anxiety at night and when learning something new

Hi everyone-

After several anxiety-filled nights, I decided to google this topic and thankfully found this website. I am entering my mid-twenties and have never taken medication for anxiety. Last week, I came close to taking myself to my school's psychologist after a professor called my attention to my unfound anxious behavior. This is pretty much what happened: we were working on a worksheet (myself and three other individuals) when I started looking for an answer through my book, flipping pages incessantly, yet not exactly focusing on what I was looking for. All the while the professor sat in front of us, observing how we worked as a group. This was the first time a professor called me out on my overractive nature to a simple exercise. Regardless, i was taken aback. This episode was a reminder to what I need to get taken care of, but i'm not sure that this is something I can just rid myself from. Since i was younger, i recall myself being an anxious person; this was especially true when I was starting something new (e.g., first day of school, new job, etc) or when learning something new. I started living alone for the first time last september (also, for the first time i'm living 3,000+miles away from home). last fall i did not have the anxious nights that i'm experiencing now. however, ever since i got back from winter break, i have had at least two panic attacks (and while at home during the holidays, i had one panic attack). i googled the symptoms, so i think that is what they were. Typing all of this has made me reflect on what is happening and it is making me realize that this is real. Not something i can push under the rug anymore. I think that my strong willpower to thwart my thoughts into making myself believe that I can overcome these feelings all on my own is not in my best interest. I have a positive view of professionals who help people cope with anxiety, i'm not sure exactly why it is that i haven't made the move.

i am wondering if anyone else on this site has anxiety episodes at night, in which your upper back muscles start to ache and you just feel like going to run a mile or two?

Also, does anyone else feel that they overemphasize the complexity of a task (school-related for me usually) that it nearly debilitates you from achieving the task? (p.s. i am very academically oriented, so even if i see the task similar to climbing mt. everst, i still chug right through it--usually turning in assignments near their due date, or after).