David, I always find the best way to get it out of my system is to talk about what is going thru my mind. Just turn it into a verbal thing, no matter how mixed up it might seem. Its when its bottled up inside you that it seems to grow and just get worse. You have to empty it out. If you have no one listen to you, then write it out, get on the computer and just write what is going through your head. It has to come out.
I am a believer in medication, because I am a believer that these things are caused when the chemicals in our brain get out of order, and we lose our logic and our ability to put problems in perspective. It doesnt change the actual problem, it just makes us logically work it out better and that in turn helps us solve it, or accept that we have no control over it.
I take one tablet every morning. It is an anti anxiety medication called Lexapro. If I have to take this tablet for the rest of my life, so what. I have to take a cholesterol tablet for the rest of my life. Both are controlling a physical ailment, and neither less important to my quality of life.
Something I have also learned and tried to live by, is to stop wasting energy or anxieties on things that I have NO control over. Im not saying not to care about things that are not personal, Im saying, not to get anxious about those things. If you have NO control, you are not going to get it, by making yourself sick over it.
Something else that therapy teaches you, is that YOUR ARE NOT ALONE and YOU ARE NOT GOING CRAZY. You would be surprised at the number of people who go through exactly what you are going through. Your symptoms are written in text books. Believe it or not, it is a common phenomenom. Look it up on the net, and you will think they are writing about YOU.
The good thing is that people do get through these attacks, they find a way, whether it be by medication, or other means, they learn to control it.
My best advice is to spill it out, empty it out of yourself like you are givng yourself a cleansing.