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Firefighters using a water hose to eliminate a fire hazard. Team of female and male firemen in dangerous rescue mission.

<p>Has your mind ever sound a full-blown alarm, when everything seemed fine? One moment you’re quietly walking down the road, and the next your heart was racing, your chest feelt tight, and the world started to shrink around you. If id did, you’re not alone. Approximately 2.7% of adults experience panic attacks each year, and nearly 5% develop panic disorder at some point in their lives [1]. Panic attacks often arrive uninvited, unsettling your entire sense of safety and leaving you wondering what just happened. The rare episodes can evolve into panic disorder and come more frequently. Panic disorder is an anxiety condition that fills your days with a constant worry of "what if it happens again?" Unlike everyday stress, panic disorder doesn’t just visit occasionally, it moves into your attention.</p><p>The challenging part is that panic attacks often strike without any clear trigger. One minute you’re reading a recipe or making plans for the weekend, and the next your mind declares a five-alarm fire. It’s like mistaking a gentle breeze for a raging storm and bolting the doors in panic. The good news is that panic disorder is one of the most treatable mental health conditions. Despite how overwhelming it feels, it responds well to the right support. In fact, with proper treatment, up to 90% of people with panic disorder experience significant improvement [3]. Yes, truly. It might feel like a force of nature you can’t control, but you can learn to steady your footing. The gold-standard treatments for panic disorder fall into two main categories: 1. Medication, to help stabilize your system. 2. Psychotherapy to help rewire emotional patterns and reduce panic’s hold on your life. Let’s explore both.</p><h3>1. Medication: Stabilizing the Storm</h3><p>Medications don’t cure panic disorders, but they help regulate your nervous system so you can focus on deeper recovery work. Medications are like floaties in a pool: they won’t teach you how to swim, but they’ll keep you from sinking while you learn. Common options include:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;" data-mce-style="padding-left: 40px;">✅ SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors): The most commonly prescribed medications for panic disorder. Drugs like sertraline, fluoxetine, and paroxetine help regulate mood and anxiety over time.</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;" data-mce-style="padding-left: 40px;">✅ Benzodiazepines (e.g., alprazolam, lorazepam): Fast-acting relief, but habit-forming, so usually prescribed for short-term or emergency use.</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;" data-mce-style="padding-left: 40px;">✅ SNRIs (Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors): Another class of antidepressants that regulate anxiety, like venlafaxine.</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;" data-mce-style="padding-left: 40px;">✅ Beta-blockers (e.g., propranolol): They don’t treat the root cause, but they help control physical symptoms like heart palpitations and shaking in stressful situations.</p><figure id="figure-w4l2q5ripnm7iop6mu"><img id="w4l2q5ripnm7iop6mu" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1386881230/photo/woman-relaxing-floating-on-inflatable-in-swimming-pool-on-summer-vacation.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=UcCUubF1Y0HJomScNUMkzMYkZ71gQP6aqFTMFhsb66Y=" alt="Medications help you swim, but they won’t teach you how to" title="Medications help you swim, but they won’t teach you how to" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1386881230/photo/woman-relaxing-floating-on-inflatable-in-swimming-pool-on-summer-vacation.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=UcCUubF1Y0HJomScNUMkzMYkZ71gQP6aqFTMFhsb66Y=" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;"></figure><h3>2. Psychotherapy: Rewiring the Panic Response</h3><p>While medication calms the storm, therapy teaches you how to sail through it and out of it. It's like debugging a glitchy computer. Medication might stop the pop-ups, but therapy rewrites the code so the system runs smoothly. The right approach helps you challenge distorted beliefs, reprogram emotional patterns, and regain control. Effective therapies include:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;" data-mce-style="padding-left: 40px;">🧠 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): The gold standard, helping you challenge catastrophic thoughts and gradually confront feared situations. It breaks the cycle of avoidance.</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;" data-mce-style="padding-left: 40px;">📖 Psychoeducation: Simply understanding what’s happening during a panic attack can reduce the fear of panic itself.</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;" data-mce-style="padding-left: 40px;">🧘 Mindfulness-Based Approaches: Help ground you in the present, regulate emotions, and prevent panic from spiraling.