Oh, thank you. My best coping skill is meditation, which I haven’t done in a while. My current therapist is helping me with some grounding exercises. For the most part I try not to let it take over my life too much.
I’ve heard meditation is really helpful. I’ve tried meditating in the (pretty distant) past, with so-so results. It’s difficult to impossible for all kinds of random thoughts not to intrude and take over, so I can get to the ‘mind like a mirror’ point, where my mind is like a calm lake reflecting its surroundings. I’ve heard that, instead of fighting those random thoughts, you should just learn to ignore them when meditating, like ignoring a fly buzzing around your head. But I have a virtual swarm of flies 
This thread reminded me of a book by Jean M. Auel (The Valley of Horses - part of her Earth’s Children series) in which she discussed the role of panic. Here’s a quote from the book:
“He didn’t know that panic was a survival trait, in extreme circumstances. When all else fails, and all rational means of finding a solution have been exhausted, panic takes over. And sometimes an irrational act becomes a solution the rational mind would never have thought of.”
We do know from neuropsych testing that the subconscious is a thing, and we can become aware of certain things before we’re actually, consciously aware of them. The default assumption here is that panic leads to bad choices. Can we question that assumption? Do we have some measurable proof that panic necessarily leads to higher mortality rates?
The only case I can think of for sure is mass shootings. Tonic immobility (freezing) is not an optimal response in this situation, but it’s very common. Of course, tonic immobility is not a choice, it’s just something your body does in response to a threat. It’s very common in sexual assault as well, though arguably that is the safest outcome for many sexual assault victims, as fighting back is more likely to result in injury or death. I also think it’s something different than panic.
Sure, and I believe it has been questioned pretty well in this thread. I think the best arguments have been that, although a panic reaction may not always be the best response to every danger, a reaction that is extreme and quick without stopping to think will help in many, maybe even most, situations; and that since we are a social species, a panic reaction helps to alert others that we are in danger. Also, the ‘freezing up’ panic response, while again certainly not useful in every situation, may be an artifact of our prehistoric ancestors staying very still to make themselves less noticeable to predators.
I don’t think panic always leads to bad reactions. But I once had someone run in panic from a wasp in my house, with the result that she tripped and fell flat on her face, bruising herself and causing herself both more pain and greater risk than the wasp could have caused her even if it had stung her; which it wasn’t trying to do. (She’s not allergic to wasps; and I picked up the entirety non-aggressive wasp on a bit of something and put it outside.)
So sometimes panic leads to bad reactions; and I’m sure there’s lots of other cases — somebody kicks at or runs from a dog who wouldn’t have bitten them otherwise, People whose hair or clothes catch fire run instead of rolling to put the fire out. That same friend of mine once ran from a possible threat into moving traffic when she could as easily have run into a store for help. But you have a good point that we don’t know whether the bad-result cases outweigh the good result cases. Maybe they don’t.