Honestly, embracing and accepting it as part of who you are is exactly the thing that will lessen it and allow you to overcome. Combine that with some CBT and learning to reframe your thoughts, and you're on the road to recovery. No amount of distraction or other techniques ever really allowed me to stop panic attacks in the moment or from coming altogether. I tell you, though, it was a goddamn breakthrough and incredible feeling the first time I just acknowledged this is happening, it's happened before, it sucks but it will go away and just sat there through it. And you know what happened? It was gone in minutes and I felt it change the moment I accepted it. I haven't had a full blown, out of control attack since and that was two months ago (in the middle of a barbershop getting my haircut no less, I think the situation forced me to accept it)