Anxiety/panic attacks

So apparently I've been having mild forms of these for years and not knowing it. These are super tough. As I write this right now I'm trying not to have one. I think that having OCD helps trigger the anxiety attacks. When I get them, I feel like there is a knot in my stomach, I go tense, and nothing will be okay. Sometimes crying is involved. It's intense. I just found out that a lot of my relatives get these, but no one really talks about them. My Aunt opened up to me about it all and it was great. I felt like someone in my family gets it. My family is great and all, but they all have issues showing their emotions. I honestly think that if they talked about it more with each other and made themselves available to the next generation (mine) that it would create a great support system to help everyone.
My friend Jess suffers from these things too. Just last night we were driving to the store. She is currently in a rental car because her sister Tboned her car. A police officer was in front of us, flipped a U turn and then flipped another U turn so they were following us. They followed us all the way to the store. Jess pulled into the parking lot and had a full on attack. She was crying and hyperventilating etc. It was bad. It took her a while to calm down enough to go into the store.
Basically, panic attacks/anxiety suck ass. They affect people in ways that you would not even think of. Even writing. I can tell right now that this post has a different, scattered type of flow than my normal ones do. It's because I'm having anxiety. Weird how our body processes things and shows them in outward forms (like the writing style).
Well, if any of you have any helpful suggestions, they are most welcome. :)