</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;" data-mce-style="padding-left: 40px;">🔎 Psychoanalysis: Explores underlying emotional triggers and past experiences that contribute to panic. This deeper approach aims to resolve the root causes rather than just managing symptoms.</p><p>The best path involves a tailored blend of these strategies. Up to 70% of people see major improvement with therapy alone, and combining therapy with medication can raise success rates even higher [5].</p><figure id="figure-6ihhlk3q2mbj3z9zt"><img id="6ihhlk3q2mbj3z9zt" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/2177434864/photo/a-psychoanalyst-listens-to-a-woman-lying-on-the-sofa-talks-about-her-problem.jpg?b=1&s=2048x2048&w=0&k=20&c=jhy8LYr5vzNkpw2uA2G55p4xLf-dw0Ri7RTgtWTn9QQ=" alt="The best approach is a blend of strategies" title="The best approach is a blend of strategies" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionX="undefined" data-positionY="undefined" data-fullWidth="false"/></figure><h3>3. Beyond Coping: Building Emotional Resilience</h3><p>In attending to your emotional health, we welcome any strategy that helps. Broadly, approaches to emotional health fall into two categories: emotion regulation and emotional reprogramming. Emotion regulation focuses on managing panic as it arises, like learning to adjust the stove’s heat so nothing boils over. These practices help you consciously influence your emotional responses, resetting your internal environment. For instance, mindfulness helps you stay present with uncomfortable sensations rather than reacting impulsively. Breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation can activate the calming side of your nervous system. Psychoeducation also fits here, giving you knowledge about panic’s patterns and helping reduce the fear of panic itself [6].</p><p>Emotional reprogramming approaches, on the other hand, intervene directly in the emotional patterns that sustain panic. Emotional patterns follow a sequence: a trigger leads to an unpleasant feeling, which prompts a behavior that produces another feeling, such as relief or some other reward. Reprogramming methods aim to disrupt or reshape this cycle by targeting its components or the connections between them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) exemplifies this approach, teaching you to identify distorted thoughts that act as triggers and replace them with rational perspectives that don’t. Psychoanalysis also contributes by uncovering and dissolving emotional patterns hidden beneath conscious awareness. Together, these approaches offer a powerful combination: regulation methods help you to manage immediate symptoms, while reprogramming strategies rewire gradually the underlying emotional processes, paving the way for lasting change [6].</p><h3>Conclusion: Evicting Your Brain’s Overzealous Security System</h3><p>To recap: your mind and body are not betraying&nbsp; you and are actually quite, wired to protect you. They’re just really bad at distinguishing between actual threats and sometimes they overshoot their mark. Panic attacks are a glitch in an ancient survival system that once kept us safe, but today it can mistake a harmless situation, like waiting in a long line, for a crisis. The encouraging news is that you can retrain your system. Panic disorder might feel like an uninvited, overbearing guest in your life, but you don’t have to let it take over the lease. With medication to calm the storm, and therapy to rewire the response and to strengthen your resilience, you can turn down the volume on the false alarms and get back to living life on your own terms. It won’t happen overnight, but with steady practice and patience you can teach your mind to distinguish between a real fire and a burnt piece of toast. Panic might have had a head start, but you get to write the ending.</p><figure id="figure-tpik0lyo9tmbj3y4ct"><img id="tpik0lyo9tmbj3y4ct" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1183295518/photo/portrait-of-cute-mixed-race-student-with-curly-hair-and-in-turtleneck-sitting-in-cafe-and.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=quyLaEACWEMnGPXW_iUdSLa54vsWdQf1j_r8jKFL6RE=" alt="You write the ending" title="You write the ending" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1183295518/photo/portrait-of-cute-mixed-race-student-with-curly-hair-and-in-turtleneck-sitting-in-cafe-and.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=quyLaEACWEMnGPXW_iUdSLa54vsWdQf1j_r8jKFL6RE=" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure><p>[1] National Institute of Mental Health (2025). Panic Disorder. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/panic-disorder.</p><p>[2] Kessler, R. C., et al. (2005). Lifetime prevalence of panic disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 593-602.</p><p>[3] Bandelow, B. (2020). Current and Novel Psychopharmacological Drugs for Anxiety Disorders. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 1191, 347-365. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9705-0_19.</p><p>[4] Wampold, B. E. (2023). Brave New World: Mental Health Services 25 Years Since Dodo and 25 Years in the Future. Psychotherapy Research, 33(4), 533-534.</p><p>[5] Ceh, M. (2025). Cultivating Emotional Fitness: Science-Based Strategies for Optimizing Your Emotional Health. Affective Science Lab @ RDPA Asociacija.</p>

