Why Does My Body Freak Out When I’m Anxious?
If you’ve ever had anxiety hit you out of nowhere, you know how overwhelming it can feel. Your heart pounds, your stomach drops, your breathing gets shallow, and suddenly, your body seems completely out of control. It’s scary—especially when you don’t understand what’s happening.
But here’s the thing: your body isn’t broken, and you’re not in danger. This reaction is actually your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do.
The Fight-or-Flight Response: Your Body’s Alarm System
Your body has a built-in survival system called the fight-or-flight response. It’s there to keep you safe. Imagine you’re a hunter-gatherer encountering a wild animal—your body instantly shifts into high alert, pumping adrenaline through your system, making your heart beat faster, and sending more oxygen to your muscles so you can fight or run.
That’s incredibly useful if you’re facing a life-or-death situation. But the problem? Your brain doesn’t always know the difference between a real, physical threat and something that just feels scary—like public speaking, a difficult conversation, or even an intrusive thought. The same survival system kicks in, even though there’s no actual danger.
Because these feelings are so intense, it’s easy to believe that something terrible is happening—like you’re losing control or that you need to escape immediately. But the truth is, your brain may have just set off a false alarm.
What Happens in Your Body During Anxiety?
When your brain perceives a threat, whether real or imagined, your nervous system quickly makes changes to prepare you for action. Again, these reactions are actually adaptive in terms of their survival functions, which is why we have them. Paradoxically, they show that our brain and nervous system is working CORRECTLY (something I often remind my clients of). Here’s a quick overview of what happens in our body when we're anxious and why:
Heart rate increases – Your heart pumps faster to send more oxygen to your muscles, preparing you to run or fight.
Breathing speeds up (or feels shallow) – More oxygen is delivered to your muscles, but because you don’t actually need to run, this can make you feel lightheaded or short of breath.
Muscles tense up – Your body is getting ready to move (fight or flight!), which can lead to stiffness, shaking, or aches.
Digestion slows down – Since digestion isn’t a priority in an emergency, blood is diverted away from your stomach, leading to nausea, butterflies, or even stomach pain.
Mouth gets dry – Saliva production decreases as digestion is put on pause, making your mouth feel parched.
Vision sharpens (or gets blurry or tunnel-like) – Your pupils dilate to take in more light, which can make things look extra bright or distorted.
Sweating increases – Your body tries to cool itself down in preparation for movement.
Your brain gets hyper-focused on threats – You may feel on edge, jumpy, or like you’re scanning for danger—even if there’s nothing there.
None of these reactions are harmful, but they can feel alarming if you don’t realize what’s happening. When you start to interpret them as signs that something is wrong, anxiety can spiral into panic.
Why Avoidance Makes Anxiety Worse
Since these sensations are uncomfortable, the natural response is to try to avoid them. Maybe you cancel plans, avoid certain places, or distract yourself to push the feelings away. And for a little while, that can seem to work. But over time, avoidance actually teaches your brain that anxiety is dangerous—which makes it even scarier next time. It would be like fleeing every time you heard a fire alarm, and never checking whether or not there was an actual fire. Plus, these avoidance moves often move us away from the life we would most want to live in the long run (our values).
Instead of running from anxiety, a more helpful approach is learning to hang out with the discomfort and move forward anyway. This is where Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) comes in. ACT teaches you that you don’t have to get rid of anxiety to live your life. You can learn to notice the feelings, allow them to be there, and keep choosing what’s important to you.
What to Remember When Anxiety Hits
Next time you feel your body go into freak-out mode, try reminding yourself:
This is just my body’s alarm system—it’s uncomfortable, but not dangerous.
I don’t have to fight this. I can let these feelings be here while I keep going.
I still have choices. Anxiety doesn’t control what I do—I do.
When you learn to respond differently to anxiety, it stops running the show. You can start living life on your own terms, even when fear tries to tag along.
If you’re ready to stop letting anxiety hold you back, I’m here to help. I offer therapy for anxiety in Austin, TX, using ACT, ERP and other evidence-based approaches to help you break free from fear and build a life that truly matters. Reach out today to get started.
