Your heart is pounding so hard you can feel it in your throat. Your hands are shaking. The room feels like it’s closing in, and your mind races with thoughts that feel completely out of control. If this sounds familiar, you’ve likely experienced a panic attack—and you already know how terrifying those moments can be.
Here’s something most people don’t realize: your brain is wired to respond to questions, even during intense anxiety. While your body is in fight-or-flight mode, asking yourself specific questions can redirect your attention and help you regain a sense of control. Research from cognitive behavioral therapy shows that structured questioning interrupts the panic cycle and activates your prefrontal cortex—the thinking part of your brain that anxiety temporarily shuts down.
What follows are 20 carefully chosen questions that can serve as anchors during your most difficult moments. They’re designed to ground you, shift your perspective, and remind you that panic attacks, while awful, are temporary and survivable.
Questions to Ask Yourself During a Panic Attack
These questions work because they pull your attention away from catastrophic thinking and toward concrete observations, self-compassion, and rational reassurance. Let’s explore each one.
1. What Am I Feeling in My Body Right Now?
This question might seem counterintuitive. After all, your body feels terrible right now. But naming specific sensations does something powerful—it creates distance between you and the panic. Instead of “I’m dying,” you’re observing: “My chest feels tight” or “My hands are tingling.”
When you label physical sensations, you activate a process called affect labeling. Studies show this reduces activity in your amygdala, which is your brain’s fear center. Try scanning from your toes up to your head. Notice where you feel tension, heat, cold, or numbness. The act of noticing, rather than reacting, weakens panic’s grip.
2. Is This Feeling Dangerous, or Just Uncomfortable?
Your body can’t tell the difference between a panic attack and actual danger. Both trigger the same physical response. But here’s the truth: uncomfortable doesn’t mean unsafe.
Think about the last time you exercised hard. Your heart raced, you breathed heavily, maybe you felt dizzy. Those sensations were uncomfortable but harmless. Panic attacks create similar physical sensations without the external trigger. Your body is reacting to perceived threat, not actual danger. This question helps you recognize that what you’re feeling, while distressing, won’t harm you.
3. Have I Survived Every Panic Attack I’ve Ever Had?
The answer is yes. You’re here, reading this, which means you’ve survived 100% of your panic attacks so far. That’s a perfect track record.
Panic attacks feel like they’ll last forever or lead to something catastrophic, but they don’t. The average panic attack peaks within 10 minutes and typically resolves within 20-30 minutes. Your body physically can’t maintain that level of arousal indefinitely. Reminding yourself of your survival history isn’t just motivational—it’s factual evidence that you can get through this too.
4. What Are Five Things I Can See Right Now?
This is a classic grounding technique for good reason. When panic hijacks your nervous system, your attention narrows and turns inward. You’re trapped in your head with racing thoughts and physical sensations.
Looking around and identifying specific objects—a blue coffee mug, the doorframe, your shoe, a crack in the ceiling, someone’s jacket—forces your brain to engage with your external environment. Take your time with each one. What color is it? What shape? This simple exercise can break the feedback loop of panic.
5. Am I Breathing Too Fast or Too Shallow?
During a panic attack, your breathing pattern changes dramatically. You might hyperventilate, taking quick, shallow breaths from your chest rather than deep breaths from your diaphragm. This actually makes panic worse because it alters the carbon dioxide and oxygen balance in your blood.
Once you notice how you’re breathing, you can start to change it. Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Breathe so that the hand on your belly rises more than the one on your chest. Count to four on the inhale, hold for a second, then count to six on the exhale. The longer exhale activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which calms you down.
6. What Would I Say to a Friend Going Through This?
We’re often our own harshest critics, especially during panic. You might be thinking things like “I’m weak” or “I should be able to handle this” or “What’s wrong with me?”
Flip the script. If your best friend called you right now, terrified and panicking, what would you say? You’d probably be kind, reassuring, and understanding. You’d tell them it’s going to be okay, that they’re strong for dealing with this, that panic attacks are awful but temporary. Give yourself that same compassion. Speak to yourself the way you’d speak to someone you love.
