I experienced occasional panic attacks in my 20s and 30s. The ones in my 20s were definitely just baseline ones as drugs/alcohol didn't play a role back then, but later the alcoholism made them much worse and more frequent for a while. I didn't have any PTSD at the time and otherwise (sober) just have relatively mild generalized anxiety, but the combination of alcohol and ongoing, sub-optimal life conditions made these things much worse. Like many others, I have learned to recognize and manage my anxiety very well over the years, with practice and haven't had a single panic attack since I was ~37 (am 46 now). I think it demonstrates the power of the mind and cognitive control we can exercise over this that the panic attacks went away years before I even quit drinking. Of course other forms of intense anxiety lasted, and I needed to get and stay sober for that to improve.
I do think different tools work for different folks. I'd heard all the stuff about breathing exercises in the past, but those never made any difference for me. What did was simply the acknowledgement that the episodes were purely physiological fluctuations, knowing they could not really harm me if I didn't do anything stupid reacting to them, and just plain ignoring the mental states. I think what I was doing with it was very similar to the AVRT technique, basically a form of conscious, voluntary detachment/dissociation. I didn't even need to practice it very many times, the attacks just disappeared. I still manage my now usually quite mild anxiety (especially in the mornings) in similar ways - just get going, focus on doing productive things, and it goes away before I even notice. I have also been taking CBD in the past few months (~this year) which, I think, is very helpful for my kind of mild anxiety and motivational issues, but that was not what cured my panic attacks, for sure.
Dwelling on anxious/panicky states while they are occurring is really not helpful IMO. I know I am probably predisposed to anxiety disorders as they run in both lines of my family - that knowledge helps as well. Luckily, I seem to have a much milder version than some of my relatives, but surely anxiety can become disabling and if anyone experiences that level, I would definitely say seek professional help... but stay sober first and foremost!