Stress, especially chronic stress, can affect your health in many ways. For example, it can cause headaches from muscle tension and raise your risk of heart attack and stroke. In addition, stress may contribute to digestive problems and weaken the immune system. Stress can also affect the respiratory system, which is especially problematic for people with COPD. That’s because the COPD/stress relationship is a feedback loop—each fuels the other.
How COPD Affects Stress, and Vice Versa
To understand the importance of reducing stress as part of COPD management, it helps to know how COPD and stress affect one another.
According to the American Lung Association, shortness of breath and other COPD symptoms can cause anxiety.
COPD also reduces your quality of life, which can cause anxiety and stress. For example, people with COPD may find it harder to perform everyday tasks. In addition, they may struggle with fatigue, or avoid going out with friends because of breathing difficulties.
Finally, COPD can affect overall health. It can increase your risk for depression, heart failure and respiratory infections. COPD also reduces lung function and changes lung volumes—or the amount of air in the lungs as you breathe. Concern about those issues can spur stress and anxiety.
Just as COPD can feed stress, stress can also drive COPD. According to the National Library of Medicine, stress is a COPD trigger. In other words, if you’re stressed, a COPD flare-up is more likely. Why? Stress can accelerate your breathing, which can make you feel short of breath. That, in turn, can aggravate COPD.
Managing Stress as Part of COPD Management
If you have COPD and struggle to rein in stress, take heart—you aren’t destined to stay stuck in the COPD/stress cycle. You can take steps to reduce stress and protect your mental health:
- Know your limits. If personal and professional responsibilities are piling up, don’t be afraid to ask others for help.
- Make time for you. That means blocking out time each day for something that relaxes you or makes you feel good—even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes.
- Mind your breathing. Practice deep breathing, which can have a calming effect.
- Pinpoint your stress points. Identify your stressors and then do your best to avoid them.
- Seek support. Join a support group for people with COPD. It’s a great way to expand your social network, which can help with stress. In addition, you can swap stress management tips with people who understand what you’re going through.
- Speak up. If you’re having a hard time managing COPD and associated stress, tell your primary care provider. They can develop a plan to help you get COPD and stress under control.
- Stay social. Maintain connections with friends and family, which can boost your mood and lower stress.
More Keys to COPD Management
Addressing stress is just one aspect of COPD management, and it often goes hand in hand with others. Currently, there is no cure for COPD, so the goal of treatment is to manage symptoms so you can enjoy the best quality of life possible. Talk to your provider about options for managing COPD, which include:
- Getting appropriate exercise. Some forms of exercise may be difficult with COPD, but it’s important to stay active. That’s because exercise strengthens muscles involved in breathing. Your provider can suggest safe forms of physical activity.
- Eating a healthy diet. COPD symptoms can make eating—and meeting your nutritional needs—more difficult. Work with your provider to come up with a strategy to ensure you get the necessary nutrients.
- Using medication. Medicines, such as inhaled bronchodilators, can ease breathing. Your provider will determine whether medications are right for you and educate you about potential side effects.
- Rehabilitation. Pulmonary rehabilitation—a specialized rehab program for people with COPD and other breathing problems—can improve symptoms and boost your resiliency. You’ll learn smart ways to exercise and eat, and how to protect your mental health.
- Quitting smoking. Smoking is responsible for most cases of COPD. If you smoke, stopping is likely one of the first treatments your provider will recommend. You should also avoid secondhand smoke.
- Using supplemental oxygen. Oxygen therapy can provide valuable support if you have trouble breathing.
- Considering surgery. Many people with COPD can manage it with a combination of conservative treatments. However, if these treatments aren’t effective, surgery may be an option. Several types of surgery are available, including procedures to remove damaged lung tissue or harmful air spaces in the lungs. A lung transplant may be necessary for the most severe cases of COPD.
Finally, if you haven’t gotten the flu, pneumococcal or COVID vaccines, get vaccinated when you can. People with COPD who get the flu, pneumonia or COVID-19 have a higher risk of serious illness.
Podcast on Stress Management
More to Read
- How to Reduce the Stress in Your Life
- Guided Meditation: A Daily Exercise to Reduce the Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in Your Life
- How Does Stress Affect the Immune System?
- 4 Steps To Relieve Stress in Your Daily Life
