I agree with dealing with the anxiety first. As someone who has had "all kinds of fun" trying to manage my anxiety without meds for many years because my Drs. are less than useless, I've had to learn my own ways of coping. One of which, is simply to acknowledge (in that moment) that it's ONLY my anxiety/panic disorder, that NOTHING I'm fearing is real & nothing is going to happen to me. I tell myself that over & over & that all I have to do is calm down and wait for it to pass. Another thing I learned to do was identify any and all "triggers" that send me into panic mode. Then, either avoid, eliminate, or confront them. On some occasions the only way for me to conquer my fears was to face them head-on, which showed me how small the things I was afraid of really were, and that gave me strength I didn't know I had! But meds are a good place to start. Fear itself cannot "hurt" you. It only has the power we allow it to have over us