tv on mute...

hey guys,

erm im just wondering really if this is the behaviour is healthy or whethr this is anxiety. Just for a bit of background i have anxiety about everything, and sometimes obsessive or racing thoughts, also recurrent depression, sleep disturbances etc. im on meds for these things. But when i am home alone i am frequently too scared to open my front door, back door or windows. i also find myself frequently turning the tv on mute because i think i hear a noise and then the recurrent thought of somebody breaking in, or i imagine seein a man dowstairs or imagine looking round and seeing someones face at the window or door.
Every now and then it makes me really frightened, to the point i have to psych myself up just to go downstairs to the kitchen!
does anyone else feel like this sometiems??

Aw hun its natural i think to feel nervous and anxious when your in a house on your own. I was some nights too especially when i spent time alone. I would have every light in the house on upstairs and down...the tv on...doors and windows locked and bolted...chair against the handles...phone by my side..mobile in my pocket..i even slept on the sofa too some nights...just in case!! but, the house was like blumin fort knocks...lol and wouldve been nigh on impossible to get into.
I blame my anxiety levels for all that when it was bad, because when i was more relaxed it hardly bothered me at all..
I hope your feeling better now.
Take care
xx

If I had a pound for every time I had thought "wassat" and hit the mute button I could have retired 10 years ago! I can only speak from my own experience but I think that panic and control of your environment - or rather the fear of not being in control of your own environment - go hand in hand.

The only thing I can suggest is the same trick I use with my panic attacks which is to say to yourself... "how many times did I think I was having a heart attack...and how many of those times was I RIGHT?" Of course in your case just amend it to "how many times did I think someone was in the kitchen?"

Failing that, get a dog! They have the added bonuses of being huggable and someone to talk to at 3am...and they NEVER judge you!

ive just got a puppy actually! but unfortunately am having difficulty hosuebreaking him! hes okay downstairs its just wen he cannot c the paper in a diff room :s

Of course the other good thing about having a dog is if you think you hear something you can just get used to saying/thinking "it's just the dog"...

I've trained ours to eat spiders - another of my phobias!

what a good plan! once ive trained him to use the newspaper, i'll start on spiders!

And when you got the toilet training and spider eating sorted... you can send him into the kitchen to check it out for you!!!

it really will be no more panic!

Love my woof, he's curled up here beside me...snoring away... mind you, he's not that much more alert when he's awake - he makes two short planks look like a computer.
:-)