7. Where Am I Right Now, and Am I Actually Safe?
Panic often involves catastrophic predictions about the future or dwelling on past trauma. This question brings you back to the present moment and reality.
Look around. Are you in your bedroom? Your car? The grocery store? Describe your actual surroundings in detail. “I’m sitting on my couch in my living room. The door is locked. The TV is on. My cat is sleeping on the chair.” Ground yourself in what is, not what your anxiety says might happen. Most of the time, your immediate environment is perfectly safe.
8. What Triggered This Panic Attack?
Sometimes panic attacks have obvious triggers—a stressful meeting, a crowded space, a specific phobia. Other times they seem to come out of nowhere. Both are valid experiences.
If you can identify a trigger, that knowledge is useful. Maybe you skipped breakfast and your blood sugar dropped. Maybe you had three cups of coffee. Maybe you’ve been stressed about something and pushing the feelings down. Understanding triggers doesn’t mean you caused the panic attack or that you’re weak. It just gives you information you can use later.
9. How Can I Make My Body Feel Even 1% More Comfortable?
You don’t have to fix everything at once. Small adjustments can make a real difference. Can you loosen your collar? Take off your shoes? Splash cold water on your face? Step outside for fresh air? Lie down?
Physical comfort matters. If you’re hot, cool down. If you’re cold, wrap yourself in a blanket. If the lights are too bright, dim them. These tiny acts of self-care send a message to your nervous system that you’re taking care of yourself and that you’re safe.
10. What’s One Thing That Usually Helps Me Feel Calmer?
Your brain is flooded with stress hormones right now, which makes it hard to think clearly. But somewhere in your memory, you know things that help you feel better.
Maybe it’s listening to a specific song. Maybe it’s calling a particular person. Maybe it’s holding an ice cube, petting your dog, or watching a favorite video. Even if it feels impossible that anything could help right now, try it anyway. Your coping strategies might work better than you think, even in crisis.
11. Can I Change My Position or Move My Body?
Your body needs to do something with all that adrenaline. Sitting still and trying to “calm down” often backfires because your muscles are primed for action.
Stand up and shake your arms and legs. Do some jumping jacks. March in place. Walk around the block. The movement burns off excess adrenaline and gives your body a physical outlet. Plus, changing your physical position can shift your mental state. If you were sitting and panicking, standing might help interrupt the pattern.
12. What Time Is It, and What Do I Need to Do in the Next Hour?
This question has two purposes. First, it grounds you in time. Panic warps your sense of time, making minutes feel like hours. Looking at a clock gives you an objective anchor.
Second, it helps you think practically. Do you need to be somewhere? Do you have an obligation? If not, you can focus entirely on getting through this. If you do have something coming up, you can plan accordingly. Maybe you need to send a text saying you’ll be late. Maybe you can reschedule. Thinking practically engages your problem-solving brain, which helps counter the emotional flood.
13. Is There Someone I Can Reach Out To?
You don’t have to go through this alone. Panic attacks are isolating, and your anxiety might tell you that reaching out is weak or burdensome. That’s the panic talking.
Call or text someone who makes you feel safe. You don’t have to explain everything. You can simply say, “I’m having a panic attack and I need to hear a friendly voice.” Most people want to help. If you don’t feel comfortable reaching out to someone you know, there are crisis text lines and hotlines staffed by trained volunteers who can talk you through it.
14. What Do I Know About Panic Attacks That I’m Forgetting Right Now?
When you’re in the middle of a panic attack, rational knowledge seems to vanish. But you actually know a lot. You know that panic attacks are temporary. You know they can’t hurt you. You know your symptoms are caused by adrenaline, not a heart attack or stroke. You know you’ve survived this before.
Try listing facts about panic attacks out loud or in your head. “Panic attacks typically last 10-20 minutes.” “My heart is racing because of adrenaline, which is harmless.” “This feeling will pass.” Sometimes hearing facts in your own voice helps your brain shift from emotional to logical processing.
