How to Stop Treating Anxiety Like a Fire Drill

Stop Reacting. Start Training Your Nervous System.

When I was younger, a random spike of anxiety would be enough to push me into a full-blown panic attack.

They often came when I was alone because that’s when I felt my most vulnerable and unsafe.

I’d feel the anxiety spike in my body, usually starting with my chest and throat tightening.

That would be enough to catch my attention. “Oh no, it’s happening.”

If you’ve ever had that moment, you know how fast your world can shrink.

From there, as I noticed the symptoms coming online, my brain would start catastrophizing all the ways this could end poorly.

Back then, I didn’t know how to catch the embers early. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already in a five-alarm fire and my mind was convinced the whole house was going down.

I had to learn to stop living in “fire-drill mode,” where I only react once anxiety is unmanageable, and start training on normal days—so I can splash water on the embers long before they become flames.

Why Emergency Mode Makes Anxiety Worse

When you treat every anxiety spike like a crisis, your brain learns that anxiety = danger.

Every time I noticed anxiety, I panicked. And my brain learned: anxiety symptoms mean a panic attack is next. That’s the self-fulfilling loop.

Every time you go into emergency mode to “fix” your anxiety, you’re sending yourself the same message: this isn’t tolerable. And if it isn’t tolerable, your brain will keep treating it like a crisis.

This leads to three distinct costs:

• Cost #1: You train your system to panic faster once you notice familiar anxiety symptoms.

• Cost #2: You shrink your life to avoid what could spike your anxiety.

• Cost #3: You lose trust in yourself (“I can’t handle this”).

I spent most of my 20s and 30s paying these costs, living a smaller life, not trusting myself, and constantly reinforcing that a tight chest and shaky legs meant I was going to die.

Let me tell you, that’s not a way to live.

The Shift: From Fire Drills to Training Reps

Instead of panicking at the first anxiety symptom, the goal is to recognize what’s happening in your body as familiar, not fatal.

I’ve talked about the concept of anxiety being your body’s natural alarm system often on Above Anxiety.

The goal is to change your relationship with the symptoms—to treat them like an early alarm, not a catastrophe.

The symptoms are your body alerting you that the embers will turn into a blaze if you don’t change anything.

What I understand now is that my anxiety isn’t the enemy. It’s my nervous system asking for attention.

My 3 Daily Nervous System Reps

Those of us with more sensitive nervous systems have alarms with a much lower threshold. That means they can trigger earlier and more easily than other people’s.

It explains why I would seemingly be fine walking through a grocery store that I’ve been to many times and start to feel a wave of panic rush over me.

My alarm system was telling me I wasn’t safe… even though I clearly was.

It was just much more sensitive, trying to predict disaster while I was trying to find the protein bar section of the store.

The goal of daily reps is to build capacity so your alarm doesn’t go off as often, and when it does, you come back down faster. We want your nervous system to recognize real danger, not treat dinner with friends like an emergency.

Here are my favorite daily reps to turn down the sensitivity:

1. Meditation: I use a meditation app and do a 5-10 minute meditation as part of my morning routine. I love to do meditations focused on mindfulness and gratitude. Only 2-3 minutes of meditation helps.

2. Journaling: I also journal every morning as part of my routine to get my thoughts and emotions out. No more bottling everything up. Only a few sentences count.

3. Breathwork: I have a daily reminder on my phone at 12:30 pm to do breathwork for a few moments. I generally focus on box breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, or the double-inhale-exhale. Three cycles is enough to make a difference.

What To Do When the Alarm Actually Goes Off

It’s important to have a plan for when your alarm actually does get triggered. Here is a good mini protocol:

1. Notice: “Okay, I’m noticing some anxiety symptoms like a tight chest and shaky hands.”

2. Breathe low and slow for 60–90 seconds. Choose any of the breathwork tools like 4-7-8 or box breathing.

3. Move: walk or shake out tension for 2 minutes. Anxiety creates energy in your system. It needs a way to be released or it will continue building.

4. Return to the moment: “What do I need right now?” (This could be rest, connection with another human being, light exercise like a walk, etc.)

The more you can catch your anxiety and bring your nervous system back down, the more your body learns anxiety isn’t something to be deathly afraid of.

You are re-tagging the anxiety symptoms as something that happens, not something to fear.

The Real Win

For a long time, I measured success (and my masculinity) by whether I had anxiety or not.

Now I measure success differently.

Success is me noticing embers of anxiety rise in my body—and not immediately sending it into a full-on house fire. It’s me being able to notice the symptoms, lead myself into calming my nervous system down, and then taking the next right step.

The more I’ve been able to do this, the easier it’s gotten. And the weirdest thing happens. When you learn you can handle it, it actually starts to dramatically quiet down.

These reps are meant for you to learn to trust yourself. You are now taking a leadership role in changing your relationship with anxiety and lowering the baseline on your alarm system.

You don’t need to eliminate your anxiety. You just need to stop treating it like a five-alarm emergency.

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Pick one rep. Do it daily for the next 7 days. Then notice what shifts.

Let me know what you choose. Comment with one word: walk, breath, journal, meditate, or sleep.