How did I randomly start getting terrible anxiety out of nowhere

[Johnoh]

Alright, so I have smoked weed for a solid 5 years and I smoked very often. On and off, not like it was every single day but i progressively smoked more and time went on. There were times where I couldn't because I'm a college athlete. 20 years old
I loved getting high and basically did everything high. Earlier in the year I was literally smoking about 4 times a day, weather it was a couple blunts or just bowls. I continued smoking and I noticed I couldn't even handle being high at all. I realize that's this easily deals wrote anxiety. I tried coping with it and smoking smaller amounts but I started having severe anxiety and panic attacks out of nowhere. I thought it was from smoking too much so I stopped for a little, but this attacks didn't go away and they still won't. I was perscibed .25 Xanax and took it for about a week because I literally couldn't sit still in my college classes and needed to pace and I constantly yawned when these attacks occurred. I swear like 30 times in 5 minutes and I get tingly and think I can't control my Body and mind. I wanted to be a man about it, so I stopped taking the Xanax and I got a little better at it. I started to smoke again like a month later when I got a little more comfortable, but before I smoked again I still constantly has these attacks. I thought I was handling them better and smoked a little more progressively. I was smoking more and more as I got a little
More comfortable, I would only toke when I knew it was a good idea and I was not at school or baseball. I thought I got better at it but last week I smoked a joint by myself(which I always did but normally full blunts to myself) and went to the mall. I started freaking the **** out as I was entering the mall. I couldn't feel my body and couldn't control my thoughts. I left the mall instantly and went to my car, I tried to go back in after I "tried" to calm myself down and entered the mall again but I literally couldn't handle it. And it's not some sort of public anxiety. I constantly still get here attacks whether they are small or large ones. So after that mall incident I haven't smoked for about a week and I keep getting them. I get them for stupid reasons and literally look like a mad man when they occur. Even when I'm not high I get them and I can't seem
To understand why. Now that i realized it was anxiety, I can only recall ever having no more than 5 of these in the past but they were minor and went away within minutes basically. My question is, how the **** did this start happening and why? I used to smoke heavy and really enjoyed it to the point where inwas basically
High all day and now I can even take one hot without freaking out. I can't recall having a bad experience with weed besides a couple times where I was to fried. But
Those were recent at all. I literally don't understand where this came from and
How it Came about if these never occurred before. Was there like a chemical reaction in my
Brain from thc or something. I literally feel like I'm slowly going crazy and this attacks have been happening for the past 3 months weather it's when I'm high or sober. I get very cold, and have chills, and yawn and feel like I can't breathe and constantly move my hand and legs and don't wanna talk and basically always have to leave where I am so I can cool off and I don't wanna take Xanax because I was never ever like
This before. It's to the point where people question what's wrong with me because I almost
Completely different now.

[Paxiled]

Listen to yourself.  You're whole life has been ground down to, can I smoke?  Can I smoke?  Marijuana isn't an addictive drug -- you don't get terrible withdrawals when you stop, as you can from taking Xanax regularly for a long period of time -- it is an addictive drug -- but you're living to get high.  That means you're not getting high anymore, you're just using the drug to maintain.  You're past it -- this part of your life is over.  It's not fun anymore, but you're still trying to shoehorn yourself into smoking pot.  Why?  It's just something to do for fun, not a necessity.  You've learned everything pot has to teach -- you don't need it anymore to get into that state.  It's a part of you.  But the drug has become your enemy.  Leave it behind you.  Try taking up meditation and see if you can't get the same state through that.  Feel your exercise.  Be you, not you stoned.  Any intoxicant is something to take our minds somewhere else for awhile, not to take our minds somewhere else always.  Then it's not somewhere else anymore, it's just there all the time.  When I was young and still using weed, there were those of us who smoked for fun and then those who became constant smokers.  It was sad to see people change that way.  Wake up and smell the roses with your nose, not with a drug.  It's time.  Move on.  And get some therapy.  Peace.

[Johnoh]

I've come to the realization that it's probably wise for me to stop smoking and it would be better for my career as well. But I went from an all time stoner p not being able to even take a hit. I would like to occasionally smoke every now and then. Do you think I can take a Xanax and then smoke and be okay. Or will this mess me up and make me feel worse

[Johnoh]

First off, thank you for taking the time to comment on this and give me your input.  
It wasn't like I needed to be high, but I enjoyed it and looked forward to getting high. I know I wasn't addicted because to had to stop multiple times through all of this because of baseball and my job. Now that I got your attention, I want to get a little deeper into this. So like I said I smoked very often and at this point I would say o was somewhat addicted but could have stopped when k wanted to. I was smoking like 4 times a day and I would work high and whatnot. I played baseball in a different state for my first two years of college, which was 12 hours away and I enjoyed it very much. I lived in the dorms and came home and started working. I worked 7-330 Monday thru Friday. I was leaving for a new college that was 45 minutes away from home now in an apartment with a random person on my team whom I didn't know. So like I said I was smoking 4 times a day and the day I left, I didn't smoke at all and got home from work and literally felt like complete ****! Bodily I felt horrible. I felt as if I was completely different. I ended up taking a couple hits out of my herb g-pen(not wax) and had pretty bad anxiety for the first time. I am a very talkative and friendly person, and I was always in public stoned and around everyone. Never was scared to be in public high or anything.
Why did I feel so ****** from not smoking and do you think I had anxiety from a new environment? Even though I was on my complete self for two years?
Also, as my
Anxiety got worse I noticed I could smoke while I was drunk and be somewhat okay. Until one night where I literally felt like I was havin a heart attack, and my chest had been bothering me for the past week. I went into Doctor and they told me it deals anxiety and I had an exo muscular strain in my chest but to be honest I think i bullshitted that just so my parents didn't think I was being a hypochondriac about anxiety.
What do you have to say?

[Paxiled]

Marijuana brings out of us what's inside us and concentrates the mind intensely on one thing.  That's what's pleasant about it when it's pleasant, but it stopped being pleasant for you a long long time ago.  Whenever you find yourself needing to be high on anything to enjoy your day it's time to stop whatever you're using because you're not using it anymore, it's using you.  If you were drinking Scotch that much you'd have seen a problem.  So that's the first thing.  The second is, many people get their first anxiety incidents while stoned, and if you have an anxiety prone mind -- and nobody has figured out why some people have this kind of mind -- then you might think, hey, I got anxious doing such and such, if I do that again I might get anxious again and your mind clicks back into that new learned way of reacting.  When this happens, you run, don't walk, to a therapist who specializes in anxiety treatment, probably one who practices a form called CBT, and try to keep it from becoming a chronic way of thinking.  And you stop smoking weed, because it's no longer something fun to do, just like some day you'll probably get sick of playing baseball and move on.  Except that baseball doesn't intensify neurotransmitters, and marijuana does.  So does Xanax, so if you can solve this without drugs you're better off, but if you do need them then your psychologist can tell you that.  Good luck.