“Anxiety isn’t your essence. It’s merely a transient experience. It can exit through the very door it entered.” ~James Clear
Years ago, I had a panic attack while crossing a bridge, and I was terrified.
My heart suddenly started racing. My breathing became rapid and constricted. A wave of lightheadedness overcame me.
I was going sixty miles an hour with nowhere to pull over. The bridge stretched across open water for miles, and I was alone.
A chilling thought struck me:
There’s something gravely wrong.
I gripped the steering wheel, resolved to continue driving despite the fear of losing consciousness before I made it to safety.
At that point, it felt like my body had completely let me down.
For a long time afterwards, I had a fear of driving and lived in a state of constant anxiety about reliving that moment.
I began to dodge particular activities and scenarios, ever watchful for signs of another impending episode. Even if I seemed outwardly composed, inside I was tense.
If you have faced panic attacks, you might relate to this sensation.
The racing heartbeat, the dizziness, and the sudden impression that something dreadful is about to happen.
It’s not merely bothersome—it’s frightening.
Most individuals who face panic share the conviction I once held:
There must be something fundamentally wrong with my body.
But the realization I came to eventually transformed everything.
Your Body Isn’t the Adversary
The initial concept that altered my perspective was this: panic symptoms feel threatening, but they are not.
They signify your nervous system raising a red flag.
When we recognize a threat, the body triggers a survival response known as fight-or-flight. Adrenaline surges, the heart races, breathing accelerates, and muscles prepare for action.
This response evolved to ensure human survival.
When our ancestors confronted danger, such as escaping a predator, immediate physiological reactions were essential. When the nervous system is functioning well, the rest-and-digest mechanism restores the body to tranquility once the threat subsides.
However, continuous stress disturbs this balance. The fight-or-flight response becomes overactive, leaving the rest-and-digest response ineffective. The body remains tense.
The outcome: the