Tips for Living With Panic Disorder

Work With Your Doctor(s) and Therapist

Your doctor, psychiatrist, and/or therapist make up your health care team, along with you. You are at the center of your team. It is up to you to communicate openly and honestly with your treatment providers about your symptoms, lifestyle (including drug and alcohol use), and treatment concerns. If you are seeing more than one provider, make sure they are communicating with each other. Your health care providers should be willing to communicate with you, as well.

• How to Talk About Your Medications
• How to Talk to Your Doctors

Change Stressful Areas of Your Life

Although your job, your relationships, and your living situation may not be the cause of your panic disorder, you may find that they aggravate your panic disorder or make it difficult to get well. By no means should you attempt to make major life changes while also embarking on a new treatment plan. However, if you've been undergoing treatment, it might be time to inspect various aspects of your life that are making you unhappy or stressed out. A therapist can be helpful in this process. If you do decide to make a major life change, do so with a well-researched plan.

Manage Stress

Stress causes the body to secrete cortisol, a hormone that helps the body and mind react to the stressful situation. If the body is under constant stress, the higher levels of cortisol secreted over a longer period may have negative effects, leading to a variety of illnesses. Researchers are attempting to determine the exact relationship between stress and panic disorder. Some studies have shown a connection between cortisol levels and the levels of neurotransmitters that may play a role in panic attacks. Stress management has many benefits for both your body and mind.

• Ten Ways to Cope With Stress

Create a Support System

A good support system is important when recovering from panic disorder. No one person should be your only source of support; relying on one person is not good for that person, and it may hurt your relationship with that person. A support system may consist of family, friends, support groups, and your health care team. Each person in your support system plays a different role. Understand your needs when creating a support system, and be open about how each person can help you.

• How to Support Your Support People
• Giving the Gift of Time
• How to Tell Someone About Your Anxiety Disorder
• About.com's Panic Disorder Forum

Be Prepared to Manage Panic Attacks

By having certain items and coping techniques ready, you may find yourself able to minimize symptoms or prevent a full-blown panic attack. Good preparation may even mean prevention; if you know you are prepared, you might not have the attack in the first place. Knowledge of your preparation may ease anticipatory anxiety as well, allowing you to enter situations that previously made you anxious.

• Prepare Yourself for Panic
• How to Put Together a Comfort Bag
• How to Cope During a Panic Attack

Eat Well and Exercise

Certain foods and substances may trigger panic attacks or may make a person more susceptible to them, including alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. Eating a healthy diet has been shown to help with mood, and some people have found that eliminating certain foods and adding others helps to prevent panic attacks. Meanwhile, exercise has been shown to improve mood while keeping the body healthy. It certainly can't hurt to keep our bodies strong and healthy, and good health may just be a way to protect ourselves from future panic attacks.

Get Enough Sleep

Sleeping problems occur in almost all people with mental disorders, according to the National Institutes of Health. Sleep deprivation may cause irritability, mood swings, poor concentration, and poor memory, even in people without psychiatric disorders. A lack of sleep may not be causing your panic disorder, but it may be aggravating it as well as making it impossible for treatment to work well. Make good sleep hygiene a priority and be sure to discuss any problems with your doctor.

• How to Get a Better Night's Sleep
• Tips for Nighttime Anxiety

Write It Down

Writing can be an important tool in managing your panic disorder. First, you'll want to keep records of your health history, particularly concerning your medications and therapy. Second, journaling is a great tool and may be used in a variety of ways. You may find that it eases stress just to get your thoughts down each day. There are a number of ways to journal, so find what works for you. Third, there are all kinds of cognitive exercise you might try when working on managing your panic disorder. A good place to look is Edmund J. Bourne's The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook.

Understand and Be Open About Agoraphobia Symptoms

About one-third of people with panic disorder go on to develop agoraphobia according to the National Institute of Mental Health. You do not have to be homebound to be diagnosed with agoraphobia. If you avoid situations or places where you fear you might have a panic attack, then you may have agoraphobia. Agoraphobia tends to get worse without treatment, so it's important to be open with your doctors about any avoidance behaviors (or about any places or situations that are causing high amounts of anxiety for you).

• What Is Agoraphobia?

Practice Relaxation Daily

Relaxation techniques may be used to minimize or even prevent a panic attack. Over time, regular practice of relaxation exercises may reduce the number of panic attacks and may even prevent them. Relaxation techniques, from quick exercises to meditation, have been shown to have positive health benefits, as well.

• How to Relax
• How to Meditate
• How to Breathe Properly
• How to Breathe With Your Diaphragm

Sources:

National Institute of Mental Health. "Anxiety Disorders." 26 June 2006. 14 June 2007.

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. "Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep." 21 May 2007. 14 June 2007.