I need help! from those with anxiety and those who know how to deal with it.

Lately, I have been unable to control my anxiety at all. I cannot sleep nights, waking up while i'm tossing and turning. Then sleeping until 8 am and only receiving two hours of sleep and when I wake up I feel like I have no slept at all. I have drank chamomile tea, taken sleeping pills and it has done nothing to me. It's been happening for about a month, and is affecting me and others around me as well. My boyfriend has been there for me, so sweet by my side and understanding when I get anxious. But lately it's been so bad, that I get paranoid or maybe I am right, that I feel he's annoyed but he's still by my side when he can.

What sucks is that I have no clue to how my anxiety started. But I do remember when it started to occur and how long it lasted.

It started when I had just turned 15 (i'm currently 19 so that's about four years dealing with anxiety). Just started high school, and as the usual I went to a different route with myself: I was a strait A student, I joined the Tennis team, and I lost my friends because of rumors and the time I couldn't speak to them. I decided not to continue my friendship because I felt it was a waste of time trying to clean through the gossip, seeing that they couldn't ask me directly if all of that was true since I was so busy.

Soon as the 3rd month of high school hit I was getting panic attacks. I would wake up feeling depressed. Some nights I didn't even want to fall asleep because I knew I was going to wake up feeling so anxious. Then sometimes I would randomly get a panic attack. It was so annoying, because I never knew what it was. Eventually, I started to notice when something triggered a panic attack and when my panic attack had no source at all.

This happened everyday for about 5 months, and I couldn't handle it anymore feeling suicidal. Until I decided to try and deal with it and went to my sister (because she suffers from anxiety) and went online to look for ways to deal with it. Such as avoiding caffeine, how to breath correctly, what foods not to eat and all that stuff. And it worked, I had some control with my anxiety and it was no longer that bad.

During high school I had to deal with it. Sometimes they came, and the most they lasted was only a week. But a week was nothing compared for 5 months so I was perfectly content with just dealing with it. Until the summer of 2011 hit and I started to notice them coming more frequently. Then months went by and they came more and more.

Eventually, December hit and now I am a mess. I don't know what to do anymore, and I am seeing that I have no choice but try and getting help and get prescribed to some sort of medication. I hate seeing that it has to be this way, but for now how do I deal with it?

I'm at my wit's end and simply want some peace. I think anxiety has made me appreciate life more with the smaller things to appreciate and such but it's still hard to deal with. My life is amazing, regarding the anxiety, and there is nothing about it to be sad about. I just want to relax and have a good nights rest. I want my life back.

How do you Redditors with anxiety know how to deal with it? do you have any helpful stories? what happens if I go to a psychiatrist?