A New Beginning

Chapter 19

A/N at the bottom. Hope you enjoy!

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Is it possible to forget how to breathe? Surprisingly, yes.

When you choke, or when you have the wind knocked out of you, sometimes even when you're shocked or afraid. Your brain literally can't make your body breath without conscious effort. You have to consciously focus and think, inhale, pause, exhale, inhale, pause, exhale. And if you don't....You don't breathe. And when you don't breathe, you pass out, your body and mind are forced into an unconscious state so that mechanics and muscle memory take over and your body breathes instinctively.

And this is what happens most of the time when your brain fails you and you forget the simple task of breathing to oxygenate your body. Some would say that the moment you can't breathe, the moment you are incapable of inhaling the complex chemicals in the atmosphere around you and exhaling carbon dioxide is terrifying. And why wouldn't it be?

When one forgets how to breathe, when your brain fails you and you forget the simple task of breathing to oxygenate your body, fear starts to build up. Fear isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's what keeps you from doing stupid things and helps with unnecessary risks. But in this circumstance, it doesn't help.

Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing, and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-freeze-or-flight response. Once the fear pathways are ramped up, the brain short-circuits more rational processing paths and reacts immediately to signals from the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in the limbic system of your brain. While fear can play tricks with your memory and your perception of reality, it also affects your body. And the amygdala is considered to be the seat of fear in the brain (as well as other emotions). But fear is processed differently than other emotions, bypassing the sensory cortex on its way to the amygdala. A signal sent to the adrenal glands in your torso causes them to send out cortisol and adrenaline, two hormones. The fear response also a releases glucose into the bloodstream -- a power up to get you running for your life--

But that's beside the point.

The next question is a rational response to a major lapse in memory?

Logically, one would calm down and force themselves to inhale, pause, exhale, inhale, pause, exhale. But it's not that simple. Far from simple, actually.

During the fear process, two hormones called cortisol and adrenaline are released into your brain and bloodstream, which severely limits the ability to release any other chemicals. Chemicals such as serotonin, the soothing chemical. So calming down and focusing is incredibly hard to do.

Danny, who knew all of this and had perfected the technique of channeling all those chemicals in his body to calm down, was still unable to do so in this situation.

Unfortunately, it was not just fear that affected him, but rather glutamate, the excitation chemical, mixed with delirium (confusion and disorientation), and the combination threw him so off balance that he forgot how to breathe.

And he can blame no one other than the redhead in front of him.

A redhead who should be very much dead.

Inhale, pause, exhale, inhale, pause exhale, inhalepauseexhale, inhalepauseexhale, inhaleexhaleinhaleexhaleinha-

When simply breathing doesn't help, the calming reflex can help. Looking at colors and listening to sounds that release serotonin for you, many mothers use this technique to calm down infant children that won't stop crying and--