Hi Jonny and welcome to PC. 
I totally understand where you're coming from. Panic attacks are frightening and paralyzing. I get that same feeling you explained, where everything just doesn't seem real and you can't focus: it's called derealization, and apparently it is a fairly common symptom of a panic attack.
The best way to deal with panic attacks is to get at the heart of what triggers it. It might be easiest to do this with a therapist. Meds can help, too, but unless the disorder is only biochemical, they won't fix the problem, they'll just hold it at bay. You need to find out why you get panicked and work to address those issues.
Hope this helps; you're not alone here!
Take care,
J
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"One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to stregthen failing courage, to instill faith in hours of despair."
-Bertrand Russell
With love and hope,
<~/J\~>
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