Panic Attacks: How Your Mind Feels Like It’s Sounding a Fire Alarm for No Reason (And How You Can Calm It Down)

<p>How often you you wish your emotions would just quiet down and let you breathe? But they can’t. Emotions are like countless tiny thermostats in your inner home, constantly sensing the air, adjusting the temperature, and guiding you toward actions, whether you want them to or not. They manifest as feelings that relentlessly calibrate your responses to the world around you. The sensations you experience arise from intricate neural and hormonal networks working in togetherness behind the scenes. These are two faces of the same coin, inseparable and always in dialogue. Experientially, emotions can feel like a&nbsp; patchwork quilt of textures and shades. Sometimes, they present themselves as a clearly defined pattern; other times, they appear as a tangled knot of sensations and half-formed thoughts. Your ability to describe what you’re feeling depends heavily on both your own and others’ emotional vocabulary. When you share your feelings with someone, you’re engaging in a kind of delicate translation, hoping that when you say your last date was “interesting,” the listener understands whether that means “full of warm surprises” or “more questions than answers.” You can only explore your own inner landscape. You can’t step into someone else’s mind to compare notes. Like everyone, you live in your own emotional echo chamber, piecing together the words, meanings and feeling as best you can.</p><figure id="figure-6mgvi9bl7pm6159j69"><img id="6mgvi9bl7pm6159j69" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1303510161/photo/abstract-empty-room.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=q0z3VYyXy5YnVAMFmRs84Cqvz5wTJVt3BcURqe-SEtw=" alt=" You can’t borrow someone else’s neurohormonal system and compare the feeling. As everybody else, you are stuck in your emotional “echo chambers”, piecing together the words with their meaning. " title=" You can’t borrow someone else’s neurohormonal system and compare the feeling. As everybody else, you are stuck in your emotional “echo chambers”, piecing together the words with their meaning. " class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1303510161/photo/abstract-empty-room.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=q0z3VYyXy5YnVAMFmRs84Cqvz5wTJVt3BcURqe-SEtw=" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;"></figure><h3>Why We Need Emotional Theories (and Why None of Them Feel Quite Right)</h3><p>Because emotions are private experiences, they’ve puzzled thinkers for centuries. To make sense of them, we’ve cooked up countless theories. But it’s like trying to decode a secret recipe by tasting the final dish. The James-Lange theory claims your body’s reaction comes firs. Your heart races, then the feeling of anxious flutter of having sent the email to fast pops into awareness. The Cannon-Bard theory argues that emotions and body responses happen simultaneously. Imagine pressing "Sent" and feeling your face flush with panic even as the emotional regret bubbles up at the same time. Finally, the Schachter-Singer two-factor theory insists you need both a physiological reaction and a cognitive label to get the full emotional experience. In this case, your heart races as you realize what you’ve done, and you think, "This is bad, and now I feel mortified." Trying to differentiate them can feel like sorting similar herbs by smell alone: James-Lange says body first, then feeling; Cannon-Bard says both happen together; Schachter-Singer says it’s a blend of body and mind. Why does this matter? Because it makes us observe what's happening in our body and mind. In everyday life, it’s the broader patterns that shape how you relate to yourself and others.</p><p>What often proves more useful are the ways we group emotions. In 1890, William James proposed four basic emotions: fear, sadness, love, and anger. He saw these as the foundational ingredients that combine into more complex feelings. A century later Paul Ekman expanded this list to six: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. Ekman’s research focuses on facial expressions across cultures. His research focused on facial expressions across cultures, showing that no matter where you go, humans share a universal recognition of these emotions. It shows that the core feelings are part of the blueprint, preloaded into every human. Jaak Panksepp took things further, focusing on brain circuits rather than facial expressions.&nbsp; He forget the idea of stimulating different parts of rats' brains with electrodes and observing their reactions. Their behavioral responds: laughs, explorations, and sudden freezes offered clues to the actitaved emotional networks in their brains. WIth this methos, Panksepp identified seven core emotional systems, terming them SEEKING, FEAR, SEPARATION DISTRESS, ANGER, CARE, PLAY, and LUST. These systems are present in all mammals and have been running for millions of years.</p><p>At its heart, categorizing emotions breaks down your emotional experiences into manageable building blocks, making it easier to understand their functioning principles and how to reshape them. Basic emotions are theoretical concepts that provide a foundation for working on your emotional health. It’s a bit like organizing a chaotic closet; once you group everything into categories, the chaos starts to make sense.</p><figure id="figure-jur28wehxom61586r3"><img id="jur28wehxom61586r3" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1312458812/photo/happy-young-woman-with-lots-of-clothes-in-room-fast-fashion.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=jJJIBBL0OaW7DdXhp8zEsIcrfC_bOGRDiAFX1vSoNPM=" alt="Working with emotions is like organizing a chaotic closet" title="Working with emotions is like organizing a chaotic closet" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1312458812/photo/happy-young-woman-with-lots-of-clothes-in-room-fast-fashion.