That inner voice that helps you make decisions went bananas this past week. I could not make a simple decision, such as when was the best day to go to the drugstore to get my prescriptions. I am sure that age and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) played a role in my confusion.

I felt like I did one time when my lung had collapsed and I did not have pain with it, so I did not go to the doctor or hospital. I tired very easily and got short of breath quite often and experienced what most people refer to as brain fog. I went to my pulmonologist because I was short of breath. He sent me for an X-ray because he detected diminished breath sounds.

The X-ray showed a partial lung collapse which progressed to a total pneumothorax by the time my doctor called me and told me to report to the hospital. This was the second of the three spontaneous pneumothorax that I have suffered due to my COPD.

This time stress was probably the most significant factor in my debilitated state of mind. I had been concerned about why I had not received the results of the ultrasound that was done to determine what was causing my digestive issues.

Usually, when I am having trouble making up my mind about something, I sleep on it. The following day, the solution is typically clearer or more so than before I went to sleep. I had gotten to the point that I barely slept at night, and my afternoon naps lasted too long.

The fact that I am continually assessing my COPD health with my COPD Action Plan made me think that I was going to need to contact a mental health professional because all of my vitals seemed to be great except that I was feeling short of breath. When I checked my oxygen saturation it was above 90%.

I was mindlessly scrolling when I came across an advertisement for Hulu. Then, it occurred to me that my neighbor had asked me if I had Hulu. She said that when she was stressed, she picked a program and binge-watched it. My neighbor got me to thinking about stress and what stress does to a person with COPD.

I decided to try my neighbor’s solution. For three days, I binge-watched a show about a doctor with Autism. This is bizarre behavior for me because I do not turn the TV on some days. I related to the show because it exposed the flaws in the supporting characters and the leading character with Autism.

Not only did I binge watch TV, I also did not set the alarm to get up, nor did I pay attention to when I went to bed. I just went to bed when I was tired and got up when I was rested. I did not make to-do lists and only consulted my calendar to see if there was anything that I could not postpone or eliminate from my day.

As a result of this little mini vacation, I started sleeping better, and my Fitbit verified this observation. I could remember dreaming and what I was dreaming about. My rapid eye movement (REM) sleep increased significantly, as did my deep sleep.

After my mini-vacation, I felt refreshed, and I could concentrate and make logical decisions without constantly second-guessing myself. I felt full of life and optimistic. I no longer felt short of breath and quit looking at my oxygen saturation multiple times per day.

Controlled breathing techniques such as pursed lip breathing help cope with stress, but sometimes we need a little more than that.