I remember having my first panic attack in 1989. I was at college at Indiana University living with my roommate.  Our walls were thin enough that you could hear conversations from the adjacent dorm room, only in kind of a muffled tone. The two people living next to us must have thought I was crazy. It was pretty embarrassing. Just 19 1/2 short years later I finally learned how to stop panic attacks by interrupting the thought loop that culminates in the attack. The thing is, panic attacks are not a mental illness and a lot of people don't realize that. It's a behavioral problem and as such is treatable by a behavioral approach.