from someone who has asthma that it not only exercise induced but with trigger allergies etc, the symptoms you describe sound very familiar. I would definitely have a doctor check to see what is going on. sometimes, when you start to have an asthma attack, most of the time they are sudden, you can get a sudden panic attack along with it due to the fact you can't get a breath. your mind focuses on the fact you can't breath and you panic that you don't know if it will ever stop (been there, done that)
first things first though, set up an appointment with your doc to be check for exercise induced asthma to rule out anything else and as others have said, you will likely be given an albuterol inhaler for rescue (attacks) and possibly a second inhaler of some sort (I use Qvar) as a preventative to heal the lungs. My asthma has been acting up quite a bit lately as well, but if it continues to get worse instead of better, I'll be having it checked as well to make sure I haven't got something else other than my asthma going on as well (like maillotpois)
Asthma can be a scary thing because it's like you're trying to breath through a straw, but it can be managed.
Good Luck and keep us up to date,
Mary