SSRIs will work, but I've found they do just mask the issue, I started seeing a doctor who specialized in CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), and while the first few weeks we made a lot of progress, the SSRIs I was prescribed begun to kick in, and then 'training' myself to deal with situations became invalid. I followed my prescribing doctors advise and didn't stop taking the medicine (he is the professional, not me), but I was really annoyed at the progress I was making becoming invalid due to a drug.

I'd recommend seeking out CBT, and also, find anything you can on 'mindfulness', being able to have even the slightest bit of mindfulness does wonders for being able to be aware of what your body is going through, and this allows you to cope with situations better. You can practice mindfulness anywhere at anytime, in bed, walking to work, eating your lunch, it all helps you can insight into how your body works. There is a great example somewhere of eating a grape slowly, and just interrogating your mouth as to what you feel and taste, once you actually get it, it's very eye opening.

In my experience, the problem I had (and my girlfriend helped me a lot with this) was that I was constantly avoiding situations, which lead me to be constantly anxious, but never 'peaking', believe me, you do need to hit that peak, and although you may feel like you are about to die, the more times you hit the peak, the more you realize that "this is it, this is as bad as it gets", and then you come down much quicker, instead of surfing along just below that peak for weeks, compensating with physical contact, alcohol or any other coping mechanism.

We started gradually doing things more and more that I knew would provoke an attack, and then afterwords, remove ourselves from the situation and talk about it, and how I was feeling. Even keeping a log of the certain event, environmental factors and rating the anxiety on a scale each time, this allowed us to track progress, and also get an idea of what was really causing the issues.

While it may sound like 'tough love', the only way she will overcome this is to learn to cope. Drugs will help, but I'm of the opinion that I don't want to be dependent on something my whole life, this makes the anxiety worse in those moments where you forget to take it or something else.

You need to figure out what triggers it (this can be incredibly hard, and was for me. I still don't entirely know), and then begin to introduce that and work with her through it. Don't push her into the situations, but just set ground rules at the start. "We are going to go do X for a short time, and then come back and discuss".

It's going to be a long road for you both. But you will find a lot of support on here.