Graciecat

There's no reason to be embarrased, I'm sure it won't be the first time he's had someone talk to him about this problem.
I was the other way...I felt so scared and awful all of the time that I couldn't wait to get to the Doctor and find out what was wrong with me.

Why wouldn't you be up for therapy?
It's true that it doesn't work for everyone..it didn't do a thing for me, but it would be worth a try, because it does work well for a lot of people, some also have success with a combo of meds and therapy.

Another thing...when you tell your Doctor about how you feel if he just shoves medication at you without doing tests to rule out other things first then run away as fast as you can and find another Doctor.
Some Doctors are much to quick to put everything down to anxiety or panic disorder without even trying to rule out other causes.

I was only 16 when I was dx'd and I had every test in the book before my Doctor DX'd me with panic disorder.