“Anxiety isn’t you. It’s something moving through you. It can leave out of the same door it came in.” – James Clear
Years ago, a writer had a panic attack while driving across a bridge and thought they might die that day. Suddenly the heart started pounding. The breath became shallow and tight. The chest felt constricted, and a wave of dizziness washed over. The writer was driving sixty miles per hour with nowhere to pull over. The bridge stretched for miles over open water, and the writer was alone in the car. A terrifying thought shot through the mind: Something is seriously wrong.
The writer gripped the steering wheel and tried to keep driving, convinced they might pass out before reaching the other side. In that moment, it felt like the body had completely betrayed them. For a long time afterward, the writer was afraid to drive and lived in quiet fear of that feeling returning. They began avoiding certain activities and situations and constantly monitored the body for signs that another attack might be starting. Even when appearing calm on the outside, a part of the writer was always on high alert.
Panic attacks are characterized by a racing heart, dizziness, and a sudden sense that something terrible is about to happen. It is not just uncomfortable—it is terrifying. Most people experiencing panic believe the same thing the writer did: Something must be seriously wrong with the body.
The Body Isn’t the Enemy
The first idea that shifted things for the writer was that the sensations of panic feel dangerous but are not. They are the nervous system sounding an alarm. When danger is perceived, the body activates a natural survival response known as fight-or-flight. Adrenaline floods the bloodstream, the heart beats faster, breathing quickens, and muscles prepare to react. This response evolved to keep humans alive. If ancestors encountered a threat, their bodies needed to react instantly. When the nervous system is regulated, the rest-and-digest response prompts the body to naturally return to a relaxed state once the threat has passed.
However, if the nervous system has been under stress for a long time, it becomes imbalanced. The fight-or-flight response works on overdrive, and the rest-and-digest response no longer functions properly. The body does not relax. The outcome: the nervous system sometimes sounds this alarm even when no real danger is present. This was true for the writer. The writer was a single parent living in San Francisco, running a wedding photography business—a stressful career. The writer dealt with insane traffic for hours each day: a two-hour roundtrip commute getting a daughter to and from school, client meetings, evening engagement photoshoots. Weddings were photographed most weekends, leaving three to four hours ahead of time because wedding photographers cannot be late. Rest was a dream. The writer was consistently exhausted, burnt out, and on edge, with no end in sight. The nervous system was fried, and panic attacks became more frequent. The writer lived in terror of the next attack.
When the body releases adrenaline unexpectedly, the sensations can feel overwhelming. Many people interpret these sensations as signs of catastrophe: a heart attack, fainting, losing control. Those thoughts create even more fear, which causes the body to release more adrenaline. A cycle forms: sensation, fear, more adrenaline, stronger sensations. It can feel like being trapped in a panic loop that cannot be escaped.
The Shift That Changed Everything
The writer’s healing began not with trying to control the panic but with understanding it. For the first time, the writer saw that the body was not malfunctioning. It was responding exactly the way it had been designed to respond. The nervous system had simply learned to stay on high alert. Once that understanding settled in, something subtle but powerful shifted. The sensations of panic were still uncomfortable, but they no longer felt like proof that something catastrophic was happening. They became signals from a nervous system that had been carrying too much stress for too long. And nervous systems can learn new patterns.
Learning Safety Again
The writer realized that healing from panic is not about forcing the body to calm down. In fact, fighting the sensations often makes them stronger. Instead, the process involves helping the nervous system relearn what safety feels like. Sometimes that looks like slowing the breath. The writer practiced a breathing technique called four-six breathing: close the eyes, inhale counting to four, then exhale counting to six. The longer exhale slows the heart rate and sends a message to the nervous system: “We’re okay.” This activates the rest-and-digest response, and the body relaxes.
Sometimes it means allowing sensations to pass without resisting them. The sensations of a panic attack can be uncomfortable or intense, but they are not dangerous. Once the writer understood this simple truth, it was easier to be with the sensations, knowing they came and went like an ocean wave. Sometimes it is simply learning to trust that the body knows how to return to balance. Healing was not an all-at-once event but a gradual process. As panic attacks became shorter and less intense, the writer felt more confident because they knew exactly what to do to care for themselves. Eventually, the attacks went away and have never returned.
Some people believe that panic attacks cannot be cured, but the writer found that this simply is not true. With practice, the nervous system learns a new pattern and begins to recognize that the alarm is no longer necessary. The response becomes less intense. Episodes become shorter. Eventually, many people find that the cycle of panic dissolves entirely.
A Different Relationship with the Body
The writer’s panic attacks were once so severe that they were afraid to drive for years. Today, the writer drives without fear. Road trips have become a favorite hobby and a meditative experience. This past summer the writer drove more than 3,500 miles around the country alone. The writer moves through the world with a sense of trust in the body that once felt impossible.
What was discovered during the healing journey eventually became the foundation of a new way of life: listening to the body’s signals instead of overriding them, prioritizing rest as a key component of health, unearthing deep wisdom and ability to maintain energy, vitality, and well-being, gathering tools and practices that allow for peace and grounding no matter what is happening, and being the calm, confident, joyful person the writer wanted to be.
For those who experience panic attacks, the body is not broken. It is trying to protect you. Sometimes healing begins not by fighting what is felt but by understanding it—and in that understanding, the body slowly remembers how to feel safe again.
