I don't know if there is "just" a panic attack. I've only ever had one panic attack in my life, I was sitting outside on my dorm steps on a lovely September, Fall day in college, no work was due yet for classes, no test coming up,. no "reason" at all for feeling as I did so I was able to ride it out and joke now that I've never had another panic attack because it "didn't work" I was able to look around me and see there was nothing wrong so "ignored" it and it went away within about 10 minutes. But thinking about it now; I've always known that it was because I'd just been called by the counseling center to set up my therapy sessions so I was going to be seeing a psychologist once a week, etc. for the first time in my life. I'm sure that is what set it off. I had tried to pretend it was "good" and the next step and that I was glad, etc. didn't realize/acknowledge how scary it all was so I guess my body decided to let me know with a panic attack. I think if I'd been able to acknowledge my feelings I wouldn't have had the panic attack.

Were I you I would "use" panic attacks (be glad of them) as a sign/red "flag" that you needed to look and see what is truly bothering you and not the panic attack itself. When I get road rage or any emotional array or thought not "usual" for me, I know to drop the thought and look for what's wrong/feeling out of control. I always get angry when I'm most frightened and feeling helpless about something or if I've lost or am going to lose someone/something. When my therapist was going to be going on vacation for 6 weeks, I was fine during the session she told me I thought, even though I "knew" I didn't like it and was unhappy but I didn't deal with the depth of my feelings. Once, when I left the session and was walking through the parking lot to my car I spied my therapist's car and the thought to slash her tires came up, LOL, not something I'd ever do in a million years. The image/idea of me slashing my T's tires was so startling to me that I knew it was a flag for being angry at her for going away and leaving me and the "depth" of that feeling. Very crude but recognizable and I'm very glad I was able to give myself that symbol/thought to help me understand like that. Another time when she was going away later in the week I started thinking about switchblade knives, kind of West Side Storyish, and knew myself to be afraid of such knives because I'd be sure to cut myself were I to try to be "cool" with one like I was imagining :-) So, again, laboriously traced it back to "Oh, my therapist told me she was going away last session!".