Explaining Panic Attacks to People Who Don't "Get It"

Samantha Shutz puts it quite well in her book, I Don’t Want To Be Crazy:

“I ask her to think of a time when she was really scared.
She says she once thought she was being followed.
I tell her to remember how it felt-
The terror, the sweat, the heart racing-
To feel it now, in the living room
With the Persian rugs and antiques
She doesn’t understand.
Why would she feel it now,
In her own house, where she is safe?

I tell her
that’s a panic attack.”