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=jJJIBBL0OaW7DdXhp8zEsIcrfC_bOGRDiAFX1vSoNPM=" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;"></figure><h3>The Three Levels of Emotional Processing: From Instincts to Self-Reflection</h3><p>With the horizontal basics covered, let’s move to the vertical dimension of your emotional blueprint. In neuroscience, we often imagine the brain as a three-story house:&nbsp; (1) The foundational layer securing basic life functions; (2) the middle layer upgrading the basic system by your environment; (3) the highest layer refining your beautiful being with reflection, self-awareness and self-direction. Basic emotions are a part of the hardwired foundational layer. In Pankseppian affectology, we label them as core emotions. The middle layer is where your secondary emotional circuitry develops guided by your personal experiences by interacting with your environment. At the third level tertiary emotions annotate your mental and behavior functioning with self-awareness and self-direction. Understanding these three layers (the survival foundation, the learned patterns, and the reflective refinements) offers a framework for exploring how emotions function and how they can be optimized. Each layer builds upon the last, creating a dynamic system that influences every aspect of your life.</p><ul style="list-style-type: circle;" data-mce-style="list-style-type: circle;"><li>Core Emotional Networks (Red Zone): These are primary emotions, the unchanging basic survival tools of the brain. Core emotions like fear, rage, and joy operate on autopilot, ensuring survival.</li><li>Secondary Emotional Networks (Green Zone): These networks form through early experiences and shape emotional patterns adapted to your relational environment. It’s like learning which keys unlock which doors in the emotional escape room of life.</li><li>Tertiary Emotional Networks (Yellow Zone): The most sophisticated level, where rationality, language, and self-awareness come into play. Here, your primary and secondary systems interface with your sense of self.</li></ul><figure id="figure-ef37cv5dvkm64rqv60"><img id="ef37cv5dvkm64rqv60" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/7KOsRFU9QtkkMZ7mKV7Y4znNLYZBTlcd3gwvPZUOdnBh66NbbOhB3mWTgg6brIoJ.png" alt="Three levels of emotional systems in the brain" title="Three levels of emotional systems in the brain" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: 50% 50%;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="The three layers of emotional systems in your brain: core emotion network area (red), secondary emotion network area (blue), tertiary emotion network area (green)." data-positionx="50%" data-positiony="50%" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/7KOsRFU9QtkkMZ7mKV7Y4znNLYZBTlcd3gwvPZUOdnBh66NbbOhB3mWTgg6brIoJ.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: 50% 50%;"><figcaption class="body-normal text-gray-500 mt-2">The three layers of emotional systems in your brain: core emotion network area (red), secondary emotion network area (blue), tertiary emotion network area (green).</figcaption></figure><h3>Your Ground Floor: The Core Emotions</h3><p>The primary level of emotional processing happens in your brainstem; the oldest part of your nervous system. When you are born, this part of your brain is fully functional and ensures your basic survival, regulating your heartbeat, hunger, and responses to immediate threats. Primary emotions are a fundamental part of this esssential tasks. Just as hunger signals you to eat or pain prompts you to seek relief, core emotions nudge you toward survival behaviors without conscious thought. You don’t need a masterclass to know when and how to feel anger or joy, you know that by nature. Neuroscience has identified distinct neural networks associated with these primal emotions, and they are strikingly universal across individuals and cultures. However, in adult humans, core emotions can’t operate in isolation. They’re deeply intertwined with secondary and tertiary emotional processes, making every emotional experience a mix of these layers. That said, the primary level is theoretically and empirically the most manageable. Its neural activations are relatively well-defined, and specific networks correlate with characteristic behaviors. Let’s meet the cast:</p><ul style="list-style-type: circle;" data-mce-style="list-style-type: circle;"><li>SEEKING drives you to explore, search, and pursue goals; from finding food in the Savannah to staying up late researching your next vacation, reaching for a new dress in the store, or lingering in a conversation that sparks your curiosity.</li><li>RAGE propels you to defend your boundaries, take action, or claim what’s yours; sometimes by arguing, like finally speaking up when someone cuts in line, standing your ground when a friend oversteps, and sometimes just deciding not to answer that text that feels too demanding.</li><li>FEAR activates avoidance and self-protection; leading you to take cautious steps when danger looms, like sensing tension in a heated meeting, or feeling your chest tighten when walking down the road at night.</li><li>PANIC/GRIEF prompts you to maintain connection and resist loss. It prompts you to text a friend when you feel alone or reach for your partner’s hand after an argument by creating the ache of someone’s absence. If the attempts to reunite fail, it leads to withdrawal as a way to rethink and recover.</li><li>PLAY encourages experimentation and light-hearted interaction; testing your strength, skills, and limits in safe, non-serious contexts, like humor, games, sports, and the arts.</li><li>CARE fosters nurturing and caregiving behaviors; whether you’re soothing a crying child or sending your friend a comforting note.</li><li>LUST fuels sexual interest and desire; the ancient impulse to ensure the species survives, but also the motivation to make yourself desirable, whether by climbing the social ladder or wearing your favorite dress that makes you feel confident and alive.</li></ul><p>These core emotions form the foundation of your emotional life, but as a human being, your experience doesn’t stop there. Beyond these universal roots lies a vast and sophisticated emotional landscape, shaped by your unique history, relationships, and reflections: a place where your emotional world becomes distinctly yours. Let's go ahead and explore it.</p><figure id="figure-bkht16d1rm615bkdd"><img id="bkht16d1rm615bkdd" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/2053229241/photo/blooming-lupine-flowers-on-the-stokksnes-headland.