulates in the chest and/or the head for some others. As you continue to improve these sensations will disappear. They are also a fairly common side effect of improper breathing practices, so now that you have eased up with those it should be much better.

As for the CZ formula, that is available from our site. I would simply start with one bottle and take it as indicated on the label - it's a one month supply. Many people benefit from a month of the herbs followed perhaps by taking it only on days when you are feeling particularly anxious. Of course, for some people they may take it for 1-3 months initially and then get to that point, but you will know the best course of action based on your own personal response. You can order from our website if you are in the US by going to our store. If you are outside of the US you can request a quote from our international orders form.