My child is my niece who I have been raising for the last 10 yrs following the death of my sister who was also my best friend. I love my niece like nothing else in this world she means everything to me and we are so close but she is now at an age to go to university and although I am proud and pleased for her I am also so scared and keep having panic attack and  Anxiety attacks where I can’t breathe as I am overwhelmed with a feeling of loneliness to come , even though there are a few months till she goes I just can’t help thinking how futile and pointless my life will be without her, after the death of my sister I built my world around my niece to make sure she had all the love and support possible. My parents are dead and I have no other family. Although I have several coffee friends the ones you meet up every couple of weeks for a couple of hours and have a good time chatting but it’s not enough, when she leaves I will go days without talking to anyone particularly at the weekend and it fills me with dread. I literally cannot be in the house at the moment I keep going for long drives and walking at night to get out of the house but I’m crying so much. I have been to the dr who said it could also be hormonal and has said hrt might help but at moment I am still beside myself with the fear of having no one. My friends have very close families so they spend most of their time with there own families so they are not free at weekends. I am single so I have no one except my niece. I don’t want her to feel bad about leaving so I’m trying to keep it from her. I just don’t know how to get over these intense feelings which are worse than anything else I have experienced before. It doesn’t matter if I see a friend for several hours the minute I am on my own the fear comes on me and I am back to the empty futile feeling and feel suffocated unable to breathe. Any coping mechanism to get through this would be appreciated.