I had half a dozen panic attacks back in September/October for the first time since I started in on heavy opiates years ago. They came out of the blue completely, though I see a lot of background stress looking back. The main symptoms were inability to catch my breath and dizziness, plus feelings of unreality and claustrophobia.
During one of the "episodes," I took half of a 0.5mg alprazolam. But even though I had benzos available, I was afraid that taking them would get me dependent again and deplete my stockpile, so I basically toughed it out.
Going outside for fresh air played a big role in helping me, but I share a tiny cluttered studio apartment with another person, so it may not apply. I was also given the suggestion of breathing in deeply through the nose and then exhaling slowly through the mouth, and it helped somewhat too.
Inside, I could never decide what was better: sitting, standing, or laying down. They all seemed to make things better and worse in turn. But a good interior monologue is also pretty helpful, even though it might sound corny. Just repeating to myself "This is not going to kill me, the world is real, everything's going to be OK, etc." did do me some good.