15. Am I Fighting This Feeling, and What Would Happen If I Stopped?
There’s a strange paradox with panic. The harder you fight it, the worse it gets. When you resist and think “I need to stop this right now,” you’re adding another layer of stress on top of the panic.
What if you didn’t fight? What if you just let the panic be there without trying to push it away? This doesn’t mean you want the panic or enjoy it. It means accepting that right now, in this moment, this is what you’re experiencing. Say to yourself, “Okay, I’m panicking. This is uncomfortable, but I don’t have to fight it. I can just let it run its course.” Acceptance often takes the wind out of panic’s sails.
16. Have I Eaten or Had Water Recently?
Low blood sugar and dehydration can both trigger or worsen panic symptoms. Your body needs fuel to function properly, and when it doesn’t have it, stress hormones kick in.
If you haven’t eaten in several hours, your shakiness might be partly from hunger. If you haven’t had water, your racing heart might be partly from dehydration. You don’t need a full meal right now, but sipping water or eating something small—crackers, a banana, a handful of nuts—might help stabilize your system.
17. What’s My Breathing Pattern Doing to My Carbon Dioxide Levels?
This gets a bit technical, but it’s worth knowing. When you hyperventilate, you blow off too much carbon dioxide. This creates something called respiratory alkalosis, which causes many panic symptoms: dizziness, tingling, feeling like you can’t get enough air.
The fix is counterintuitive. You don’t need more oxygen—you need to retain carbon dioxide. That’s why breathing into a paper bag used to be recommended (though it’s fallen out of favor for safety reasons). Instead, try breathing slowly and gently. Focus on making your exhales longer than your inhales. This helps restore your blood gas balance and reduces symptoms.
18. What Part of My Body Feels Most Grounded Right Now?
Even during intense panic, some part of your body usually feels more stable than the rest. Maybe your feet on the floor. Maybe your back against the chair. Maybe your hands resting on your legs.
Focus all your attention on that part. Really feel it. If it’s your feet, notice the weight, the pressure, the temperature. Press them into the floor. This concentrated attention on a stable body part can spread calm to the rest of your system. It’s like finding a solid rock in a rushing river—once you grab it, you have something to hold onto.
19. What’s the Worst That’s Actually Happened During Any of My Panic Attacks?
Anxiety creates terrifying predictions. You fear you’ll faint, die, lose control, or go crazy. But look at your actual history. What’s the worst thing that’s really happened?
Usually, the worst outcome is that the panic attack was intensely uncomfortable and maybe embarrassing. Maybe you had to leave a situation or cancel plans. Those outcomes aren’t fun, but they’re manageable. Your fears about dying, fainting, or losing your mind haven’t come true. This pattern matters. Your anxiety makes threats it can’t follow through on.
20. How Do I Want to Treat Myself After This Passes?
This question shifts your focus toward the future and self-compassion. Panic attacks are exhausting. They drain you physically and emotionally. You deserve kindness afterward.
Think about what would feel nurturing. Maybe a nap. Maybe your favorite comfort food. Maybe a hot bath or shower. Maybe canceling your evening plans and watching a movie. Maybe calling someone who makes you laugh. Planning something kind for your future self gives you something to look forward to and reminds you that this awful moment will end and you’ll need to take care of yourself on the other side.
Wrapping Up
Panic attacks are brutal, but they’re also beatable. These questions give you tools to interrupt the spiral and reconnect with the parts of your brain that can help you cope. The more you practice asking them, the more automatic they become.
You don’t need to ask all 20 questions during every panic attack. Even asking yourself one or two can shift your experience. Keep this list handy—screenshot it, bookmark it, write your favorites on a note card. When panic strikes, you’ll have a roadmap back to calm.
Most importantly, be patient with yourself. Managing panic is a skill, and like any skill, it takes practice. You’re doing hard work just by trying, and that deserves recognition.