It sounds like you might be hyperventalating. You need to distract your mind into doing something mundane so you can slow down the cortisol build up taking place that is bringing on anxiety/panic attack sensations. A lot of people keep coloring books and will just sit and color for a while, and the brain realizes, "hey, no need to pump cortisol for the ready for fight/flight", and the brain stops producing it and it dicipates and the person feels fine again.

Some people panic because they are panicing and feed into it unknowingly and the difficulty breathy "hyperventalating" happens from that. You are breathing too fast and taking in too much oxygen so that is why you feel like you can't breath.

Ofcourse, this is not if the individual has asthma, that is different.