Feeling Anxious.

[Disconsert]

So, lately, I've been constantly having these periods of feeling where my chest 'tightens up' and I have a hard time breathing, and I also get really spaced out and just in mental disorder. They come sparingly, when I get extremely worked up about small things that really shouldn't effect me. I am constantly having to keep myself from bursting into random tears. It doesn't make sense half of the time, and when I do break down and cry, sometimes it is about nothing at all. Even more, I feel like I'm not being fair to my boyfriend when I overreact to things and start crying all over him, plus, the one thing I want to do during these episodes is cling to him in an annoying-sort-of-way [which he doesn't like at times].
I recently woke up in the middle of the night, unable to breath, and suddenly crying. I start to worry myself, personally wondering why I am acting as I am, almost as if I can't control it. I've discussed the most of it with my boyfriend; he said I might have anxiety, seeing as I am constantly paranoid and my ways to reason about things is irrational.
My main question is, what do I do? Sometimes I can calm myself down, but, half of the time I make myself feel even worse. I don't want to keep being snappy and unfair to people when I feel like this. Should I see a doctor about it?

[byee]

Well, this not only sounds like anxiety, it also sounds like panic, too. Is there a history of it in your family?

if you can identify the causes of it, great, try to address it on your own. If not, then, yes, seeing a doctor would most likely help. These things usually dont improve on their own, unless you can figure, and sort, them out and find better ways of dealing with it.

[Disconsert]

Is there a history of it in your family?
No, not that I know of. I'm kinda worried about confronting my parents about it, because they are a big cause of it, with all of the pressure put on me to print out straight A's and "be good".

[Avalikia]

It definately sounds like it could be panic disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_disorder), something I have experienced myself. Nobody that I know of in my family experiences it either (though there is a fair amount of anxiety without panic attacks), so that's not always a good indicator. But what you described isn't detailed enough for me to say what I think the odds are: it could be why your anxiety is so bad, or it could not. If it is, whatever is causing your anxiety is not responsible for these severe reactions; it's perfectly normal for a parent's expectations to cause stress, what seems abnormal here is your reaction to that stress and that part of it wouldn't be your parents fault (or yours, for that matter). Either way, it sounds like this has become bad enough that you should discuss this with a professional; you shouldn't feel guilty about getting help when you need it no matter what caused it.