MikeLewis, I wouldn't worry at all about your medical problem at all. I have known pilots lose their medicals with far worse than panic attacks through personal stress. They usually make a full recovery and return to flying.
What you need to worry about is the 'profession' you are letting your self into.
I have been a pilot man and boy. Model kits, Balsa rubber powered things, gliders, PPL, RAF and several airlines. Long haul, short haul, freight, charter, schedules, three Boeings, Jet Command, fifty types and about 7000 hours.
I love aeroplanes and always will do. I particularly love my present Boeing Jet. My fellow pilots are a great bunch.
I am leaving the industry to become a teacher.
Why?
Post 9/11 the airline industry is on a mission to cut costs. Not just as a temporary measure but as a permanent way of life.
How does this affect me?
No roster stability. In fact, most of the time no roster. Next week was three days off. Today the airline took those away and a whole raft of family plans have now been scrapped. My Ops Directors idea of leadership is to discreetly tell the pilots not to have aircraft defects fixed away from base. Apparently he wants us to fly defective aircraft (with a full load of passengers) back to base as a matter of financial expediency.
I have fifteen years to retire. In order to stay employed I will probably have to move my family as the airlines change their plans. Probably I would work for half a dozen airlines in the next fifteen years just to keep the work coming in.
I see my fellow pilots families destroyed by aggressive rostering practices. Most of us would far rather be doing something else and flying for fun. The smartest guy I know left the RAF and became a lawyer. He pays for a large London house, sends three kids to private school, owns a sporting biplane and a house on the coast. He never missies a night with his family.
I live in a two bedroom place, cannot afford any decent hobbies, will forgo private education for my children and have not accrued a decent enough pension to retire on.
Hence the career change. Stability. In a word. Hopefully reward and job satisfaction too.
The best of it is I can guarantee to keep my family together.
Flying? Nope. Done that, got the tee shirt and I am keeping it in the car to clean the windows with.
My best advice is that you ask yourself some searching questions about why you want to work in the airline environment. Having a passion for flying is not the relevant issue.