How Multiple Stressors Contribute to Panic

We all have a Threshold of Stress beyond which we feel overwhelmed, out of control and develop panic symptoms. These symptoms are typically shortness of breath, the shakes, slowed thinking and the inability to attend to tasks as usual.  We may also feel overcome with fear or immobilised in a state of terror as panic and a state of dis-at-ease sets in.  Where we remain in a heightened state of anxiousness we also commonly experience a loss of appetite and sleep.

Essentially, as we develop anxiety from a number of life stressors, these stressors accumulate and move us up the Y-axis towards our Threshold of Tolerance.  As we move closer to that Threshold, so too the 'headroom' we typically have to manage situations and others with resilience is greatly reduced.  Small additional stressors can cause us to broach our Threshold of Tolerance and in that state we unravel in a state of panic.

So compounding anxiety left unaddressed over time has every prospect of becoming a full-blown 'panic attack'.