“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 woman had a panic attack while driving across a bridge and thought she might die that day. Suddenly her heart started pounding. Her breath became shallow and tight. Her chest felt constricted, and a wave of dizziness washed over her.
She was driving sixty miles per hour, and there was nowhere to pull over. The bridge stretched for miles, suspended over open water, and she was alone in the car. A terrifying thought shot through her mind: Something is seriously wrong.
She gripped the steering wheel and tried to keep driving, convinced she might pass out before reaching the other side. In that moment, it felt like her body had completely betrayed her.
For a long time afterward, she was afraid to drive and lived in quiet fear of that feeling returning. She began avoiding certain activities and situations, constantly monitoring her body for signs that another attack might be starting. Even when she appeared calm on the outside, a part of her was always on high alert.
Many people who have experienced panic attacks may know this feeling well. The racing heart, the dizziness, the sudden sense that something terrible is about to happen. It is not just uncomfortable—it is terrifying. And most people experiencing panic believe the same thing she did: Something must be seriously wrong with my body.
But what she eventually learned changed everything.
The Body Isn’t the Enemy
The first idea that really shifted things for her was this: the sensations of panic feel dangerous, but they aren’t. They are the nervous system sounding an alarm. When a person perceives danger, 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, like running away from a predator, 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 definitely true for her. She was a single parent, living in San Francisco, running a wedding photography business—a super-stressful career. She was in the car dealing with insane traffic for hours each day: a two-hour roundtrip commute getting her daughter to and from school, client meetings, evening engagement photoshoots. She photographed weddings most weekends, leaving three to four hours ahead of time because wedding photographers are not allowed to be late. Rest was something she dreamed about. She was consistently exhausted, burnt out and on edge, and there was no end in sight. So yes, her nervous system was basically fried, which meant her panic attacks became more and more frequent.
She 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: Am I having a heart attack? Am I about to faint? Am I losing control? Those thoughts create even more fear, which causes the body to release more adrenaline. And just like that, a cycle forms: sensation, fear, more adrenaline, stronger sensations. It can feel like being trapped in a panic loop you can’t escape.
The Shift That Changed Everything
Her healing did not begin with trying to control the panic. It began with understanding it. For the first time, she saw that her body was not malfunctioning. It was responding exactly the way it had been designed to respond. Her 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
She 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. She practices a simple breathing technique she calls “four-six breathing.” You close your eyes, then inhale, counting to four, then exhale, counting to six. The longer exhale slows your 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 she 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 her panic attacks became shorter and less intense, she felt more confident, because she knew exactly what to do to care for herself. Eventually, they went away and have never returned.
Some people believe that panic attacks cannot be cured, but she has found that this simply isn’t 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
Her panic attacks were once so severe that she was afraid to drive for years. Today, she drives without fear. Road trips have become a favorite hobby and a meditative experience. This past summer she drove more than 3,500 miles around the country—by herself.
She moves through the world with a sense of trust in her body that once felt impossible. What she discovered during her healing journey eventually became the foundation of a new way of life: listening to her body’s signals instead of overriding them; prioritizing rest because it is a key component of health; unearthing her own deepest wisdom and ability to maintain her energy, vitality, and well-being; gathering tools and practices that allow her to be peaceful and grounded, no matter what is going on in her life; being the calm, confident, joyful person she wanted to be.
Because the truth is this: If you experience panic attacks, your body isn’t broken. It is trying to protect you. Sometimes healing begins not by fighting what we feel, but by understanding it—and in that understanding, the body slowly remembers how to feel safe again.