Anxiety attack

So this never happens to me. But I was watching a documentary on lethal injection/ life inside prison, the other day. Watched one where the guy was freaking out over dying..anyway it made me start to think about life after death and what really happens to us etc. I started to have an extremely overwhelming feeling of being scared like something bad was gonna happen..not sure how to explain the feeling. Anyway I've never felt like that and my husband laid with me till I was able to calm down and sleep. (He was so sweet and understanding about it) is this what an anxiety attack is? How do I control that emotion if so? I was at a point of almost crying a few times too, was breathing so heavily because of the panic I was going through. Any advice or just talking to others who go through this would be appreciated.