How to Cope with Panic Attacks (and What Causes Anxiety)

Coping with Panic Attacks . . . You Have More Control Than You Think

When we panic we forget our power. Anxiety causes us to lose our composure . . .

. . . and our ability to think rationally.

It might seem like panic is completely out of your control. Attempting to control your panic might even ramp up your anxiety more . . . that is, when you don’t have the appropriate tools.

You have more control over your anxiety and panic attacks than you think.

Here is what you’ll gain by reading this blog:

Strategies to help you gain more control over your panic.
An understanding of what panic is (and what causes anxiety).
Tools to reclaim your power over anxiety and subdue panic attacks.

Why Am I Getting Panic Attacks?

The Collapse of Life as We Know It

Our lives are busier than ever before. Demands are rising everywhere we turn. Somedays, it can feel like the walls are closing in.

Not to mention, the pressures of maintaining a job, a home, and a family with the rising cost of living can make adulting feel like manning a sinking ship.

Nobody taught us how to cope with the pressure of being a responsible adult.

It’s not your fault you have panic attacks or anxiety. In mays ways panic is an adaptive response to an overwhelming, overstimulating world.

Fortunately, you can train your brain and body to cope with pressure, responsibility, overwhelm . . . and anything else that keeps you awake at night.

What Causes Panic Attacks?

What Happens in Your Body When you Get a Panic Attack? The Physical Symptoms.

Is your throat dry? Maybe your armpits are damp. Your breath feels caught in your chest or your throat. Your muscles feel heavy, tense, or sore; and your limbs feel shaky, stiff, or immobile.

Many people are actually diagnosed with panic disorder after they admit themselves to an emergency room because they think they are having a heart attack.

Panic attacks can feel just as severe as a heart attack.

What Happens in Your Mind When You Get a Panic Attack? The Mental Symptoms.

Maybe your thoughts are racing. Alternatively, your mind is blank. Your thoughts are far away in the future, picturing worst-case-scenarios, or stuck in the past re-imaging the worst things you have experienced.

Panic attacks take over your mind. They can make it feel like your thoughts are completely out of your control.

The worst-case-scenarios and the what ifs floating around in your mind feel REAL. That’s because your brain and body do not know the difference between the images in your mind and the images in reality.

Therefore, anxious thoughts trick your brain and body into believing YOU ARE IN DANGER.

Your mind is playing tricks on you.

What Happens if Panic Attacks are Not Treated?

If we do not stop the panic response from happening on repeat we may develop anxiety and become hyper-vigilant, expecting danger around every corner.

The catch 22: each time we have a panic attack, we unconsciously create greater fear of panic attacks. Therefore, we start to fear panic attacks themselves.

Panic disorder is a vicious cycle of anxiety, fear, panic, and avoidance . . . and each cycle can feel like the panic gains momentum. Many people with panic disorder start to live in fear of their own bodies.

The good news is, you can break the cycle.

Why Do I Feel Numb After a Panic Attack?

After a panic attack we may feel numb or collapse. This can last a few minutes, hours, days, weeks . . . or longer.

The important thing here is not to judge your coping strategies. To your body, a panic attack can feel like running a marathon — or more likely, running from a lion. You’d be pretty tired after you did that, wouldn’t you?

Practice self-care after a panic attack. Actually, the more time you take to calm your nervous system and regulate after a panic attack, the better off you are.

Regulating your nervous system after a panic attack can interrupt the cycle of anxiety, fear, avoidance, and panic . . . and add calm into the mix for a change. This can help reduce some of the fear you’ve generated of panic.

What if it Isn’t Just Panic? Co-occurring Disorders

The body cannot sustain such high levels of adrenaline and cortisol for an extended period. Therefore, we exhaust our resources for coping and enter depression. This can feel like giving up, avoidance, learned helplessness, or a combination of each.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can also cause our alarm systems to misfire. We begin to lose our grip on the present moment and re-experience trauma as if it is happening in the present moment (and in the body-mind of a traumatized person, it is).

This is also where we see chronic health issues flare up such as chronic fatigue, adrenal fatigue, burnout, compassion fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, or even fibromyalgia. When we panic to the point of exhaustion, we deplete our body’s ability to cope. This includes the alarm system and the immune system.

But it does not have to be this way! Keep reading to learn how to cope.

Panic Attacks and the Nervous System

Your autonomic nervous system has two branches: parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) and sympathetic (fight-or-flight).

Both branches of the nervous system are super important and neither is good or bad. However, we want to gain a little more control over when and why we enter each state.

People with panic disorder or anxiety disorders likely exist in a state of sympathetic dominance. The fight-or-flight (or freeze, fawn, etc) responses may be running the show.

In other words, you are having a trauma-response, a fight-or-flight response, or simply put: you’re panicking. A lot.

You want to find strategies to help your body get into parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) dominance. There are MANY strategies. I’ll share my favorites below.

Why Am I Panicking for No Reason?

What is that you say? Those aren’t your threats at all? You’re panicking for no good reason?

