Five Effective Ways to Manage an Anxiety Attack
Anxiety is a normal human response to feeling threatened or in danger. It’s how your body prepares to protect you, a survival system built into your nervous system.
When your brain thinks you might be in danger, it sends signals that activate the your nervous system. This sets off the fight, flight, freeze, submit, or attach response.
These reactions are meant to keep you safe by getting you ready to act quickly. This system works well when there’s real danger, but sometimes it gets triggered even when there’s no real threat, leading to strong feelings and reactions that feel out of proportion to the situation.
People experience anxiety in different ways, such as:
Physical symptoms: heart beating fast, tight chest, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea, sweating, shaking.
Cognitive symptoms: racing thoughts, constant worry, imagining worst-case scenarios, trouble focusing.
Emotional symptoms: fear, dread, irritability, feeling something bad is going to happen.
Behavioural symptoms: avoiding places or situations, restlessness, wanting to leave or escape.
During an anxiety attack or panic attack, these symptoms can get very strong very quickly. You might feel out of control or convinced something terrible is about to happen, even if you’re actually safe.
It’s important to know these reactions aren’t a sign of weakness or failure. They’re automatic survival systems in your brain and body that sometimes react too strongly.
By understanding how these systems work, you can learn practical ways to calm them down and help your nervous system return to a balanced, safe state.
Here are some five practical, evidence-informed tips to manage an anxiety or panic attack:
Orient to the Present Environment
When an anxiety attack happens, the brain’s threat detection system, the amygdala goes on high alert. This can make you feel like you're in danger even when you’re safe.
Try to:
Look around the space slowly.
You can also visualise and think of a place you feel safe for example, the beach
Name 5 things you see, hear, touch, taste or smell in detail.
Notice colours, shapes, textures.
Why it works:
This practice engages your prefrontal cortex, helping it regulate the limbic system. It signals safety to your nervous system and helps reduce hypervigilance.
Track and Name Body Sensations
Anxiety isn’t just cognitive, it’s somatic and experienced in the body. The body holds and expresses threat responses through tension, heat, tingling, or constriction.
Try to:
Pause. Ask: Where in my body do I feel this most?
Describe the sensation: tight, heavy, tingling.
Stay with it for a moment without trying to change it.
Why it works:
This helps integrate bottom-up (body) and top-down (cognitive) processing. By bringing awareness to sensation and noticing what you feel in your body, you help the parts of your brain that manage emotion and self-awareness work better. This supports your ability to understand what’s happening and to calm yourself more effectively.
Notice Your Breathing
During anxiety or panic attacks, people often breathe too quickly and shallowly (hyperventilation), which lowers carbon dioxide levels in the blood and can lead to dizziness, lightheadedness, tingling, or feeling faint. Slowing your breathing helps restore the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide, reducing these symptoms and calming your body’s stress response.
Try to:
Inhale slowly through your nose for four counts.
Exhale gently through your mouth for six counts.
Repeat several cycles.
Why it works:
Slow breathing engages the parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve. This down regulates the fight or flight response, helping restore balance in your body.
Ground Through Physical Contact and Movement
The movement system is part of how your body responds to danger, it gets you ready to fight or run. During anxiety, this system can stay activated even when you’re safe. Using gentle, intentional movement or grounding touch can help release built-up tension, signal safety to your body, and support your nervous system to calm down.
Try to:
Press your feet firmly into the floor. Notice the pressure.
If seated, feel the support of the chair under you.
Gently push your hands against your thighs or the arms of the chair.
Why it works:
Grounding and physical contact gives your body clear physical signals about where you are, helping you feel connected to your surroundings. This can calm the brain’s deep survival responses, reduce feelings of threat, and create a sense of safety in the moment.
Connect with Someone You Trust
Human connection is a core way our nervous system stays regulated. When we’re isolated, distress can grow stronger because there’s no one to help us feel safe. Reaching out to someone supportive can help slow racing thoughts, reduce fear, and send signals of safety to the body and brain, making it easier to calm down during anxiety.
Try to:
Call, text, or sit with someone supportive.
Say simply: I’m feeling anxious right now. Can you stay with me? or Can I get a hug?
Even brief social contact can help.
Why it works:
Feeling safe with someone else activates the social engagement system in your nervous system. This system helps you relax and connect with others, which can quiet the body’s defensive reactions and make it easier to feel calm and secure.
When to Consider Professional Support for Anxiety
If you’ve been trying to manage anxiety attacks on your own but still feel overwhelmed, stuck, or afraid, it might be time to talk with a therapist. Professional support offers a safe space to understand what’s triggering your anxiety, learn effective coping strategies, and build long-term resilience.
As a mental health therapist, I work with adults experiencing anxiety and panic attacks, offering practical, evidence-informed approaches to help you feel more steady, safe, and in control. Together, we can explore tools that fit you, so you can move through anxiety with greater confidence and ease.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If you're looking for therapy to help you navigate anxiety, stress, or major life changes, I provide confidential, supportive sessions in person at my clinic in Bulimba or online. Reach out today to talk about how we can work together.