Xanax, anyone??

I entered a competition to see who can lose the most weight in 4 weeks.  I had a plan and was super duper motivated.
Given that I'd recently been to the gynecologist about my PCOS and she recommended a low-carb diet to lose weight (and get pregnant!!), I was ready to rock the competition!  I had whole grains and low-carb menu ideas.  I did a phenomenal job, too.  Without a single workout - due to allergies and a raging sinus infection - I lost 4.6 lbs.  Not too shabby!!
And then, Sunday night, I felt a flip-floppy flutter in my chest and a WHOOSH spread from my chest up to my head.  I got severely lightheaded and dizzy.  Breathing through it wasn't doing a damn bit of good.  I could not get my heart or my head to feel normal.  Then... I started thinking heart attack.  And succeeded in freaking myself out, big time.  It was Sunday, around midnight, and there was no way in the world I was going to our ER.  So, I convinced myself I'd feel fine in the morning.  Which, I didn't.  I woke up with a tight ball of pain in my chest... again, making me think heart attack.
I called the doctor and got an appointment for 9:45.  In the meantime, I decided to completely freak myself by alternately researching heart attacks in women and worrying (again) that I'm becoming my mother.
(Just so you don't have to go back to other posts - my mom suffers from many, many illnesses but the mental ones include panic disorder and borderline personality disorder.  The panic disorder is pretty debilitating - she never knows when she'll have a panic attack, it limits where she can go and when, she basically cannot live what I'd call a "normal" life.)
Finally, I get in to see the best ever NP - Summer - at my doctor's office and she reassures me that while my bp was 140/105, my heart sounded great and they'd do an EKG to be sure.  In the meantime, she checked my ear, nose and throat and said I had a vicious sinus infection.  After the EKG came out normal, she basically said the combination of being sick, being constantly on the go, taking decongestants, allergy meds, motrin, drinking caffeine and not getting enough sleep all caught up with me and caused the anxiety.  She prescribed Xanax and a Z-pack.
I've never taken Xanax before.  I've been on the anxiety roller coaster - mood swings, jittery feelings, difficulty breathing, inability to focus - but it had never felt like a heart attack.  And I've always been able to just "take time off" and feel better....

5/24/12 update: I forgot to post this on the original date (4/2011)!!!  I guess I never got around to finishing it.  LOL.  I don't take my Xanax every night, as it says on the bottle.  I take it whenever I'm feeling panicky and can't seem to calm down with breathing or other tricks.  I am very pleased with it.  It helps me regain control of myself, without making me feel foggy or drugged.