Well my CBT is paying off - I have learned all the techniques and found they were working sometimes and not others, so my therapist 'suggested' I allow the panic, when I'm out I go with it. In actual fact, try to make it worse. I didn't believe her that it would work and only in the past 2 weeks have I found the courage to try it - and it's working! I have been going out every day, I have been visiting my Mum every day and staying for ages, over an hour most days and having a cuppa and some biccies! I have been going to the shops every evening too, with my hubby, and today I went to the pertrol station and went in and paid for my petrol and came home without a single bit of panic!
The first couple of trips out, I was getting the rapid heartbeat, the sweating - all the usual stuff and I thought 'right, get worse then - heart go faster, c'mon sweat and shake more' - and the anxiety passed immediately! It is the best technique I have found, it actually works. I sang along to the radio all the way home from the garage today!
Also, my obsessive thoughts - I have managed to change my attitude to these thoughts and I'm allowing these too, I think 'It's OK to have this thought, I'll not run from it or try to force it from my mind - but I'll delay obsessing over it, and come back to it later. When I go back to the thought, I delay it again, and the thoughts aren't bothering me as much - less so with every passing day! I read loads of times that attitude to panic was the key and I know now that it is.
Nel xxx
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