"These attacks are neurochemical (adrenalin) "false alarms" that signal that you are in danger---however, it's only a false alarm and you are perfectly safe."
But during one of the attacks, you can tell yourself as many times as you want that you are safe and there is no real danger but that does not fix it. I tried all the relaxation techniques before going the drug route and it just didn't work for me. I do know now how to recognize when an attack is trying to begin and can sometimes work through it without medicinal help. But most of the time, there is just too much stress around me to do that. Since I can't stop the stress around me (2 difficult children that drive you nuts to take them anywhere with only one adult to hold one and keep the other from getting in to everything), the only other option is to stop the stress inside me, which does require the xanax for me. My doctor totally agrees with me on the issue too. Have you ever had an anxiety or panic attack? It's terrifying.
During an attack there is little room for rationalization or self- education. Learning about what is actually happening to your body, and your pereptions of that upheaval, can only occur, benefically, between attacks. Since there is no danger, then you should try to find what it is that you think is threatening you ( again, between attacks). Is it fear of loss of control? (that will not, despite your fears, happen). Is it fear of sudden, impending death? (the attack will not bring death.) The panic is caused by your perceptions of the body's reaction to too much (a sudden surge) adrenalin. The adenalin surge was triggered falsely because some thing (doesn't matter what) set off the false alarm. There is no danger: Try to get this perspective correct when you are in a periods of quiesence.
If you are taking Xanax and have been for over 6 months, and still having anxiety attacks, then I would say the Xanax is serving as a preventative from recovery by allowing you to place you faith in the drug instead of reality---which is: there is no danger.
I had a few panic attacks when I was an undergraduate and they are indeed terrifying--I feared impending sudden death...that was 40 years ago. It was, as you can see, a false alarm.
Good luck.