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Managing Your Asthma And Your Generalized Anxiety Disorder

10 February 2017 by Alexis Montgomery

When you are diagnosed with both asthma and general anxiety disorder, it can be quite easy to assume that those two conditions are completely separate and far removed from one another. However, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, oftentimes asthma and anxiety go hand in hand in surprising ways.

Before you allow your symptoms and your struggles to get the better of you, get to know some of the ways that you can better manage both your conditions, so that you can do everything in your power to feel better and to have fewer panic and asthma attacks.

Be Sure You Work With A Respiratory Therapist

Respiratory therapists are experts in breathing diseases and ailments, particularly those that are chronic in nature. They are especially helpful in the long-term and acute management of asthma. When you suffer from asthma, it is important to have the right balance of medications and management techniques to help you better handle asthma attacks when they occur and prevent them from happening in the first place.

Respiratory therapists will often ask you to keep track of your asthma symptoms by charting when your attacks take place, where you are when they occur, and what you are doing when they occur. They may also ask you to purchase a peak flow meter and measure your breath output on a daily or weakly basis. Peak flow meters are basic pieces of medical equipment that you can easily take with you wherever you go.

Your respiratory therapist may also recommend that you use a nebulizer if your asthma is particularly problematic as well. This machine vaporizes liquid asthma medications so that you can breathe them in over the course of 15 to 20 minutes or so. This intensive asthma treatment helps to keep your airways open and helps you to feel better in general if your asthma attacks have been occurring frequently.

Use Medications and Therapy to Manage Your Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The problem with a combined diagnosis of asthma and generalized anxiety disorder is that anxiety or panic attacks can manifest themselves in ways that are essentially just like asthma attacks. Anxiety can cause your chest to feel tight, your heart to race, and your breathing to become labored and troubled. It can also cause you to have an asthma attack not only because of these symptoms, but because worrying about asthma attacks can actually trigger them.

As such, no manner of asthma treatment will be fully successful if you do not also treat your anxiety. Severe anxiety is best managed with a combination of medications and cognitive therapy. Medications that are used for anxiety include SSRI inhibitors like escitalopram and benzodiazepines like alprazolam. SSRIs are often taken on a daily basis for the management of generalized anxiety disorder while benzodiazepines are used as needed for acute panic attacks.

Cognitive therapy is also important for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder and its link to your asthma. Therapy can help you to figure out your anxiety triggers and address what is going on in your life and mind that is causing you so much distress and worry. Once you know these triggers, you can develop coping strategies such as controlled breathing techniques and ways to channel your anxiety into healthy activities that can help you de-stress and avoid panic attacks (and therefore asthma attacks as well). 

With these tips in mind, you can better manage your asthma and anxiety and get the help that you need to maintain a better level of overall health and well-being. For more information, contact local professionals like Corner Home Medical.

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