Being at home triggers anxiety?

[Nervous_Nelly]

Ok, so I have have lived in this home for 3 years now and I have had a total of 3 full blown panic attacks here. Ever since the first one, it seems like being at home triggers my anxiety because I associate the house with my panic attacks. I don't have any trouble when I'm at work, or the gym or anywhere else! As soon as I step foot in my house, I can feel the anxiety bubbling up inside. Obviously, moving is not an option, I can't relocate my entire family every time I have a panic attack! I tend to be triggered by places and/or smells that remind me of a time when I had one. Does anyone else have trouble with this? How did you overcome it?

[GingerFish]

I have this too on and off with my home. A lot of my worst panic attacks have happened at home, despite my flat being my 'safe place'. It varies - for a period I feel most safe in my home and panic more outside and then other times I am fine outside and dread when I have to come back home which makes me feel guilty as I should love being home with my bf and pets, but in that moment, it no longer feels like my safe place.

When I am in that moment where my flat does nothing but trigger me, I force myself to spend as much time in my house as possible. If I have nothing on that day, I stay in and fully immerse myself in the house. I spend time in every room, especially those I have had panics in which for me were mainly the living room and the bedroom. I tidy them up a bit and then I just sit there in silence breathing in and out and I tell myself that its only my memory playing up with me and making me scared. Its just me remembering those scary sensations and that the flat itself is not dangerous, even those feelings weren't dangerous though they felt like it. They were just scary and nothing more. I also remind myself that the same happened when I took panics in supermarkets or in the car etc, I was scared to go back to those places for a while but after exposing myself to them, before I knew it I was fine with them again.

I also listen to my Claire Weekes audio tapes when I am in that state and she helps remind me that its nothing but a memory and I shouldn't be bluffed by it. She gives me the confidence to rise above the anxiety. I also try and relax as much as possible and that usually means I go for a long bubble bath every day.

[ricardo]

This used to be my worst fear but in my case it was being at home alone, despite having our dogs here, and it affected me more when it was dark early evening in the winter.It took years to try and think logically that I wasn't in danger and hence always difficult to actually get to sleep when my family was away.
I have many issues but now I can safely say this is not one of them. We have moved house and country several times and the location of your house/flat can make a huge difference to having anxiety or not.

[Lan69]

This used to be my worst fear but in my case it was being at home alone, despite having our dogs here, and it affected me more when it was dark early evening in the winter.It took years to try and think logically that I wasn't in danger and hence always difficult to actually get to sleep when my family was away.
I have many issues but now I can safely say this is not one of them. We have moved house and country several times and the location of your house/flat can make a huge difference to having anxiety or not.

This is the same as me
I was so scared of being home alone I didn't want my son to go out, I knew I was being unreasonable but I just couldn't help it. When he did go out I would sit on my front door step waiting for him to come home! I'm ok with this now but I'm really struggling the days he goes to collage as I'm by myself for 9-10 ours and I keep getting the feeling I'm going to go hysterical. I try to keep out of house as much as possible but when I return my stomach drops

[Nervous_Nelly]

I honestly thought that I was the only person in the world that felt this way, because our homes are supposed to be our "safe place". I'm sorry that we all have/have had to endure this. Bubble baths help me too... I take a lot of them, haha. I typically do better on the rare occasions that I am in the house alone. I think it's because one of my worries is dragging my family down with my anxiety, I feel like sometimes I have to pretend like everything's fine when it's not, and that makes it so much harder on me in the long run. When nobody is at home, I can surrender to it and breathe, chant, and pray my way through it without thinking about how I am affecting others around me. My son is only 4, so he doesn't understand and I don't want to scare him, my husband is very supportive and tries his best to comfort me when I am feeling overly anxious, but I still feel guilty.