Hi Michelle,
sorry to hear you're not feeling well. I do sympathise and wanted to share couple of thoughts coming to mind when reading your story.
What's the dosage you have on the patch? Ladies are really different in this regard but for some (myself included) high doses of oestrogen, especially if added suddenly, can cause anxiety. I've experienced this several times myself when trying to up Oestrogel dose, and have needed to cut back down and go slower. Put oestrogen & anxiety in the search field and you'll see lot of experiences on this.
Do you have a chance to talk to your doctor and ask advice on the dose, perhaps to consider going slightly lower, to allow your body to acclimatise?
With anxiety, it does seem very tricky to treat and HRT doesn't necessarily offer a fast cure. Many ladies here have shared that for anxiety to go, it has taken months of HRT and often several attempts before finding the right type and dosage. So you'll likely need some short term solutions here too, before HRT gets sorted. Talking to doctor is obviously the best thing here as well, if you have a GP you can reach and who is supportive? Perhaps anti-anxiety medication can be considered, e.g. something you can take if the anxiety attack gets too hard. It may already help you to know that you have a rescue medication in case you really need it.
Also, sports does help at least for me -the more physical/harder,/swetier the better, as it takes mind away from constant self observation and boosts the endorphins. I know that when anxiety is bad, its difficult to get oneself to move, but try to push if at all possible.
The other thing with anxiety is that the harder you fight it, the worse it gets and you can never win vs anxiety. It will always floor us in the end if we fight it. So it is better to try to accept it and go with the flow -this is very difficult and I'm also trying to learn it myself!! Try to breath, accept it as is, and get something, anything, that will distract you.
Hang in there, you're not alone & let us know how you get on!! xx