Right, unfortunately your brain has not realized that yet. You see, the part of your brain that reacts to danger is millions of years old. And the wiser more realistic part of your brain goes offline during times of danger.

In a state of panic, only the things you need to survive remain (your breathing, your muscle memory, and basically, everything automatic).

So, here is the thing, because our rational brain is not available to us during moments of panic we literally cannot think ourselves into relaxation.

This is where the body comes in.

A Guide to Coping with Panic Attacks

So, since I just told you that your rational mind is literally no help in times of panic, how do you cope?

Well, it just so happens that many spiritual and religious traditions have been garnering this wisdom for centuries.

My favorite form of relaxation is yoga. But I don’t mean standing on your head or even moving your body.

I mean an awareness of the breath, the body, and the mind.

How to Breathe During a Panic Attack

We create a relaxation (rest-and-digest) response in our bodies when we breathe and send our breath into the deepest part of the lungs. Long, slow, deep inhales and even longer exhales can help us get back into a state of calm.

This research is still emerging but essentially there is a nerve (the vagus nerve) that decides whether or not we relax or panic. It runs all throughout the body and sends messages between the body and the brain.

One of the vagus “command centers” is located just beneath the belly button. I like to imagine a relaxation button sitting beneath my belly. (Presses button: ahhh, calm.)

A Breathing Technique to Help You Cope with Panic Attacks

Diaphragmatic breathing (or deep belly breathing) has the power to calm the nervous system and bring us back into the parasympathetic response.

Deep belly breathing can help to shorten panic attacks. It can also help to regulate our nervous system and rebound after a panic attack. If we practice often enough, it might even help prevent panic attacks.

When you start to panic, breathe deeply into the lungs. Allow the chest, rib cage, and belly to inflate.

Then, as you breathe out (deeply from the belly), allow your ribs and abdominals to contract as the air releases from the lungs.

Simultaneously, this deep belly breathing taps (what I like to think of as) that little button in the belly that tells the vagus nerve to go into parasympathetic rest-and-digest.

In other words, when we breathe deeply from our belly we can regain our sense of calm. Our rational and logical mind returns. Our body begins to relax.

How to Prevent Panic Attacks

Our logical brain goes offline when we panic. That means when we have a panic attack we lose access to the thinking and logical part of our brain. That is why it is SO important to PRACTICE deep breathing BEFORE you have a panic attack.

We must practice relaxation when we are relaxed. Breathing is automatic, but we can reclaim control of our breath in moments of panic.

The breath needs to be trained.

It is automatic for the breath to become constricted at the first sign of danger. That is because our body is preparing to essentially fight-or-flight.

So, if we are not actually in danger we need to be able to send signals to the brain to let the fight-or-flight energy dissipate.

By breathing into our deep belly we send a signal to the brain that we are safe. Then our logical brain can come back online so we can develop a plan for problem-solving and coping.

Don’t worry if this process does not happen naturally at first. It takes time and practice.

How Therapy Can Help with Panic and Anxiety Attacks

I want to highlight the importance of working with a mental health professional. We all have unique triggers and traumas that we need to unpack in a safe space. While there are many common elements of anxiety and panic, your triggers are unique and so is your experience. Therefore, the solutions to your anxiety and panic will be unique as well.

Therapy is the a wonderful method for building self-awareness. With awareness comes power. When we cultivate an awareness of the things that “trip our trigger” we can learn to respond to them in a different way.

If your anxiety or panic attacks are related to a traumatic past, be sure to make sure your therapist is trauma-informed.

Alternatively, working with the body through yoga, somatic therapies (like EMDR), energy healing, or breath work can help you practice the pause (and find peace).

When Panic is Helpful

It is necessary to learn the difference between times when the alarm system is useful and times when it is not.

Our alarm system exists for a reason. You MUST run (actually, turn and walk slowly) away from a bear. You should be alarmed if you see a snake in the grass.

Equally, you should leave a situation that your intuition is sending alarm bells about. You should react when someone violates your boundaries. It is necessary to react in the face of danger, threat, harm, or abuse.

But if your boss sends you an email you don’t like with a deadline you cannot possibly reach at the end of the day you can’t run around screaming in the halls of your office (as much as you want to).

We need the alarm systems in our body, but it’s important to gain some control so we aren’t constantly sent into overdrive.

Gaining Control Over Panic and Anxiety

We can learn to regain our power over panic and anxiety. Our ability to cope is exponentially enhanced when we develop coping strategies to subdue the panic response.

We can learn to stay embodied. We can find tools for keeping our logical mind in control when there is no real threat (even though we feel super overwhelmed).

When we retain our ability to act from a place of awareness, we are capable of making fully informed decisions. This allows us to act and live more authentically.

We can make decisions that feel authentic and purposeful without the fear of panic taking over. We can take control back.

You have more control over your panic and anxiety attacks than you think.

About the Author

Olivia Schnur is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Yoga Teacher, and Reiki Master. She writes about mental health with the goal of helping others lead healthier and happier lives.