New and seeking friends

[EbonyNightfall]

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd introduce myself. I'm a 35 year old female, and something of a mess. For the last 15 years I've been struggling to cope with agoraphobia, emetophobia, social anxiety, generalised anxiety and panic attacks, although I've suffered from them on and off since childhood. To make matters worse the stress of living with such conditions has taken a bit of a toll on my body, so for the last 6 years I've also been suffering from gastritis, acid reflux and oesophagitis...just what you need when you're an emetophobe :P lol

I'm currently receiving CBT for my emetophobia, but, 8 sessions down with 2 to go, am not finding it at all helpful. Perhaps medication should be the next step I take.

I live on the Wirral/in the Cheshire area, so apart from having joined this forum to seek and offer general support and guidance, I'd ideally like to make friends with people in my vicinity who have an understanding of what I'm going through so that we may help each other.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this!

[venusbluejeans]

Hiya EbonyNightfall and welcome to NMP :welcome:

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way :yesyes:

[EbonyNightfall]

Thank you for the lovely welcome messages :)

[EbonyNightfall]

I'm not doing so well at the moment, thank you for asking :)
I'm so much better than I was 15 years ago, which I'm incredibly grateful for, (I was an absolute wreck back then), but for the last 6 years I seem to have become stuck in a giant rut. I think that, for me, one of the main obstacles hindering any progress is that I'm not just battling mental health problems but physical health problems too.

I spent almost all my teenage years ill at home due to CFS (brought on by glandular fever) and became agoraphobic through that I think. Being 35 now, I feel dismayed that I've wasted almost all my whole life trapped at home feeling ill, lonely, unhappy, unfulfilled and fearful. I just can't see myself ever being able to recover and lead a "normal" life anymore. My problems feel insurmountable..

I'm so sorry to send such a negative and pessimistic post but I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself this evening. I pinned far too much hope on the CBT I'm currently receiving being able to transform and cure me. I've had 8 of my 10 sessions and feel no better, even the weekly 1 hour sessions can be a battle to get through.

I bet you're sorry you asked now ;) lol

Anyway, enough about me, how're you?