Hello everyone. I've been having an extremely hard time figuring out what has gone wrong with me, and while I know that the internet tends to be a terrible place to communicate problems I'm really just sort-of desperate to talk about what is going on, and maybe getting it off my chest, and your responses, can help me out.

So I'm a 24 year old male who is extremely unhappy with his life and has been for a long time, but it's not something like aimless depression or anything. It's just that where I am with life currently is not where I'd like to be, or ever thought I'd be. No college degree, no professional experience, still live at home with my parents, and lots of other small things like no girlfriend, no friends, no car, and some other stuff.

I haven't rooted myself into self-deprecation though, and will be finishing up my Associates Degree this Fall and, as long as the financial aid goes through, going away to a 4 year college come January. And I think that that will just about solve a lot of my worries. I can summarize all the to-be described sensations as being caused by my being extremely embarrassed and ashamed of my life so far, and much of this has to do with my still living at home with my parents (who I've always had terrible issues with), and that I still live in the town I grew up in and am just paralyzed with embarrassment whenever I see someone I went to school with or haven't talked to in a long while.
I really need to move, and I think that when I do that will be the solution to all of this madman stuff that is going on--- but the issue is that it is months away, and my mind is just so rapidly becoming a mess that I have no idea the degree of damage that is accumlating on me right now, and that too is terrifying me.

But I'll spare the life story, and just talk about the symptoms.

Again, I'm 24, and in all my life I've never had panic attacks. But I started to get them about 3 months ago, and truly had no idea what was going on with me. They would happen once every 2-3 weeks, and eventually I figured out that, hey, this is a panic attack. So I looked up breathing exercises and things like that--- but nothing has worked, and at this point I'm having a panic attack every single day. It's taking a toll; my heart feels like there's a hollow in it, and I can never catch a full breath even when I'm not having one. I've always been a pretty heavy smoker, but at this point in my life I'm having trouble going even 15 minutes without a cigarette because I constantly feel the pressure in my chest rising, and without a cigarette it eventually takes over and becomes a full panic attack.
When I get them I don't go completely winded, but what happens is I can't think straight, my breathing irregular and painful, and I feel the blood in my body rushing absolutely everywhere. I become terrified of even the most lowest of loud noises, and my head swirls with the above words of embarrassment, shame, regret, failure, etc.
I can't do anything when I'm having one of these, and because of that I'm moving towards agoraphobia.

I'll avoid the life-story, but I need to note that I've always lived a very introverted life. For one I'm naturally nocturnal; I've been this way since I was 10 years old, and even dropped out of highschool because of it. I don't mind it; I like the quiet, I like the solitude of night and what-not, but the point is that this trait of mine isn't helping me with the agoraphobia developing. I also have always been agitated by crowds, and just get all frustrated and disagreeable when I'm at places where lots of people are happy or there are teenagers or other stuff like that. I can't stand it, and never could, so I haven't been to any place that has more than, say, 10 people in it since I was about 14 or so. [---which, now that I think about it, makes me wonder if I've been agoraphobic for a while?]

But there's still some certain daylight activities I've always tried to do, which is basically finding a cute girl every now and then. I'm not a playboy or anything like that, but every 4-5 months I get the urge to find a girl to fool around with and will force myself out during the daytime and go sit at the quiet college cafes a few towns over. I've never approached a girl in my life, but girl's sometimes come up to me and that always satisfies the pretty low need I have for socialization.
And I like it, too. Not always, but sometimes being at a cafe or bookstore during the day is kind of nice. So while I only do that every few months or so, it is something that I've enjoyed---

God. Chewing my teeth here at how pathetic that all is. A single social visit every couple of months--- I guess that's been a kind of crazy trait also all along.

I need to wrap this up though.

Basically I can't do anything at all except go to work anymore. I'm a street-sweeper at night, and it's a job where I'm alone, where there is nobody who talks to me, and it works out well for me. When the job is over I come home, lock myself in my room, and do nothing but smoke cigarettes and read and hope like Hell my chest keeps from blowing up. I spend a lot of time chewing my lip and balling my fists and wanting so much to die, but I also know, with what I started this post with, that I'm soooo close to getting past all of this. I truly believe that my problems will be solved once I can move away, but as it is I just don't make enough money to be able to buy a car, afford insurance, pay rent, and all the other things like going to a laundromat and what-not.
So I'm stuck with my life as-is for about 5 more months. I'm so, so, so close to breaking through what has been a damn nightmare for the past 3 years of my life once I realized how unhappy and ashamed I was of everything. I'm seriously right there--- but my body is breaking apart. My head is just off the tracks, and seriously I'm just so afraid of everything every single day of my life.

Just really don't know what to do. I really don't. I know I just totally botched trying to explain all of this so maybe if someone can give me a checklist to follow I can explain this all more clearly and for all of you who've been through this before can help me more. I really can't express enough how much any and all advice would be appreciated by me.

Thanks.