Updated May 08, 2015.

Learn about the impact stress can have on panic disorder and ways you can start managing your stress.

How Can Stress Impact Panic Disorder?

People with anxiety disorders, including panic disorder, are often familiar with feelings of anxiety and worry. Stress often activates the flight-or-fight response, which may already be overactive for those with panic disorder. Chronic stress can trigger symptoms associated with panic disorder, including increased irritability, anxiety, and possibly even panic attacks.


How Can Stress Be Managed?

We will all experience some stress in our lives. Fortunately, the stress can be managed so that it does not significantly impair your life. Many stress-management techniques contain components of relaxation, refocusing, and reframing.

Relaxation Techniques

It is difficult, if not impossible to feel stress and anxiety when you are in a relaxed state. Relaxation techniques are methods that can help you reach a calmer state, even when feeling stressed out. Deep breathing exercises are often the foundation for many relaxation techniques. Plus they are easy to learn and can be practiced just about anywhere. Through these exercises, the person takes slow and purposeful breaths. By breathing deeply and fully, the person may feel a sense of calm and release of stress.  

Other popular relaxation techniques include visualization, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), and mindfulness meditation. Through visualization, a person can let go of stress by imagining herself in a serene and tranquil environment.

To visualize, a person just needs to simply close her eyes and envision herself in a place that she finds peaceful.

PMR works in a similar way in that the person closes her eyes to begin to relax. Only with PMR, the person is focusing her attention on each group of muscles throughout the body. PMR typically starts with a breathing exercise, followed by attention put into gradually tightening and releasing all the muscles to let go of tightness and pressure that stress often puts on the body.

Many people who practice mindfulness meditation similarly chose to begin with a breathing exercise and eyes closed. Through this technique, a person is able to simply breathe and allow thoughts to come and go. The person becomes aware of his thoughts, but does not try to change or judge them. Rather, he becomes more aware of the present moment and can learn to accept his thoughts. Through mindfulness meditation a person can slow down is thoughts, unleash stress, and enter into a deeper sense of relaxation.

Reframing Techniques

To reframe your stress is to take on a fresh perspective that allows you to view your stress in a more positive light. For example, you can reframe your job stress as an opportunity or potential for growth. Instead of thinking, “I am so overwhelmed by my work,” try to reframe your perspective to ideas, such as “I have a lot of work this week, but I also have job security” or “This is has been such a busy month, but I know things at work will slow down next month.”

To get better at reframing, it can be helpful to write each of your stressors out on a piece of paper. Once it is written down, start brainstorming ways in which you can look at your stress differently. For instance, conflict in a relationship can be reframed as a way to better to get know each other. Rather than beat yourself up about setbacks to living a healthier life, you can focus on how you are going to start off the next day getting back on track. When practiced regularly, you may find that you begin to naturally reframe a lot of the stress in your life.

Refocusing Techniques

Refocusing techniques are activities done to get your mind off stress and onto different ideas. Refocusing does not mean that you ignore your stress, but that you take proactive ways of dealing with it or putting your energy into other activities when your stress in unavoidable. Some common activities that allow you to take the attention off of stress include writing activities, goal setting, or centering your time and attention on healthy activities you enjoy. 

When feeling stressed out, you may want to try some refocusing techniques. For example, journal writing can help you work through your issues and develop your own strategies for tackling them. Goal setting can allow you to gain more direction and feel more satisfied with life. To get started in goal setting, you may want to consider different areas of your life, such as your relationships, health, and career. Ask yourself how you see yourself growing in these areas throughout the next several years. Then write down these overall goals, along with action steps you will need to take to achieve them.

Refocusing can also be done through engaging in activities you enjoy. Physical exercise is a great way to turn your attention elsewhere to lower your stress. Plus, regular participation in exercise has been found to lower stress hormones, decrease tension throughout the body, and let go of other reactions that your body may have to stress.

<sub>Source:

Seaward, B. L. (2011). Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Wellbeing, 7th Edition. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.</sub>