The Science Behind Breathing Your Way Out of a Panic Attack
Deep breaths.
That’s what everyone tells us when we’re panicked, frustrated, or having any other form of a meltdown.
But just why do they say such a thing?
As with all maxims, when we don’t know the logic behind such a command, its words often go in one ear and out the other.
That’s why, in this post, I’m going to walk you through the science behind such a statement and show you how it relates to overcoming anxiety and panic attacks.
So, let’s set the scene.
For a moment, think back to the last time you felt anxious. Try to remember what it was that you were fearful about. Was it an exam, an interview, a date, or something similar? Whatever it was, keep your mind on that subject for a moment.
Okay, got that topic? Good. Next, I want you to think about how you were using your body during that same, tense moment. Were you sitting down? Walking around? Chatting with a friend? Come up with your answer and remember it for a moment as well.
Now, if your anxious spell went anything like I imagine it did, my guess is that you were likely sitting down or standing still, breathing shallowly, and replaying anxious thoughts in your mind.
How did I make such a guess? No, I’m not a mind-reader. Nor am I able to see into the past. I was able to do so because shallow breathing and rumination are indicative of almost all panic-like states.
And how do I know that? Well, you can thank science. To better explain what I’m talking about here, let’s see exactly what our bodies are doing in the midst of a panic attack.
Panic and the Autonomic Nervous System
You’ve probably heard of the body’s fight-or-flight system before. In essence, it’s the division of our autonomic nervous system responsible for keeping us safe. This very system is known, formally, as the sympathetic nervous system.
When we come face-to-face with any kind of threat (for example, a vicious dog), this system engages automatically, spurring us to defend ourselves or flee the situation entirely (hence fight or flight).
Luckily, this system isn’t engaged all the time. If it were, we’d live in constant states of fear and vigilance. Instead, it typically powers down once we escape or neutralize the threat in front of us.
That powering down doesn’t simply happen by itself, however. Instead, the second division of our autonomic nervous system activates and pulls us back into a restful state. That second division is the counterpart of our fight-or-flight system, and it’s called the parasympathetic nervous system.
So, if the sympathetic nervous system is responsible for helping us fight through or flee threatening situations, then the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for helping us rest and digest outside of those situations.
To apply this to panic and anxiety, when we’re experiencing such feelings, what’s typically going on is we’re conjuring up or attaching to negative thoughts. These thoughts make us uneasy and guide us into patterns of shallow, fearful breathing. As a result, our fight-or-flight system engages and starts working overtime.
Confusingly enough, this can happen regardless of whether or not there’s actually a physical threat in front of us. That’s one of the trickiest things about anxiety; it’s also one of its trademarks.
What I mean by that is, in the case of anxiety, more often than not, our fight-or-flight system engages simply because we’re thinking about something that’s threatening — not because there’s actually something dangerous standing before us.
The biggest problem with such perceived, mental threats is that they’re not usually things we can fight with or run from immediately. Sure, we could certainly evade a snake if it crossed our path. But next week’s big performance review? Not so much.
Such a fight-or-flight response in the face of a non-actionable threat often causes us to become even more fearful of what’s going on in our minds. “Why is my heart racing? Why do I feel so terrible? Why can’t I do anything about it?” we ask ourselves, as we fearfully instruct our sympathetic nervous system to work even harder.
When this cycle of fear and worry continues for long enough, we fall into a state of complete overwhelm — what most of us call a panic attack. And while these attacks usually subside on their own in two to twenty minutes, they can be very difficult to persevere through.
So, what can we do to make such perseverance less difficult, or, better yet, help such attacks pass through us even sooner? I’m glad you asked.
We can breathe.
Activating the Parasympathetic Nervous System
While our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems mostly work automatically (hence being part of the autonomic nervous system), we do have some influence over them.
We’ve covered an example of this already; just think about that scary, upcoming performance review for a few minutes, and you’ll most certainly get your sympathetic nervous system firing.
The good news is that it’s not just the sympathetic nervous system that works in this fashion; we can help activate our parasympathetic nervous system as well. We do this by breathing properly.
When we exhale deeply, we engage our tenth cranial nerve — the vagus. This vital nerve interfaces with the parasympathetic nervous system, which influences our heart rate.
In other words, when we breathe out fully, we activate the part of our autonomic nervous system that decreases our heart rate and readies us for rest.
Though it sounds a bit complicated or convoluted, the bottom line is this: if we breathe fully and deeply in the middle of a panic attack, we’ll get ourselves out of it quicker than we would’ve otherwise thought possible.
That’s not to say it’s a cure-all or the only strategy out there — just that it’s an extremely helpful one. Trust me. I use it all the time.
So, remember that phrase with which we opened this post (“deep breaths”)? Well, whether our friends and family know the technical reasons behind it or not, this is what they’re trying to tell us when they suggest such a thing; in breathing deeply, we can navigate panic much more effectively.
One of the best things about breathing deeply, and thus, activating our parasympathetic nervous system, is that once we’re no longer in a revved-up state, almost everything in our minds and bodies seems to return to calm as well. That is, our anxious thoughts slow down, our palms stop sweating, and our feelings of angst subside.
Thus, the next time you’re about to slip into full panic mode, remember that you can break out of such a state simply by breathing fully and deeply. It’s not just an old maxim that your friends and family throw around — it’s also a strategy that’s supported by science and utilized by anxiety veterans all over the world.
Thanks for reading! Curious to learn more?
Then grab a copy of my book, Get Out of Your Head: A Toolkit for Living with and Overcoming Anxiety.* It covers many of the topics I discuss in my blog posts, as well as a few new, key frameworks for managing fear. Check it out if you’re looking to level-up your anxiety-alleviating skills.
Or, if you’re not yet ready to jump into the book, head on over to some of my previous articles on managing anxiety:
Why This Popular Anxiety Relief Strategy Rarely Works
Five Effective Ways to Mitigate Coronavirus Anxiety
*Disclaimer: The above link is an affiliate URL, which pays me a small commission when readers make purchases through it.
Notes / Sources
- Langley, John Newport (1921). The Autonomic Nervous System. Cambridge: Heffer. pp. 10. ISBN 978-1152710191.
- Walker, H. Kenneth (1990). “Cranial Nerve XI: The Spinal Accessory Nerve.” NCBI Bookshelf. PMID 21250228. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- Van der Kolk Bessel A. (2015). “Body-Brain Connections.” The Body Keeps the Score. Penguin Books. pp. 79. ISBN 978–0143127741.
