agraphobia

[twinkle22]

hi any body eles suffer agraphobia & would like to help eachother out please let me know i dont want to fight alone anymore i havent got the strenth anymore xx[V]

t bennett

[nomorepanic]

U may like to try the chat room after 9pm tonight

Loads will be in then

Nicola

[sal]

Hi Twinkle

Hope you took Nics advice and went to the chat room to get some support and to talk to others.

There are numerous posts on here about that, read them all and i am sure you will see you are not going to be doing it alone anymore.

Take care.



Love Sal xxxxx

[littlen]

my sister suffered with this couldnt go out the front door at one time now goes off on holiday to disneyland paris by train and goes out and about it takes a long time but do it bit buy bit she used towalk to the end of the drive waqy and come back in, then down the road, but this was over a period of weeks or so, so dont try and do it all at once, you will do it and if you can have someone with you it will help. karen:)

[maxine]

Hi Twinkle,
I have suffered from Agoraphobia and panic attacks for the last 3 years for 2 years i never stepped foot outside my front door but at the beginning of Febuary i started a course of CBT throught No More Panic and i have over the past two weeks been going out until i got to the stage today that i went for a walk around my estate it was a big thing for me and i never thought i'd be able to do it again.

So my point is firstly your not alone and you can get better ..
Plus i highly recommend the No More Panic cbt.

Goodluck:D

Take care
Maxine

[MRC]

I've suffered for 7 years, mind you I don't think it's a good idea to organise a meeting lol.

Seriously though I find that a sense of humour helps me through the blackets of times.

[jude]

Hi Twinkle,

I have suffered from agrophobia, but it is much better than it was.

I still cant do certain things without panicking before I do them, like a big shop in Tesco. I do make myself go though. The problem cant be tackled by hiding from it.

If you want to chat.. feel free to PM me or I am on MSN if you are

Jude

[algrose]

hmm, I wish this one was more active [V] Ive been diagnosed with it back in Dec. 2003 and until recentely it got really bad.. and im barely leaving my apartment. I wish I could talk to others who also suffer from this.

[Juneie]

I can understand this one all too well, since October ive had my worst ever bout of agoraphobia. I think my recent episode was brought on by being out of work for 5 weeks, which bought on a massive panic attack. Prior to that id had the best 10 months in a very long time. Ive taken things slowly since October, in the begining I was anxious 24/7, but eventually this subsided, mostly by positive thinking, the fact i went back to my old job and also the fact that i actually realised that being anxious all the time, although unpleasant was not causing me any harm. Gradually I pushed myself further and further and although im still not travelling great distances, I can see there is light at the end of the tunnel. Another great help was a book by called Embracing the Fear: Learning to Manage Anxiety and Panic Attacks by Judith Bemis & Amr Barrada highy recommended reading. This book helped me to accept that I have a condition and to realise that I can live with it, it also made me realise that wanting a cure today, this very instant is impossible, working at things slowly and allowing yourself bad days is a much better approach. Make the most of the days when you are feeling good and push yourself a little. But dont beat yourself up on the days when you cant face going out, accept that its not a good day, leave it at that. Allow yourself the time to recover at your own pace. All this is from someone who even 4wks ago got stressed out about driving up the road and back, at that point I thought I would never go out again. 6 wks ago I bottled out of taking my daugher to a dental appointment, yesterday I drove to the same dentist to make an appointment for myself, I could have just phoned.

Sorry for the waffle, I hope in all that somewhere you can make some sense.

June x

long term panic/anxiety sufferer with mild/medium agoraphobia.

[Meg]

Algrose - you post on here and you will gets responses.

proactiveness, positivity, persistence, perseverance and practice = progress

Little steps - but be consistent about it and you will progress .

Read this thread through for some inspiration
Maxine's cbt progress. (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2308)

Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...

[algrose]

Thank you! This seems to raise my hope a bit more. Positive thinking and changing certain things and consistency has helped me once in the past. IF it help once before for a time, I should be able to get there again.

Being constant is one thing i struggle with the most, no matter what it is im doing i ALWAYS stop/quit! So I will really have to push myself when the time comes.


Juneie- Thanks a lot for sharing your experience :)

[Piglet]

Hi Twinke,

Just to let you know that you're not on your own with the agoraphobia - for me thats the most inconvenient thing about all the anxiety/panic stuff.

Over the last 6 years I've had the odd few weeks or a month of being agroraphobic and then I would be ok again. Although sometimes I suspect it could have been more but as the children were younger then they would have to come out with me anyway so I don't know what I would have been like on my own.

After a great 10 months or so, since Jan its been the worst I've ever had. I had a panic attack coming home on my own from the shops and haven't been out on my own since. I do go out with one or other of the kids though (although I haven't even felt ok doing that) and I'm trying to build on that. The silly thing is it wasn't a major major panic attack and I don't think anybody would have known if they saw me but it floored me.

I try to work out what it is I'm frightened of and it seems to come down to two things, firstly (and this is with me most of the time when out) I'm firghtened I will have a panic attack while I'm out thus embarassing myself. Secondly if my anxiety is high then I actually feel ill, weak, dizzy and poorly in the sense of having a physical illness and this makes me stay in as I'm never sure if I'm coming down with something or not.

I've kept my spirits up by really going to town on my self-esteem , reading books getting affirmation cards, tapes etc. I'm a fairly cynical, down to earth type but I really think this is helping me, as I do feel more positive than I've done in a long time. In some ways this latest bout has had a silver lining as it has really made me focus on the way I think and because I've been at home so much I've had the time to do so.

Picking up on what Meg said about baby steps - time and time again I've found this is the way to go. When I felt really rough Jan/Feb one of the girls would come out with me just round the block in the dark at first and after a week or so of doing this I felt comfortable so I moved on to doing the same in the daytime. Recently we've been walking further and into the town. It helped that I explained it to my kids and they've been very supportive. It doesn't help to leave too much of a gap between outings though I've found. So we try to go out at least every other night and I'm currently building on that.

Quite pleased that I managed to get out and vote last night.

Also take the pressure off yourself by not timing how long its taking you to get over it - it will take however long it takes and perhaps if there are people you trust you could let them know, after all it's nothing to be ashamed of (as I have been in the past).

One more little technique that I'm finding helpful is to time my breathing(from a book called concious breathing) so I take 5 steps on my breath in and 5 steps on my breath out. Some people can manage 7 steps and some do 3 depends how fast you are walking. I hope I've explained that properly as it really helps keep my breathing at a regular pace rather than snatching a breath or breathing in my chest which makes any panicky feeling worse.

I'll try and let you know how its going and will look forward to hearing how you do too.

Bit by bit we'll get there.

Love Piglet:)

[Linda]

new here today. i just read this topic, and i found out that maybe i can go out side at night if only for a couple of minutes, i dont think i could actually do 2 minutes, but maybe 1 minute. im so glad i have found this site, as i read the topics, its so assuring to know im not alone. thanks everyone

[Meg]

For anyone who is housebound..

For £10.00 please consider doing the No Panic telephone CBT course . It can help enormously with gettiing you out along with 24/7 support ,advice and encouragement from here.

See how Maxine got on:

Maxine's cbt progress. (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2308)



Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...

[Jim]

Hello, I'm recovering from agoraphobia, though I would say that I haven't had severe problems in the way other people have. I haven't been housebound, I suffer when I'm a long way from home ie another Country. My condition has greatly improved in the last year.

Jim