A Literary Prescription for

Panic Attacks

For the false alarm that feels like the end of the world, and the long work of understanding it.

A panic attack lies to you. It tells you that you are dying, or losing your mind, or about to fall apart in front of everyone, and it tells you with such force that the body believes it. None of it is true, though that is very hard to feel in the moment. Understanding what panic actually is, a false alarm in an oversensitive system, is the beginning of taking its power back. These books and poems are for that slow, steadying work, and for the reassurance that you are not broken and not alone.

Books Poetry Quotes & Prose

Books

Prescribed reading

Some of these are clear, practical guides to what panic is and how to loosen its grip, and some are honest, companionable accounts from people who have lived with it. Non-fiction and memoir together, with one novel, they all carry the same quiet message: this is understandable, this is common, and it does get better.

When Panic Attacks

David D. Burns · 2006

A practical, drug-free toolkit from a leading figure in cognitive therapy, full of techniques for talking back to the catastrophic thoughts that fuel panic. Burns is warm and methodical, and gives you something to actually do when the fear rises. For anyone who wants concrete tools rather than reassurance alone, this is a genuinely useful handbook.

Hope and Help for Your Nerves

Claire Weekes · 1962

Decades old and still unmatched, this gentle classic laid out the counter-intuitive path through panic: not fighting the fear, but facing it, accepting it, floating through it and letting time pass. Weekes writes like a kind doctor who has all the time in the world for you. Countless people credit this small book with their recovery.

“Face. Accept. Float. Let time pass.”

The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook

Edmund J. Bourne · 1990

A comprehensive, much-loved workbook covering relaxation, breathing, exposure and the thinking patterns behind anxiety and panic. It is the sort of book you work through slowly rather than read straight, and it rewards that. For anyone who likes structure and wants to build a real set of skills over time, it is a steady, trusted companion.

Reasons to Stay Alive

Matt Haig · 2015

Haig’s honest account of coming through a breakdown and years of anxiety and depression is written in short, luminous fragments, exactly the right size for a frayed mind. It is not a how-to so much as a hand held out in the dark, a voice saying it was unbearable and it passed. Warm, quotable and quietly life-affirming.

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful

Sarah Wilson · 2017

Part memoir, part exploration, Wilson approaches her lifelong anxiety with curiosity rather than shame, gathering wisdom from science, philosophy and her own hard-won experience. She reframes the anxious mind as something that can be lived with, even learned from. A restless, generous book for anyone tired of being at war with their own nervous system.

Turtles All the Way Down

John Green · 2017

A tender novel narrated by a teenage girl caught in the tightening spirals of anxiety and intrusive thought. Green, who lives with the same condition, writes the experience from the inside with rare accuracy and compassion. For anyone whose panic comes braided with obsessive worry, Aza’s story is startling, moving recognition.

Poems about panic attacks

For the worst of it, and after

“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain”

Emily Dickinson, c.1861

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading — treading — till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through —

Dickinson catches the terror of a mind that feels as though it is coming apart, the pressure, the strange dislocation, the sense of breaking through into something frightening. If panic has ever made you fear for your own sanity, this poem is oddly consoling: someone else felt exactly this, and put it into words, and survived to write it down.

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from “No worst, there is none”

Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1885

No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
…O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed.

Hopkins names the vertigo of acute distress, the mind’s own sheer cliffs and unfathomable drops. It is not a comforting poem, but it is a truthful one, and sometimes being told the truth about how bad it feels is its own relief. He ends, quietly, on the mercy of sleep and the fact that each day dies with sleep. The worst does pass.

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from “The Rainy Day”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1842

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

After the storm of panic, Longfellow offers the gentlest possible steadying: the sun has not gone anywhere, it is only hidden, and dark days are the common lot, not a sign that something is uniquely wrong with you. It is a poem to read once the worst has passed, when you need a hand to help you back to ordinary ground.

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Quotes & Prose

Quotes about panic attacks to keep

Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.

Walter Anderson

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Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Susan Jeffers

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You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.

Pema Chödrön

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Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.

Charles Spurgeon

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This too shall pass.

Persian adage

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From Georgia

Something to do when the fear rises

A gentle practice for loosening the grip of spiralling thoughts, and an essay on how a steady meditation habit quietly calms an anxious system.

Overthinking Relief: A Gentle Mindfulness Practice

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A soft, guided practice for the racing, looping thoughts that feed panic, helping you step back from the spiral and let it settle.

Listen Now For Free

When Everything Feels Too Much

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A soft, undemanding practice for the moments panic makes everything feel like too much. Somewhere to rest, and simply breathe.

Listen Now For Free

Calm Your Nervous System

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A guided practice for settling an overwhelmed nervous system, easing the body out of alarm and back towards steadiness.

Listen Now For Free

The Benefits of Meditation for Healing

Personal essay by Georgia Clare · The Library

On how a small, regular meditation practice slowly retrains an anxious nervous system, and why gentleness works better than force.

Read the Essay →

The Inner Peace Toolkit

Digital Self-Care Toolkit · Georgia Clare

2 guided meditations, an Inner Peace Journal, an affirmations eBook, 10 printable affirmation prints and 10 calming phone wallpapers — small daily practices to come back to whenever you need to slow down and reconnect with yourself.

Explore the Toolkit →

Questions people ask

Reading for Panic Attacks

Where should I start?

If the panic is happening often, start with Hope and Help for Your Nerves by Claire Weekes. It is old now, but nothing has bettered its central, steadying message: that you recover not by fighting the fear but by letting it wash through you. And if you want something warmer for the small hours, Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive is a hand held out from someone who has been there. The poems below are short, if a whole book feels like too much right now.

What can I read when panic makes it hard to focus?

Something short, kind and undemanding. Reasons to Stay Alive and First, We Make the Beast Beautiful are both written in small, breathable pieces you can read one at a time. Or begin with the poems and the lines to keep further down the page. When your attention is frayed, a few honest lines can do more than a whole chapter.

Which quotes about fear and panic are worth keeping?

Quotes worth keeping include “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” (Marie Curie), “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” (Susan Jeffers) and “This too shall pass.” You will find these and more in the quotes section above.

Can reading really help with panic attacks?

It can, though it works best alongside proper support, and panic that is frequent or overwhelming is worth taking to a doctor. What reading offers is understanding, and understanding is quietly powerful here. Learning what panic actually is, that it is a false alarm and not a real danger, takes some of its power away. And the books here prove you are not the only one, which panic loves to make you believe.

Panic Attacks

Prescribed reading

For the worst of it, and after

Quotes about panic attacks to keep

Something to do when the fear rises

Reading for Panic Attacks

Where should I start?

What can I read when panic makes it hard to focus?

Which quotes about fear and panic are worth keeping?

Can reading really help with panic attacks?

More prescriptions await.