Panic Attacks: When Fear Creates More Fear

Understanding anxiety, our body’s survival response, and why learning what’s happening can make such a difference.

A gentle note before reading: This blog discusses panic attacks and some of the physical sensations that can come with them. My hope is that understanding a little more about what’s happening in your body might help make these experiences feel less frightening.

When your own body starts to feel unsafe

I often wonder why we’re not taught more about anxiety. We learn all sorts of things at school, but very little about how our brains work, why our bodies respond to fear, or what to do when our own nervous system suddenly seems to turn against us.

For somebody experiencing a panic attack for the first time, that lack of understanding can make an already frightening experience feel absolutely terrifying.

I know this because I experienced panic attacks myself as a teenager. I remember the sudden rush of adrenaline, my heart racing, and that overwhelming feeling that something was terribly wrong. Perhaps the most difficult part was not understanding why it was happening.

When your own body can suddenly make you feel that frightened, where exactly are you supposed to go to feel safe? You can leave a room, walk away from a situation or go home, but you can’t walk away from your own body.

And I think that’s something people who haven’t experienced panic attacks don’t always appreciate. Sometimes it’s not the situation you’re in that feels frightening, but the fear of what your own body might suddenly do.

Learning to understand and manage my own anxiety was one of the driving forces behind me becoming a therapist. When I began to understand what was happening in my brain and body, I wanted other people to have that understanding too.

Anxiety has a function

One of the first things I help people understand when we’re working with anxiety is that it has a function. It’s part of our survival system, and although we might not particularly like how it makes us feel, it exists for a very good reason.

Think about our ancestors. If they suddenly came face to face with a dangerous animal, they wouldn’t have had the luxury of sitting down and thinking through their options. They needed to react quickly, and their brains needed to prepare their bodies to survive.

This is where our fight, flight or freeze response comes in. When the brain detects a potential threat, it can activate our body’s stress response, releasing hormones such as adrenaline. Our heart beats faster, our breathing changes, and our muscles prepare for action.

It’s actually a pretty remarkable system when you think about it.

The problem is that we’re still walking around with this same basic survival system in 2026. There hasn’t been a software update!

Of course, our brains are far more complex than that simple analogy, but the point is that the mechanisms designed to help us survive are still very much part of us. And our brains don’t only respond to dangerous animals or immediate physical threats. They can also respond to stress, uncertainty, overwhelming situations, difficult experiences and even sensations within our own bodies.

Which brings me to panic attacks.

Why can panic attacks happen when we’re not in danger?

You might be sitting at your desk, driving your car or in the middle of a meeting when suddenly your heart starts racing, your breathing changes and you experience an overwhelming feeling of fear.

Your body’s alarm system has been activated, but you can’t see anything around you that explains why.

Your brain hasn’t stopped to consider that you’re in the middle of a work meeting and that now really isn’t a convenient time for a survival response! It’s responding to something it has interpreted as a potential threat.

Sometimes we can identify what has contributed to that response. Perhaps we’ve been under prolonged stress, feeling overwhelmed for weeks or experiencing something that reminds us of a previous frightening experience. But sometimes there isn’t an obvious trigger at all.

And when we don’t understand what’s happening, those physical sensations can become frightening in themselves.

When fear starts creating more fear

This is something I find particularly important when helping people understand panic attacks, because often it’s not just the panic attack itself that becomes difficult. It’s what happens afterwards.

Imagine you’ve had a panic attack while driving. It was frightening, your heart was racing, and you were worried about what might happen next. The following day, you get into your car and immediately start wondering whether it might happen again.

You begin paying attention to your body. Is your heart beating faster? Does your breathing feel different? Are you starting to feel a little strange?

The more you notice those sensations, the more anxious you become. Your heart starts beating a little faster, which reminds you of the previous panic attack, which makes you more frightened.

And before you know it, the fear of having another panic attack is contributing to the very sensations you’re frightened of.

This is sometimes called the fear-of-fear cycle, and it’s one of the reasons panic attacks can begin to affect so many different parts of someone’s life.

You might start avoiding driving, going to the supermarket, attending meetings or being somewhere you feel you can’t easily leave. Not necessarily because those places are frightening, but because you’re worried about having another panic attack while you’re there.

Gradually, your world can become smaller.

I think this is why it’s so important that we don’t dismiss panic attacks as somebody simply being anxious. For the person experiencing them, the fear can feel very real, and the impact on their everyday life can be significant.

Understanding what’s happening in your body

Another thing people often ask me about is why they feel so shaky or exhausted after a panic attack.

Your nervous system has been through an intense period of activation. Your heart rate may have increased, your breathing may have changed, and your muscles may have been tense and ready for action. Even though you might have been sitting completely still, your body has been responding as though it needed to protect you.

As that response begins to settle, you might notice that your arms and legs feel shaky, your muscles are tense, or you feel completely drained. Your body naturally processes the stress hormones involved, but it can take time for everything to settle.

Not everybody experiences panic attacks in the same way, of course. But understanding the physical processes involved can help us begin to make sense of what’s happening rather than automatically interpreting every sensation as a sign that something terrible is about to happen.

And this is where I think understanding anxiety can be so helpful.

We don’t need to get rid of anxiety

The aim isn’t to remove anxiety from our lives altogether. We need anxiety. We need a system that alerts us to potential danger and helps us respond when something genuinely isn’t safe.

What we want to work towards is understanding when that system is becoming activated unnecessarily, or when our response to the sensations of anxiety is making things more difficult.

When I work with people experiencing anxiety and panic attacks, we’re not simply looking at how to make the symptoms disappear. We’re looking at the bigger picture.

What’s happening in your life? Are you under prolonged stress? Are there situations you’ve started avoiding? Are you becoming frightened of particular physical sensations, and what happens when you begin to notice yourself feeling anxious?

Understanding these patterns can help us begin to develop ways of responding differently. We can learn to recognise the early signs of anxiety, explore ways of supporting our nervous system and gradually rebuild confidence in situations we’ve started avoiding.

There are different approaches to supporting people with panic attacks, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which has an established evidence base for treating panic disorder. Finding the right support for your individual circumstances is important.

Something I wish I’d understood when I was younger

Looking back at my own experiences as a teenager, I think one of the things that would have helped me most was somebody explaining what was actually happening.

Not just telling me to calm down or that there was nothing to worry about, but helping me understand why my heart was racing, why I felt frightened and why my body could suddenly respond in that way when I wasn’t consciously aware of any danger.

Because when you don’t understand something, your mind can fill in the gaps with all sorts of frightening possibilities.

Understanding anxiety doesn’t mean everything suddenly becomes easy, that you’ll never experience another panic attack, or that you should be able to manage everything on your own. But it can be a really important starting point.

It’s one of the reasons I love the work I do as a therapist. Helping somebody begin to understand their own brain and body, recognise what’s happening and develop ways of managing something that has previously felt frightening can make such a difference.

And I think we could all benefit from being taught a little more about how our nervous systems work, rather than waiting until we’re struggling before we begin to understand them.

Sometimes, understanding what’s happening is the first step towards feeling less frightened of it.

And that’s something I wish I’d known all those years ago.

Jane x

Jane McPhillips | Solution Focused Hypnotherapist & ADHD Coach

Supporting people with anxiety, panic attacks, burnout and neurodivergence in Sheffield and online.

Please note: Panic attacks can cause intense physical sensations, but not all symptoms are caused by anxiety. If you experience new, unexplained or concerning symptoms, seek medical advice rather than assuming they’re panic-related. Seek urgent medical help for severe breathing difficulties or concerning chest pain.