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=RwH0Qa6lgpgdDoVZz_fPHueKQnhkeQKjVzRlwaAZ9WA=" alt="Beyond the universal roots lies a vast and sophisticated emotional landscape" title="Beyond the universal roots lies a vast and sophisticated emotional landscape" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="null" data-positiony="null" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/2053229241/photo/blooming-lupine-flowers-on-the-stokksnes-headland.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=RwH0Qa6lgpgdDoVZz_fPHueKQnhkeQKjVzRlwaAZ9WA=" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure><h3>Secondary and Tertiary Emotional Networks: Why Your Emotional Experience is Uniquely Yours</h3><p>Secondary emotional networks are the personalized pathways that grow from your core emotions. Unlike the universal, hardwired nature of core emotions, secondary emotions are shaped by your early experiences, which build emotional patterns shaped by your social and relational environment. During childhood, you begin internalizing social and relational dynamics and a mental map of safe and unsafe objects (meaning, people) and patterns of behavior. Through associations with pleasant emotions, you learn what is encouraged and what should be avoided by association with unpleasant emotions. These learned models form the emotional manual for navigating your living landscape and getting you where you want to get. While the core emotion of fear might prevent you getting eaten, the secondary emotion of fear might remind you not to upset someone whose anger once frightened you. Your secondary patterns are the heirlooms of your childhood environment, for better or worse. When that environment was nurturing, these patterns often serve you well. But in more challenging homes, they may need tending and reshaping. Recognizing and reshaping these learned emotional patterns is the first stop on your emotional growth journey.</p><p>As your brain matures and gains rational abilities, primary and secondary systems interface with awareness and self-regulation, forming a tertiary layer. The tertiary layer allows for mindfulness, reflection, and deliberate decision-making. It’s the part of your brain that lets you step back from a heated argument and think, “Is this worth it?” or to feel sadness but resist spiraling into despair by reframing your perspective. While primary and secondary emotions are automatic, tertiary emotions involve a interplay between reason and emotion. This allows you to reinterpret experiences, consider consequences, and rewrite your emotional scripts. You may feel anger bubbling up during a disagreement but, through self-awareness, recognize it as stemming from an old fear of being dismissed, choosing instead to assert yourself calmly. The tertiary layer is where you shape your identity. Are you the kind of person who reacts impulsively, or do you pride yourself on staying composed under pressure? Do you view sadness as weakness or as a sign of depth and connection? These are decisions, influenced by your values and beliefs. The tertiary layer allows for the greatest emotional freedom.</p><p>Every emotional experience you have pulls from all three layers. Because of this complexity, emotions at the secondary and tertiary levels defy simple categorization. Your emotional architecture is as unique as your fingerprint; formed by your personal history, shaped by relationships, and molded by lessons about safety, danger, desires, and taboos. No one else feels anger, sadness, or joy quite the way you do because no one else has lived your life. Your emotional fingerprint is shaped by countless factors: the lullabies you heard as a baby, the heartbreaks you endured as a teenager, the lessons you’ve learned from successes and failures. It’s a constantly evolving mosaic, pieced together from the fragments of your history, relationships, and aspirations. Grasping your emotions at the tertiary level therefore is like herding cats. Each one jumping in a different direction, often at the most inconvenient moment. Working directly on these higher-level emotions is incredibly challenging because of their sheer complexity and individuality. That’s where primary emotion models come in. By categorizing and understanding emotions at their core level, those universal building blocks, we created frameworks that simplify this chaos. These models act like a net, helping you gather and manage bunches of cats at once, making the pandemonium of real-life emotions more approachable and workable.</p><h3>Closing Thought: Knowing Your Emotional Blueprint</h3><p>Just like math starts with understanding numbers and reading begins with letters, mastering your emotions requires learning their foundational components. Without a grasp of the basics, you actually have no idea what you are doing. Attempts to manage your emotional patterns can feel frustrating and be aimless. It’s not your fault you’ve struggled. From the most popular approaches to optimizing or managing motional challenges it is obvious that affectology is a young science in its infancy. Most popular approaches to managing emotional challenges reflect how young the contemporary science of emotion still is. General advice is everywhere, but it often lacks a solid foundation or clear context for when and how to apply it. Emotional optimization is highly contextual and the same approach has opposite effects in different circumstances, with different individuals and for different emotions. Approaching it from the tertiary layer, where you encounter a chaos of everything, is an overwhelming task. It’s like trying to learn math by starting with calculus or playing your first tennis match against Federer. By understanding the basics, you know what you are working with instead of relying on random trial and error. Working with a clear framework is a much more reliable approach to build emotional fitness.<br></p><figure id="figure-yq1m6ivv3m615ffex"><img id="yq1m6ivv3m615ffex" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1194472286/photo/students-in-cookery-class-mixing-ingredients-for-recipe-in-kitchen.jpg?b=1&s=2048x2048&w=0&k=20&c=-GTVZtBUQyVtZrCt0F9DBXLyXOQ2Oi42TB1rIXv9bF4=" alt="Emotional growth starts with the basics" title="Emotional growth starts with the basics" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionX="undefined" data-positionY="undefined" data-fullWidth="false"/></figure>

