Just want to add:
Meditation isn't always sitting on a pillow with a gauzy curtain blowing, a Zen smile on my face (heheh...that's the picture that I used to have).
A more...active meditation can work in emergencies.
Once, I was in so much pain, I started to rock forward and back, forward and back, while screaming in my mind, over and over, "THIS WILL PASS!!! THIS WILL PASS!!! THIS WILL PASS!!!", trying to drown out the killer inner voice. This was one of the worst times of the mind racing when I did this and, after an eternity (ok, ~15 minutes) - Lo, and behold, it began to fade. It's the intensity that made me feel panicked to get away from it.
HTH...I sure can relate to the days of the Speed Racer mind.
Dylan