Hi Shane,
Firstly, welcome to SR. You will find a lot of support here.
I have been struggling with anxiety & panic attacks for over 20 years so I know what you are talking about, pretty scary to say the least.
Good to hear that you are open & working with your doctor. I found that getting out & exercising or doing something active a few hours before bedtime usually helped a lot & I also started to do some simple meditation.
I found that my anxiety attacks actually got better after a couple of weeks of not drinking (I was quite surprised by this as one of the reasons I drank was to help rid myself of anxiety).
CBT can also help greatly
Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A follow up visit with you doctor might be good too.
In regards to things being worse or more difficult than in the past that may be due to Kindling as this is a progressive disease (again, check with your doctor ;-). Here is a link with some info
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publicatio...22-1/25-34.pdf
Take care & keep posting ~ NB