Handouts · Anxiety
Calming Your Fight-or-Flight Response
Anxiety is your body's alarm system doing its job — just at the wrong time. Understanding it, then using a skill, helps the alarm switch off faster.
The Alarm Is Not Dangerous
When your brain senses a threat, the amygdala trips an alarm before you can think. Your body floods with adrenaline and cortisol. This is the fight-or-flight response — built to protect you.
Racing heart, fast breathing, tight chest, shaky hands, and churning stomach are all normal effects of these chemicals. Uncomfortable, but not harmful.
What Happens, Second by Second
- 0–3 sec: alarm fires, adrenaline releases.
- Seconds–minutes: heart and breathing speed up, muscles tense, senses sharpen.
- Peak: most panic surges crest and start to fall within a few minutes.
- Reset: once the trigger is gone, the stress chemicals take roughly 20–30 minutes to clear from your body.
That's why you can still feel shaky after the scary moment passes — the chemistry just hasn't drained yet. It will.
Square Breathing
Slow breathing switches on the calming (parasympathetic) system. Trace the square:
Breathe in through your nose, out slowly through your mouth. Repeat for 1–2 minutes.
Grounding: 5-4-3-2-1
Pull your mind out of the worry and back into the room. Name:
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can feel / touch
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
Other Quick Resets
- Cold: splash cool water on your face or hold something cold — it slows the heart.
- Move: a brisk walk burns off adrenaline.
- Feet on the floor: press them down and feel the ground hold you.
- Long exhale: make the out-breath longer than the in-breath.
Talk Back to the Alarm
Anxious thoughts feel like facts but are only predictions. Try telling yourself:
- “This is uncomfortable, not dangerous.”
- “I've felt this before and it always passes.”
- “My body is doing its job. I can wait it out.”