I’ve been doing a lot of deep breathing in the last week. This isn’t because I’ve been particularly stressed or particularly energetic. The fact is, I don’t know why I’m doing it, but I suspect it may be a tic.

Last week I had a bit of a cold and towards the end of it I started drawing breath deeply, quickly and regularly. This has continued even though the cold’s gone. While I think it’s probably a tic I’m not completely sure and that’s unusual because I normally know instinctively if something’s a tic or not.

One problem is that it fails the Biscuit Test. Usually, if someone repeats one of my tics in front of me, I’ll do it back instantly. So to test if this is a tic or not, Leftwing Idiot drew his breath earlier and I didn’t respond at all. But when he said, ‘Biscuit’ immediately afterwards I ticced a load of biscuits back. So I’m really not sure about this one.

I’ve had breathing tics before but this feels a bit different. It’s as if my normal breathing isn’t being quite as effective as it ought to be. If it carries on I’ll talk to my doctor about it.