Dannyboy, I don't know if we're all talking the same terms here.
Let me outline my personal definitions, and others can modify them as they like.
Stress: there's too much work to get done in the time allotted; money is just about gone, and bills are due; or any other situation that raises blood pressure.
Anxiety: the meeting/job tomorrow is either going to make or break my career; the job interview is tomorrow, and I really need this job; etc.
Anxiety attack: rapid breathing and heart rate; sweating; feeling like you're either going insane, having a heart attack, or are going to die; inability to focus on the task/conversation at hand; wishing that you could leave whatever place you're in and just get to someplace where you think you'll feel comfortable.
Panic attack: when the anxiety attack comes on quickly, and is much more intense than an anxiety attack; may actually be physically debilitating.
I've had all of the above. I've had anxiety attacks so bad that my wife could actually hear the bed rattling on the floor. Panic attacks so bad that I had to pull to the side of the road because I couldn't drive. (A few months ago, a woman here in the MKE area had a panic attack, and drove off the road into Lake Michigan, with her kids in the car).
Those are my loosely-defined terms. Just trying to make sure that we all understand what each other is talking about.
