Anxiety Isn’t Just in Your Head: Understanding the Physical Side of Panic
Anxiety and panic are often talked about as thoughts—worry, fear, or racing “what ifs.”
But for many people, anxiety shows up first in the body. A tight chest, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, a racing heart, or a sudden wave of heat can feel alarming and confusing, especially when there’s no clear reason for it.
When anxiety feels physical, it can be easy to wonder if something is wrong medically or to feel frustrated that reassurance doesn’t help. Understanding how anxiety and panic affect the body can bring clarity, reduce fear around symptoms, and open the door to approaches that support both the mind and the nervous system.
Table of Contents
Anxiety Isn’t Just Mental
How Panic and Anxiety Show Up in the Body
The Nervous System’s Role in Panic
When Physical Anxiety Becomes a Cycle
Supporting the Body Through Anxiety and Panic
Finding Therapy for Anxiety and Panic
Anxiety Isn’t Just Mental
Anxiety isn’t only about thoughts or worry—it’s also a physical experience. The body plays a central role in how anxiety is felt, even when the mind doesn’t feel particularly anxious at first.
Many people notice physical sensations before they notice fear. A flutter in the chest, a wave of dizziness, or a sudden feeling of heat can appear without warning. These sensations are real, and they’re not imagined or exaggerated. They reflect a nervous system responding to perceived threat, even when no immediate danger is present.
Because anxiety is so often framed as “all in your head,” physical symptoms can feel invalidating or scary. Understanding that anxiety has a body-based component helps explain why logic alone doesn’t always calm things down—and why the body often needs support before the mind can settle.
How Panic and Anxiety Show Up in the Body
Panic and anxiety can affect the body in many different ways, and the experience isn’t the same for everyone. Some sensations are intense and sudden, while others linger quietly in the background.
Common physical experiences include:
A racing or pounding heart
Tightness in the chest or throat
Shortness of breath or the feeling of not getting enough air
Dizziness, lightheadedness, or feeling unsteady
Nausea or digestive discomfort
Shaking, tingling, or internal buzzing
Sudden heat, chills, or sweating
These sensations can be especially distressing because they resemble symptoms people associate with medical emergencies. It’s natural to monitor the body closely or seek reassurance when they appear.
What’s important to know is that these sensations are part of the body’s stress response. They signal a nervous system in high alert—not a body that’s broken or failing. While uncomfortable and sometimes frightening, they are temporary and reversible, even if they don’t feel that way in the moment.
The Nervous System’s Role in Panic
The nervous system is designed to keep you safe, reacting quickly when something feels off. During panic, it shifts into high alert, preparing the body to respond—even when no real danger is present.
In Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, panic is often understood as the nervous system responding to experiences that haven’t been fully processed or stored adaptively. When moments of fear, stress, or overwhelm aren’t recognized as over, the body may continue reacting as if they’re still happening. This is why panic often begins with physical sensations rather than conscious fear.
A change in breathing, chest tightness, or dizziness can trigger the alarm automatically. The body responds first, before the thinking part of the brain has time to catch up.
From this lens, the nervous system isn’t broken—it’s responding to information that hasn’t been updated yet. As experiences are processed through EMDR, the body no longer needs to stay on high alert.
When Physical Anxiety Becomes a Cycle
After experiencing panic or repeated anxiety symptoms, the body can begin to anticipate them. Sensations that once felt neutral—like a change in breathing or a flutter in the chest—may start to feel threatening simply because they’ve been linked to panic before.
When a physical sensation appears, attention often turns inward. Worry about what the sensation means can increase anxiety, which then intensifies the body’s response. The sensations grow stronger, reinforcing the fear that something is wrong. Over time, the body learns this pattern, and panic can begin to feel unpredictable or disconnected from obvious stress.
In this cycle, the original trigger becomes less important than the fear of the sensations themselves. The nervous system reacts not to danger, but to the expectation of danger. This is why panic can show up during calm moments or in situations that don’t seem particularly stressful.
Understanding this cycle helps shift the focus away from “What’s wrong with my body?” and toward “How did my system learn this response?” From there, it becomes possible to support the nervous system in learning something new—so physical sensations no longer automatically lead to panic.
Supporting the Body Through Anxiety and Panic
Because anxiety and panic are physical experiences, support often needs to include the body—not just thoughts or insight. While understanding what’s happening can reduce fear, the nervous system also needs experiences that help it settle and recognize safety again.
This may involve approaches that focus on regulation, awareness, and gently working with physical sensations rather than trying to eliminate them. When the body feels safer, symptoms often soften naturally, without needing to be forced away. Support doesn’t mean pushing through sensations or trying to “fix” the body. It means learning how to relate to these experiences differently, so the nervous system no longer feels the need to stay on high alert.
Finding Therapy for Anxiety and Panic
If anxiety or panic has begun to affect daily life, relationships, or a sense of ease, working with a therapist trained in anxiety and nervous system–informed care can be helpful. Therapy can offer a space to understand patterns, reduce fear around physical symptoms, and support the body in finding steadiness again.
There are effective approaches for anxiety and panic that go beyond insight alone, especially when symptoms feel physical or hard to control. Support can help the nervous system learn new responses and make room for greater calm and confidence over time.
If support feels needed, reaching out can be a meaningful step—not because something is wrong, but because the body has been carrying a lot.
Until next time, don’t forget to take care of yourself.
– – Catherine Alvarado, LMFT
About the Author
Catherine Alvarado, LMFT 134744, is an EMDRIA Certified Therapist and EMDRIA Approved Consultant based in Redondo Beach, California, offering individual therapy to teens and adults through South Bay Psychotherapy & EMDR. She also co-owns Eunoia Wellness Studio, a collaborative space in Redondo Beach created to support holistic care. Her work attends to the thinking mind alongside emotional and bodily experience, with attention to how stress and life experiences are carried in the nervous system.
Catherine specializes in EMDR therapy and works with individuals navigating anxiety, panic, trauma, and patterns that feel difficult to shift, even with insight. EMDR is one part of a broader approach that helps connect past experiences with what shows up in the present, supporting greater ease, safety, and self-trust over time.
Her work is relational and reflective, often blending EMDR with somatic awareness and gentle exploration of inner experience. Therapy is approached as a space to slow things down, get curious, and build a more steady, trusting relationship with oneself.
She practices in Redondo Beach and offers both in-person and online therapy.
