Heres my story - I sincerely hope it helps you.

I'm just an average joe - I'm a happy go lucky kind of guy. Nothing phases me. Im almost horizontal when it comes to problems and stresses of the day. I live life to the full and nothing is too much bother for me. Im 27 years old. Im married and i have a newly born son. I have a great life, a good job and i earn ok.

Generally speaking, i go out for a beer after work with the fellas, and we talk about sports, girls, beer. the usual kinda thing. Then when I'm done. I catch the late train home, usually alone (after stopping for a drunken burger king) and goto bed. Life's pretty good.

When I'm out, I'm generally the life and soul of the party…"Hey, James has arrived…" Im the first one to get up and dance (even though i dance like a Dad), I'm the first one to get the beers in and I'm usually the one to stand up, make an arse of myself and tell all of the jokes. It's fair to say that people like to be around me and I like to be around them.

Then one day, something changed.

It was about 9pm. Me and some buddies had been out for the night - nothing special a few beers (and I do mean a few) and we decided to go back to one of the guys houses for Pizza. We sat in his dining room, chatting about the experiences of the evening, all with a beer in our hands, waiting for the pizza delivery when suddenly i felt really sick.. Dizzy…. Nauseous… The room. it started to spin.. i couldn't catch my breath….

***Breathing, pounding, couldn't catch my breath

my heart, it pounded…louder and louder. it felt like it was going to break out of my chest….I grabbed at my collar and ripped it down as if my t shirt was trying to choke me…i looked around the room, and it was spinning… i looked at my friends and they were giggling, no idea what was happening to me… it was like a Batman movie … all slow-mo….giggles, laughing….pointing……
Were they pointing at me?? Was it suddenly obvious to everyone in the room that i could not longer talk, or more importantly breath… could everyone actually see what was happening to me?????

Am I going to die???? am i going to pass out?? Am I going to fall on the floor and piss myself? Are all of my mates going to take the piss out of me and from now on my life is going to be utter, utter shit….

What the hell is happening to me!!!!!

I decide that i cannot take it any more and so i decided to make a break for the front door….Fresh air…that will sort it…must have been a bad pint i thought to myself…….i get outside…..all "seems" to clam down a bit…my breathing starts to settle…"what the hell was that"…i start to think…..slowly thinking its all ok again….my mind slowing down, my breathing slowing down, my beating heart slowing down……

Then a mate comes out to see if I'm ok…BAAAM!!! it starts again… heart races faster and faster, breathing faster and faster, I'm going to die, I'm going to die…..nausea, dizzy, I'm going to be sick…. HELP ME…….

So what did i do??? I drove home (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DONT DO THIS).
I drove home, cos i thought that home was safe, i drove home cos i thought that i needed to be alone…One of my buddies, followed me home in his car….We got about 1/2 mile up the road and i had to pull over - there was NO WAY i could drive…let alone safely…. I parked up, left the car door open and unlocked, got into my mates car and was driven home.

Safe……

When i got home, I met my wife and she could see the sheer terror on my face…."whats up with you?" she said, "I'm gonna die" i said.. and with that i ran to the top of the stairs, fell over and started to die….actually i started to hyper ventilate, but i had no idea what that was…

so she called an ambulance - its the first time that I've ever had an ambulance at home, blues and twos flashing…sirens whaling….we live in a cul-de-sac - nice and quite…you can imagine what the neighbours thought at midnight….

anyways the ambulance crew rushed up the stairs to find me curled up in tears at the top barley breathing.... did they bust out the defibrillator? Did they call 999 emergency? Did they call ghost busters?? No…. The lead paramedic said, calmly and with authority…"Son, you're having a panic attack…It will go soon…please, just try to relax"…

RELAX…RELAX… my heart is coming out of my chest, my lungs are about to burst, i can't see anymore as the world is spinning and I'm sweating.. oh my, I'm sweating…..im going to die…relax my arse…..

He gave a bag to breath into….he talked calmly to me.. and within 10 minutes, I was me again… panic over and with that he left…

That was the experience of my first panic attack…An attack that came, one that i didn't know what it was…my wife didn't know either, no one i knew had ever had one before, so i was completely alone….I had absolutely no clue as to what just happened..As a result there was obviously no support, no help and no guidance, no understanding……..What a crappy place to be…..

Next day I woke up and everything was good in the world once again… Normal morning, i recalled the previous night, although to be honest, i couldn't remember all of it, just snip bits of the ambulance driver and feeling sick, nothing too traumatic..i even called my mate and said "Hey!!! you'll never guess what happened to me last night - i had an ambulance at home"… how little did I know what was about to happen….