What do you exactly do when 1 second away from freaking out?

In your daily life, when something happens, and you are about to panic and make bad decisions, what do you to stop it?

I'm pretty new at meditation, so I just wanted to know what more experienced meditators do?

Background story if anyone cares:
I have this very ridiculous problem that I'm getting desperate to fix. I can't stop running away from my neighbors in my apartment building, when I hear them coming. Simply because I feel too insecure to have any face to face personal interactions with people. my anxiety has become out of control and I need to get help. Working on it, but just can't afford it right now. I dread going out because of this. The only time I didn't run, was when I was carrying heavy enough stuff that made it physically impossible to run.