Panic Attack: Everything You Need to Know About It

What is a Panic Attack?

A panic attack is a sudden burst of strong fear and discomfort that triggers strong physical and emotional reactions. It is the body’s natural flight-or-fight system getting activated without any real threat.

During a panic attack, a person suffers extreme symptoms like:

• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness
• Trembling
• Chest Pain

You will feel an overwhelming feeling of losing control, a fear of having a heart attack and even dying.

Understanding Panic Attack: History

The experience of panic attacks is deeply rooted in the ancient survival mechanisms of the human body — specifically, the fight-or-flight response. This response evolved millions of years ago as a critical system to protect early humans from immediate dangers like predators, natural disasters, or hostile encounters.

The Origins of Fight-or-Flight

When faced with a threat, the brain’s amygdala signals the release of adrenaline and other stress hormones. These chemical messengers prepare the body to either fight the danger or flee from it. This leads to physical changes such as a faster heartbeat, increased breathing rate, dilated pupils, and heightened alertness. These changes were vital for survival in prehistoric times, enabling swift reactions to life-threatening situations.

From Survival Mechanism to Modern-Day Panic

In today’s world, the threats we face are rarely immediate physical dangers. Yet, the ancient fight-or-flight system remains active in our bodies, sometimes misfiring in response to non-life-threatening stressors like work pressure, social anxiety, or unresolved trauma.

When this system activates intensely without real danger, it can trigger a panic attack — a sudden flood of fear and physical symptoms identical to what early humans felt during actual threats. The brain essentially mistakes a harmless situation for a life-threatening one.

Why Does This Happen?

Modern life includes many psychological and emotional stressors that can confuse the brain’s alarm system. Past traumatic experiences, genetic predispositions, chronic stress, or anxiety disorders can make the fight-or-flight response more sensitive or easily triggered, leading to panic attacks.

How to stop a Panic Attack?

There are multiple ways to help manage panic attacks immediately, but the D.A.R.E response by Barry Joe McDonagh worked best for me. Honestly, it was never about “avoiding” panic attacks for me, I wanted to make sure they don’t happen too often.

You cannot completely eliminate panic attacks because they’re deeply connected to your overall mental health, but this is the most effective way to reduce frequency and suppress the symptoms.

Here is how this works in 4 steps:

1. Defuse: As soon as you have a panic attack, you don’t consider it something special. You view it as normal as a regular thought. The less attention you give it, the less power it has over you.

2. Accept and Allow: Next you let go of the struggle to make the anxious feelings disappear. The more you force yourself to get rid of it, the more intense it will become. Instead, accept that this panic or thought is temporary and will not change you in any way.

   “Accept” is the word used here. You need to acknowledge that you are having a panic attack, but don’t need to consider anything important to think about.

3. Run Toward: After accepting that panic attack is nothing special, you need to crave it. Reframe this panic or anxiety as exciting energy. You want it in you. Instead of fearing it, welcome it like you’ve been waiting for it. As soon as you do it, panic loses its power over your mind.
4. Engage: Shift your focus back to what you were doing when panic struck. That’s it.

Remember: This method won’t stop a panic attack immediately. Instead, it requires consistent practice every time you experience one.

• In one week, you’ll likely notice the frequency of your panic attacks starting to decrease.
• After a month, you should experience significantly fewer attacks.
• In just three months, panic attacks will be rare and even if it occurs, your body will be more accustomed to it, so you’ll feel little to no discomfort.

Persistence is key.

Causes of a Panic Attack

Reasons of panic attacks is not completely known but research suggests a few factors that may play a role:

• Chronic stress
• Overthinking
• Physical health issues
• Genetics
• Substance use
• Trauma and Past Experiences

Usually panic attacks come only when your subconscious mind detects threats, but if you have certain mental health issues, it may come suddenly at any time.

Takeaways

Panic attacks feel intense, sudden, and overwhelming, but they are not dangerous — they are simply the body’s fight-or-flight response activating unnecessarily. The symptoms such as chest pressure, trembling, dizziness, and shortness of breath may feel scary, yet the body remains safe.

The D.A.R.E method is one of the most effective ways to weaken panic attacks because it teaches you to accept the sensations instead of fighting them. The more you resist a panic attack, the stronger it becomes; the more you accept it, the quicker it fades. Over time, with consistent practice, panic attacks reduce significantly. They are often triggered by chronic stress, overthinking, trauma, genetics, or lifestyle habits, which cause the brain to misinterpret normal sensations as threats.

FAQs about Panic Attacks