Bad cough, couldn't breathe, what do I have?

Okay, so for the past couple of days I have had this annoying cough with mucus, which was just like the common cold. This morning I woke up at 5:45 and was coughing a lot, and it was painful in my throat and chest. My throat felt like it had flem , which was making it weird to breathe. I tried to cough it up but couldn't, which is why I think my throat was constricting, making it hard to breathe. Along, with that, I got up to go to my parents to ask for some medicine, and I could barely talk and had a very hoarse, cackly, and whispery voice. When I was sitting outside their room, I started to panick because I thought I was going to stop breathing (ridiculous I know). My throat tightened even more, confirming that my throat was constricting (since when you get nervous, your throat gets like that). I was trying to breathe and was making sounds like a person having an asthma attack. My question is... what is it? I wanted to go to the doctor today, but I started to get a bit better, I'm just afraid of it happening again tomorrow morning.