Hi Dr. Bienenfeld, I am really suffering from anxiety disorder and panic attack(If I was right cause I am not really sure) that I have these years, and I m seeking for professional help. Let me tell you my story: I am a 18 year old guy, I have the following symptoms for almost 1.5 years. Since the beginning of last year, I had experienced morning sickness in terms of retching in the morning, which gives me a hard time of eating breakfast or doing anything in the morning(things like I couldn t talk to people or I m gonna throw up, though nothing really came out but I just had the feeling of vomiting and then coughing) and like i said, I thought it was going to deal with Pharyngitis(my symptom in the morning is really similar with Pharyngitis). However after several inspections then I was told by my doctor that there s nothing in my throat so that it couldn t be Pharyngitis. Therefore I had no idea of what s gong on in my body since doctors couldn t give me an exact answer... Things changed in the beginning of this year, since I had my speech class for a semester, I realized that I might not having morning sickness because I had same symptom(couldn t talk due to the bad feeling of vomit) every time before I had to make a speech in front of everyone... so it might caused by nervous. And I think it s true, because I do have those panic attack symptoms( sweating in my hands, short breathing, shaking,etc) when I m nervous; I looked up online and the phrase anxiety disorder just popped up so I guess I might need some help, because this thing just ruined my life... now i can t do any thing that requires me to be in front of everyone, like making a speech or performing(I love singing!) and I m even getting nervous of going to some new places! BTW I m going to college next month... so I don t want to be in this horrible mood when I m in college! Because that s just going to prevent me doing anything! I want to get rid of this so bad, so I told my mom about going to a psychiatrist but she refused, basically what she said was visiting a psychiatrist could cause a permanent medical record in your life, I didn t know if that s true or not. If you know please tell me.. So now I m really suffering from both my disease and negative attitude from my family, I really don t know what to do and sometimes I even thought I had depression. I don t want to live with this in my life forever, I need some help! Please!