Hi Gabriel,
My name is Zach and I'm a 35 year old male. I've been experiencing what you describe for a really long time, to varying degrees. I get an urge to yawn that is similar to a craving to itch or to sneeze that builds and builds until I yawn. After yawning, I feel relieved but the urge slowly gets worse until it becomes unbearable. On particularly bad days, I may yawn once every minute or so. Not only is it really frustrating, but it can also be really embarrassing if I'm in a social setting. I've researched this topic extensively, and though I have come up with some ideas as to what is causing this, I haven't really found any silver-bullets yet. Surprisingly, science still has not really explained in detail why humans (and almost all other animals) yawn. It used to be common knowledge that yawning was due to low oxygen in the brain, but experiments have totally ruled that out by showing that people in environments with lower oxygen levels don't yawn more than a control group. The prevailing theory now is that yawning is the body's way of cooling down the brain, but that's still fairly ambiguous. I do think my issue is at least partially related to hyperventilation syndrome and my failure to not exhale fully enough. If I force myself to breathe out fully, then I do get some relief but it's only temporary and partial. I've tried acid reducers in case it's related to a damaged esophagus, but to no avail. One other tidbit I've found is that stimulants like amphetamine make my issue much, much worse. Also, cannabis can make it worse sometimes. Some antidepressants also exacerbate it, like Effexor. This initially led me to think that anxiety was the root cause. However, I don't think that's the whole picture because I can't really find a definite link between days or moments of high anxiety and increased yawning. I do need to look into the breathing technique that you mentioned, though. I was really hoping that somewhere in the myriad of responses you got to your original post there would be some magic cure for our problem, but it appears this issue is much more complex than I was hoping it would be. I've noticed many of the people responding on here don't really have the same issue you described. They have some other version of shortness of breath that doesn't really fall under the really narrow description you spoke about. That's not to belittle their own suffering, but when I read your description it was really uncanny how similar it was to what I have been going through for at least the last 20 years or so. I've tried to speak to doctors about it, but it really is such an esoteric issue that they don't have a clue how to treat it or what it even is. It's beyond frustrating, but at least I know there are other people out there going through a similar problem. I'm glad that you do seem to be getting better if your recent posts are anything to go by and I'm hopeful that means maybe I will, too.