Tree Rings of Feeling: Understanding the Layers of your Emotions

<p>Imagine, you are going about your day, &nbsp;waiting in line at a coffee shop, maybe scrolling on your phone, when without warning, your mind body&nbsp; goes into dread. Your heart begins to race, your breath catches, your limbs tingle, and a wave of terror washes over you. Your mind has flipped the panic switch, but there’s no real emergency in sight. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Panic attacks affect around 2.7% of adults each year, and for those with panic disorder, these episodes can become frequent, unpredictable, and deeply unsettling. Unlike general anxiety, which often builds slowly like a gathering cloud, panic attacks strike like a sudden downpour: swift, intense, and disorienting. One moment you’re at ease; the next, you feel convinced that you might lose control, collapse, or even die [1,2].</p><p>Panic attacks feel fatal, but they can't really harm you. It's much ado about nothing and your mind and body running an old survival script at the wrong time. Your neurohormonal system is doing its best to help, it’s just not great at knowing when to stand down. <span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Once you understand what’s happening beneath the surface, it becomes easier to start reshaping that script. So, let’s look closely at what’s happening during a panic attack, and why does your body react as though the world has turned upside down?&nbsp;</span></p><figure id="figure-livyk7r6rmbj59xjb"><img id="livyk7r6rmbj59xjb" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1095019082/photo/woman-sitting-at-a-cafe-working-on-digital-tablet.jpg?b=1&s=2048x2048&w=0&k=20&c=FoYu0-eUVgHsRoZM90qZR77rZW1IBX2YKId_Vga0Esc=" alt="Panic attacks come out of nowhere" title="Panic attacks come out of nowhere" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionX="undefined" data-positionY="undefined" data-fullWidth="false"/></figure><h3>Drowning on Dry Land: The Sensations of a Panic Attack</h3><p>The first panic attack typically occurs between the ages of 20 and 24, though it can happen at any age. It involves sudden intense fear or severe discomfort, accompanied by physical symptoms such as pounding or racing heart, rapid and shallow breathing, sweating, shaking or trembling, choking sensations, chest pain, nausea, abdominal discomfort, dizziness, fainting, chills, flushing, and numbness or tingling. You may also experience derealization (feeling disconnected from your surroundings, as though the world isn’t real) or depersonalization (feeling detached from yourself, as if you’re observing your body or actions from outside). These symptoms can be accompanied by an overwhelming fear of losing control, going crazy, or even dying. &nbsp;About one-third of individuals with panic disorder experience nocturnal attacks, where you awaken from sleep feeling panicked.&nbsp; The frequency and intensity of panic attacks varies a lot among individuals [5,6,7]. And if you experience panic attacks (or even didn't until now), reading that list might’ve just given you some new ideas. But I’ve pointed it out, so the spell is broken. Everything wil be okay.</p><p>Even if you’ve experienced panic attacks many times and know exactly what they are, an acute episode can still leave you feeling overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty, which only intensifies the symptoms. If you’re prone to panic attacks, you’re likely to be excessively anxious and often expect the worst outcomes. Panic attacks often fuel concerns about your physical health; it’s hard to believe that such intense symptoms could be purely psychological. After a panic episode, a persistent fear of recurrence often develops, leading to the avoidance of situations perceived as potential triggers. But panic attacks can strike in a variety of stressful circumstances, some of which may not even be obvious. Something as mundane as stale air or a lack of oxygen can be enough to trigger an episode. Over time, you may find yourself avoiding ... well, just everything.&nbsp; The avoidance can immensely impair your quality of life, gradually isolating you from activities, places, and even people. The constant worry that often accompanies panic disorder doesn’t just weigh on your mind; it increases your susceptibility to further panic attacks. The unrelenting state of anxiety can also lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms, like the use of addictive substances and activities. Brutal.</p><figure id="figure-xy8iqbepdvm65fj48t"><img id="xy8iqbepdvm65fj48t" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1064060916/photo/girl-wearing-pajamas-watching-tv-in-her-room.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=K-lSEYaaicBoaiNhDRWjKhzy3Z2P_fbNEHExpljYrek=" alt="Bad coping mechanisms might bring momentary relief but ultimately deepen the cycle of distress" title="Bad coping mechanisms might bring momentary relief but ultimately deepen the cycle of distress" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1064060916/photo/girl-wearing-pajamas-watching-tv-in-her-room.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=K-lSEYaaicBoaiNhDRWjKhzy3Z2P_fbNEHExpljYrek=" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;"></figure><h2>The Bilogy of of Panic: What’s Happening in Your Brain and Body</h2><p>Panic attacks may look and feel like pure chaos, but mechanically, your body is following a well-worn biological script. The first step in this cascade begins with the amygdala,a small almond-shaped structure in your brain’s emotional center. Often called the brain’s “fear center,” the amygdala is like an overcautious security guard, constantly scanning for threats and sometimes going overboard, interpreting harmless situations, like a crowded elevator, as if they’re a five-alarm&nbsp; crisis. Once the amygdala raises the alarm, it immediately dispatches the message to two key departments: the nervous system and the hormonal system. In the nervous system, the alarm reaches the locus coeruleus, a.k.a. “adrenaline headquarters.” This manager of alertness and arousal takes its job very seriously, ensuring every corner of the body is prepped for action. Once the locus coeruleus is on board, it activates the sympathetic nervous system, sending out an urgent memo to the heart, blood vessels, sweat glands, and eyes. The result? Your heart races, blood flows to the muscles, and your pupils dilate: all part of your body’s emergency preparedness plan [6].</p><p>At this point, all hell breaks loose in your body’s office, and the team shifts into full survival mode. The heart, a loyal overachiever in emergencies, starts working overtime, pumping faster and harder to ensure every muscle has the fuel it needs. Blood pressure surges, and the pupils, ever the eager assistants, switch to "zoom mode," sharpening your vision to spot distant threats, no matter how far-fetched they might be. Meanwhile, the blood vessels in your muscles throw open the gates, readying you for action, while the digestive team gets a memo to stand by. With digestion effectively put on pause, energy is conserved for the real stars of the show: fight or flight. Over at the adrenal department, the glands get a direct order from the sympathetic system to release adrenaline and noradrenaline into the bloodstream. These hormones act like turbo boosters, delivering an extra jolt of energy to help you either fight the proverbial bear or sprint away at record speed. Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate hit peak performance—all part of the body’s epic overreaction, whether the danger is real or just a figment of the amygdala’s imagination [6].</p><p>On the hormonal side, the amygdala calls in reinforcements by activating the hypothalamus, the brain’s dependable operations manager. Often called the body’s thermostat, the hypothalamus oversees essential processes like temperature, hunger, and stress. In this scenario, it grabs the stress-response whistle and blows it loud, releasing CRF (corticotropin-releasing factor). Think of CRF as the urgent memo that kicks off the next step in the chain reaction: rallying the pituitary gland. The pituitary, sometimes dubbed the "master gland", acts like the head of HR at the brain’s headquarters. Sitting at the base of the brain, it coordinates hormone production for a wide variety of bodily functions. When it gets the CRF memo, it immediately dispatches ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone), a courier tasked with delivering stress-related instructions to the adrenal cortex. The adrenal cortex, the outer layer of the adrenal glands perched like little hats on top of your kidneys, is the long-term crisis manager in this operation. Its main job is to produce cortisol, the body’s go-to stress hormone. Cortisol works overtime to keep you energized by increasing blood glucose levels, while also temporarily suspending less critical tasks like digestion and immunity. This stress-response chain, known as the HPA axis, operates like a well-oiled relay team, passing signals down the line to ensure your body is ready for action—whether the danger is a rampaging lion or just the overenthusiastic imagination of your amygdala [6].</p><p>Hyperventilation during a panic attack throws yet another wrench into the machinery. Instead of deep, steady breaths that fuel your body efficiently, shallow, rapid breathing from the upper chest takes over—like an overworked employee rushing through tasks and making mistakes. This frantic exhalation expels too much CO2, causing respiratory alkalosis, a condition where your blood’s pH rises, disrupting the delicate balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The result? It’s like your body’s engine starts sputtering on a bad fuel mix. Reduced blood flow to key areas leads to dizziness, tingling in your hands and feet, headaches, and even fainting—symptoms that make the whole ordeal even scarier [8]. Luckily, there’s a quick fix: breathing into a paper bag. Think of it as recycling your CO2, gently rebalancing your system and coaxing your body back to its steady rhythm. With restored balance, those alarming symptoms start to subside, and the chaos gradually gives way to calm.</p><h3>From Panic to Steadiness</h3><p>Panic disorder might have gotten a head start, but it doesn’t have to be the boss of you. Sure, your brain’s ancient survival system is trying a little too hard to keep you safe, but with the right tools and a bit of practice, you can teach it to chill. After all, you should be in charge, not some overzealous alarm system that can’t tell the difference between a cyclist and a crowded elevator.&nbsp; The journey from panic to power isn’t about erasing your alarm system, but about turning the volume down and learning to work with it. Think of it as upgrading your operating system: you’re keeping the parts that help you and letting go of the parts that hold you back. Panic might be part of your story, but it doesn’t get to write the ending. That’s up to you.</p><figure id="figure-yx35ji5dllm7ipseyl"><img id="yx35ji5dllm7ipseyl" src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/623448012/photo/diy-in-the-kitchen.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=M56F44UFqAExIAcrI9FUpjrEsKteNzeLK9oOhvIU5OQ=" alt="Redesign you emotional systems" title="Redesign you emotional systems" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/623448012/photo/diy-in-the-kitchen.jpg?b=1&amp;s=2048x2048&amp;w=0&amp;k=20&amp;c=M56F44UFqAExIAcrI9FUpjrEsKteNzeLK9oOhvIU5OQ=" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;"></figure><p>[1] &nbsp;National Institute of Mental Health (2025). Panic Disorder. <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/panic-disorder" data-mce-href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/panic-disorder">https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/panic-disorder</a>.<br>[2] Gorbis, E., &amp; Jajoo, A. (2024). Panic Disorder: Epidemiology, Etiology, and Treatment Strategies. Journal of Medical and Clinical Nursing Studies, 2(5), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.61440/JMCNS.2024.v2.59.<br>[3] American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition: DSM-5. Philadelphia: APA.<br>[4] Fava, L. in Morton, J. (2009). Causal modeling of panic disorder theories. Clinical psychology review, 29(7), 623-637.<br>[5] Benedik, E. (2019). Diagnostično kodiranje. Sigmund Freud University.<br>[6] Carandang, C. (2016). The Neurobiology of Panic Attacks.&nbsp; <a href="https://pro.psychcentral.com/the-neurobiology-of-panic-attacks/" data-mce-href="https://pro.psychcentral.com/the-neurobiology-of-panic-attacks/">https://pro.psychcentral.com/the-neurobiology-of-panic-attacks/</a>.<br>[7] Ankrom, S. (2019). Biological theories of panic disorder. https://www.verywellmind.com/biological-theories-of-panic-disorder-2583924.<br>[8] Fava, L., &amp; Morton, J. (2009). Causal modeling of panic disorder theories. Clinical psychology review, 29(7), 623-637.<br>[9] Fava, L., &amp; Morton, J. (2009). Causal modeling of panic disorder theories. Clinical psychology review, 29(7), 623-637.<br>[10] Nesse, R. M. (1987). An evolutionary perspective on panic disorder and agoraphobia. Ethology and Sociobiology, 8(1), 73-83.<br>[11] Francesetti, G., Alcaro, A., &amp; Settanni, M. (2020). Panic disorder: attack of fear or acute attack of solitude? Convergences between affective neuroscience and phenomenological-Gestalt perspective. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process, and Outcome, 23(1), 77-87. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2020.421" data-mce-href="https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2020.421">https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2020.421</a><br>[12] Quagliato, L. A., Freire, R. C., &amp; Nardi, A. E. (2018). Risks and benefits of medications for panic disorder: a comparison of SSRIs and benzodiazepines. Expert opinion on drug safety, 17(3), 315-324.<br>[13] Sandell, R., Svensson, M., Nilsson, T., Johansson, H., Viborg, G., &amp; Perrin, S. (2015). The POSE study-panic control treatment versus panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy under randomized and self-selection conditions: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 16, 1-10.<br>[14] Wampold, B. E. (2023). Brave new world: Mental health services 25 years since Dodo and 25 years in the future. Psychotherapy Research, 33(4), 533-534.<br>[15] Ceh, M. (2025). Cultivating Emotional Fitness: Science-Based Strategies for Optimizing Your Emotional Health. Affective Science Lab @ RDPA Asociacija.<br></p><p><br></p>

