Thank you so much for your replies..unfortunately I have 2 children ages 6 and 8 and it's hard for me to get away and do any sort of breathing excercises or clear my mind of anything lol....i am very active in the community and started working for our school district as a sub in different positions at the school last year...I am scared to death that when I go back I'm going to embarass or my children somehow...and as I said..the meds seem to be the only thing to work, but the dr. wants to send me back to do the breathing exercises and all that and I'm not very optomistic about it working....my dr. is concerned I may become dependent on the ativan, but I have been taking it for almost 13 yrs and have only used it when I'm feeling overly anxious...but at this point I'm just scared to death that I will have another attack and end up in the er again.