A new problem for me.....

I agreee with the allesandraster! Suggest yourself positively. Think of what you are doing right and how those values and choices define who you are as a human being. 🙂

Wow you've overcome so much! I'm sure you can get through this as well. Maybe try some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. That helped me heaps with anxiety and panic. There are lots of good programs online now (I think moodgym us a good, free one.) Hope you feel better soon!

Hi Cuzin,

Things sound tough.

This Way Up has some self-help strategies online that you can also try, which is for anxiety disorders like agrophobia.

Another option is to see your GP, perhaps a locum doctor. They can do an assessment and refer you to a psychologist.

I hope you find some of this info useful.

CherryBomb

No, I've never heaerd of that one!

What is it and where would I find it???

Ugh. Agoraphobia is no fun at all. I was housebound for 18 months at my worst, and getting out of the house can still be a struggle on bad days. I dropped out of school (and uni, and any number of independant courses) due to this and it really set me back in my education not to mention money!

Eventually I was hiding under the bed and crying because I could hear kids coming home from school on the street 3 floors below.... I knew then that just staying inside was not cutting it anymore, the 'safe' places were shrinking and shrinking.

That was when I really had to face up that just avoiding the places that made me anxious was not actually helping, because the anxiety was inside me, and if I made my whole world just one room it would still be there, in the corners and at the edges of whatever limitation I set for myself.

CBT and NLP (neurolinguistic programming) were what worked best for me in reducing the anxiety I felt, as well as general anxiety reducing techniques like balanced breathing, mindfulness, meditation etc.

It was slow going and there were a lot of years where it was hard to hold down a job or friendships because leaving the house was such a massive ordeal, but I am now able to hold down a job, have something of a social life, do my own shopping and even occassionally go to a show or public event (still a challenge!).

I also found that even in 'maintenance mode' I have to make sure I get out of the house once every couple of days at least, I have to push those boundaries a little beyond comfort on a regular basis, or my world starts to shrink again.