As people who've read my posts in the past may remember, I suffer from what I'm told is classical agoraphobia - a fear of open spaces and open city streets (especially with buildings around which may fall on me, and where there's no prospect of getting "inside").
Today was particularly bad and, walking from the centre of town to the bus stop (near North Road Station in Plymouth, if anyone's interested), I had one of the worst panic attacks I've ever had and certainly my worst since my worst year suffering from this problem (2008, when I joined NMP). At one point everything started going white and I thought I was in danger of passing out (which would have been very bad for me, especially as I wear glasses which would have been broken had I fallen).
I managed to cope, just, and came home on the bus. But naturally I don't want to have to go through this again.
I don't take sedative pills and don't want to in the future. I can avoid Plymouth if I really have to although I'd rather not.
So, how do people cope with the really bad ones? Are you in danger of passing out when they hit?
Thanks for reading this,
Graham .
P.S. People who have suffered a full strength panic attack will know what I'm talking about here but (and I'm sorry if this sounds too melodramatic), if for any reason someone's reading this who's fortunate enough not to have experienced one, I feel I should make it clear that I cannot overstate how bad mine get, this one in particular was absolutely crucifying. I don't think I could have coped with it at all without the techniques I've learnt on here so far; try to relax and breathe deeply and "let it happen" without fighting it. Even with those methods, it was a full-on ordeal.
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