Going to start with a long metaphor: bonus points if you were/are a lifeguard.
For the people who have gone swimming, you ever do the thing where you just go under and see how long you can hold your breath? The first few seconds are fine, but the longer you hold, the more alarm bells are ringing and your body tries to get above water. You might be able to force yourself down a couple seconds more, but ultimately you’ll hit a point where you scramble to swim up / stand up for air. Do this enough, and you can increase how long you stay under, as well as increase efficiency for events like long distance swimming.
For those who have lifeguarded, you’ve received training on how to save people who are struggle to stay afloat or in process of drowning. I’m sure that it is still taught that, if the person drowning represent a threat to the lifeguard, you’re supposed to standby till they stop flailing. This is a safety reason! People flailing are not operation from a logical perspective; the primal parts of their brain is doing a (bad) job of trying to keep them above water. Sometimes if you approaching drowning people like this, they will try to shove you underwater in a bid to save themselves! (Bad for all parties involved).
The whole point of this metaphor is that in the emotional intelligence space, some people can manage themselves even during periods of stress. If you practice and grow your emotional intelligence (swimming), you recognize when you’re in a good place or a bad places, and manage accordingly.
For those who neglect emotional intelligence, they often times can feel like they are drowning (but above water). Its a struggle to operate from a conscious perspective when your unconscious survival brain is doing everything and everything to stay float. It’s hard to even recognize support and help in this state because everything is so focused on survival. The point of breathwork (above or below water) is to put the conscious YOU back in the driver’s seat and manage your bodies (over)reactions to stimulus. From there, you can continue to make decisions that are in your best overall interest, and not just a survival perspective.