As you write, there is a normal tendency to use a particular word often. I once compared notes with a bunch of writers and we shared, as it were, words that we tended to use a lot and then had to edit out. The different writers each had unique words.
Sometimes, it is the nature of a particular story that one word keeps cropping up, words like “panicky,” or “beautiful,” or “gigantic.” It happens because it is inherent in the nature of the story, and for the writer the word is a shortcut to emotional continuity, particularly in a first draft. The problem is not the use of such repetition, but that they must be pulled. Why pulled? Because these big words—if I may call them that—if used too often are diluted in terms of the impact they have on the reader. If the character is panicky once, that carries a strong impression. If the character is panicky ten times, it becomes a repetitious quirk, which may even be funny, just when you don’t want to be.
Aside from your own eye and ear, computers make it easy to track down such repetitious use of words, by going to the word search function.
The great French 19th Century novelist Flaubert, spoke of choosing the right word (“la mot juste”) for the right moment. That also means holding back the right word for just the right moment.