Not a good day today

[Nataliej1987]

Suffering quite bad at the moment and it feels like it's getting worse. The pains I get in my chest are awful. Went out this morning but had to come back home as the panic attack I was having was horrendous. Feel deflated and beaten at the moment don't know where to turn x

[Oosh]

You went out this morning, that's really positive. You were feeling very anxious still though and on this occasion hadn't built up the confidence or felt you had the right tools to calm yourself down so came back home.

It's not a failure, these are good early steps. Now have a think about what bothered you, what thoughts were you having and what can you use to calm yourself down the next time you go out.

What were you thinking about ? Maybe you could have some more calming, confidence boosting things to think about next time.

What were you anxiously focusing on ? Maybe you could think about that between now and next time and give yourself some more balanced, calming, reassuring ways to see those things so you are more able to calm yourself next time when out.

It's definitely not a failure. These are good first steps that you can improve on. The fact that you were out is a huge success on its own. Now you can work on controlling how you feel and see things when you're out.

[lizzie29]

As Oosh said, it's not a failure at all. I do exactly what you do and beat myself up and think that I've failed, but having read what you've put I can see you didn't fail at all. You gave it a shot and that in itself is brave and facing the anxiety. So what that you turned back? Next time maybe you can go a little further, or stay a little longer. The key to beating anxiety is in small, manageable steps, so remember this.