The anxiety comes from your unconscious proding you to get your life going and the panic is that your not sure what you are supposed to do. Search your soul and ask yourself the question "am i living life to its fullness". Fullness means getting involved with other parts of creation. A wise man once told me that life is a singular journey and i replied if thats so why am i standing in front of your hearing this, why arent you talking to yourself! Fullness means creating new things to offer the world to ease the weight off the shoulders of others. Often times the thing you create brings financial wealth. Its never to late to be famous.
dave
so is it anxiety or panic?
These feelings you have been a topic of many spiritual leader who suggest that our bodies are reaching to enlightenment knocking on the door. The theory goes that if a person lives a life under what is expected of them, there is a mechanism built in that will push them to be the person that they were created to be and to fullfill their lifes destiny. They call these Charara movements and can be scary if not interstood. They are based on energy zones in our body, most situated in our spinal column. I personally have had 2 myself and once surviving it, was like a door had been opened to a new and fresh look on life.
It is possible to hyperventilate and not know you are doing it. Try this breathing technique the next time it happens and see if it helps. Take a deep breath in through your nose, hold it for 5 seconds and count this out in your head, then let it all out through your mouth. Continue doing this until you are calm. You can do this standing, sitting, lying down. You can do this and nobody will even know you are doing it. So no matter where you are, when this feeling overcomes you, try this breathing technique.