Meditation has wide ranging and holistic benefits. Do not place a singular agenda for this practice.
Meditation is a health benefit that is global, meaning it affects numerous processes throughout the body. I am hesitant to suggest to someone that if you meditate, an expected outcome will happen. Many people meditate because they want to feel calmer, experience less anxiety, have less depression, or gain more focus. While many times, meditation will exert these benefits, I do not recommend hitching expectations as the measure of success with this routine.
A singular outcome should not be the focus of this consciousness practice. Instead, an appreciation for the wide ranging health benefits should be adopted. For example, mediation has been shown to reduce heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance, increase alpha activity on electrical monitoring of the brain creating a sense of mental acuity and increase the parasympathetic tone which sets the relaxation state in the body.
No one expects regular exercise or eating a healthier diet to cure a single problem, but you know it is critically important for health. The same should be accepted for the purpose of adopting regular meditation practice.
Regular meditation in calm and controlled settings sets the foundation that is needed when you need to tap into this mental state during times of stress.
In times of stress or as anxiety or a panic attack start setting in, breathwork and even meditation techniques are powerful drug-free tools that can bring us back into a calm or clear thinking state of mind. However, in the absence of practice, it is less likely that these techniques will work. It is much more effective to establish a foundation of these practices during a state of calm or in controlled settings. This allows you to tap into and activate this trained state of mind when you need it. Expecting to force calm without this practice is less likely to occur. When you regularly develop breathwork practice, and then during the day when the inevitable stress occurs, you can recall this state that you regularly enter and redirect your thoughts and emotions to your baseline more easily.