Inside a Panic Attack: What It Feels Like and What’s Happening Beneath the Water Level

Malka Ceh, PhD, MSc, cNPA

I'm an Affectologist. I work online with ambitious individuals worldwide who want to optimize their emotional health, fitness, and functioning to achieve better results in various fields of life, e.g., lifestyle, health, wellness, relationships, career, etc. My approach is science-based. I draw on psychodynamic concepts (unconscious processes, defense dynamics, etc.), developmental and relational theories, and the latest biological insights from evolutionary psychiatry and affective science, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience. I use psychoanalytic and existential methods, phenomenological research, and motivational interviewing. I'm a Certified NeuroPsychoanalyst, PhD in Evolutionary Anthropology, MSc in Psychotherapy.


My services:

Your Experience of Life: The Foundation of Well-Being
Discover how emotional patterns shape your daily consciousness. When your emotional system is fit, negative triggers lose their power while positive experiences gain richness. You’ll develop an internal landscape where curiosity replaces anxiety, where setbacks trigger resilience rather than despair, and where self-awareness becomes your gateway to lasting contentment.

Health Goals: From Struggle to Natural Flow
Why do some people effortlessly maintain healthy habits while others constantly battle their impulses? The answer lies not in willpower, but in emotional patterning. By recalibrating your emotional responses to health-related triggers, you transform dreaded exercises into anticipated activities and healthy foods into preferred choices. Your emotions become allies in your health journey.

Relationships: Dancing with Others’ Emotions
Every interaction is an emotional tango where both partners’ patterns create the dance. Understanding your own emotional choreography while reading your partner’s emotional signals transforms relationships from mysterious struggles into fascinating collaborations. Learn to create harmony in relationships by mastering the rhythms of emotional exchange.

Professional Success Through Emotional Intelligence
Your career advancement depends less on technical skills and more on emotional patterns than you might think. Whether managing workplace relationships or maintaining focus on complex tasks, emotionally fit individuals naturally navigate professional challenges. Transform workplace triggers from sources of stress into opportunities for growth

Family Bonds: From Pain Points to Growth
As a grown child, you might still wrestle with your parents’ authority, carry unresolved emotional wounds, or struggle with evolving care roles. With siblings, natural competitions for resources and attention often persist, masked as adult conflicts over inheritance, parent care, or status. Through emotional fitness, you can recognize these patterns, transforming old triggers into opportunities for mature relationships. Your family dynamics become a laboratory for growth rather than a source of recurring pain.

Modern Parenting: Meeting the High Expectations
Your emotional system evolved when resources were scarce, and survival was paramount. Today’s parenting ideals create an emotionally demanding mismatch. Through emotional fitness, you can bridge the gap, transforming instinctive reactions into conscious responses. Learn to navigate between programmed impulses and contemporary parenting values, creating an environment where both you and your child can thrive.

Transform Your Emotional Landscape for Lasting Success
Emotions are the foundation of your moods, thoughts, actions, and, ultimately, your happiness and outcomes. In life, emotional health is your greatest asset. My approach provides the tools to optimize your emotional skills, enhance your mental capacities, and elevate your overall well-being, setting you on the path to sustained personal fulfillment. Join me in redefining what’s possible through a science-driven, pragmatical approach to emotional fitness.

Science Meets Every-Day Application
Each strategy is grounded in evidence-based science, ensuring reliability and effectiveness.
Solutions are customized for real-world application, meeting the demands of achievers and organizations alike.
Discover how personalized, science-backed insights can transform your emotional health and optimize performance.

Malka Ceh, PhD, MSc, cNPA

Articles

Panic Attacks: How Your Mind Feels Like It’s Sounding a F...

Tree Rings of Feeling: Understanding the Layers of your E...

Inside a Panic Attack: What It Feels Like and What’s Happ...