hi everyone

[dee]

hiya, my name is dee, i am 37, female and have had agoraphobia and social anxiety since i was seventeen[:I].

[sarah]

Hiya Dee

Welcome to the site!
I hope you find some useful information on here for you.
Its a great site that has been a great support to me and loads of others.

feel free to post any problems or questions!

love Sarah
xx

[nomorepanic]

Hi Dee

Welcome to the site.

Ask us any questions you want to and you can also use the search facility to find posts.

I hope that we can help you with your problems so welcome aboard.

Nicola

[Meg]

Hi Dee,

Welcome aboard.

Tell us a little about how restricted you are and how you manage .

Do have a good hunt around the home pages of this site too


Meg

[kate]

Hi Dee,

Just wanted to say welcome to the site.

Kate x

[Brownie]

Hi Dee,

Welcome to the site. Horrible to hear about how long you've suffered....I have also suffered for a very long time. I have to say though youve come to the right place Everyone here is very friendly and will be here to help ya out. Have a good look around there is lots to read!
Hope to see you around

-Christie[:I]

[G-Man6]

Hi everyone,
I responded to Kate R. yesterday as a new member person to this forum without giving many personal details. My name is Greg (also known as the G-Man6). I live in the Northeast part of the USA. I am 43. I have suffered from anxiety since my early teens. I started to get help during my late teens. I started with private counseling which seemed to help. I found myself starting to feel a great deal of anxiety in my mid 20's during a serious relationship which ended on a bad note. After seeing a counselor at the local mental health center for a while, a mutual decision was made to have me start on medication. I have been on a few different medication since that time. Currently the amount I take is much less than what I was taking during my toughest period. In my late 20's I had progessed to having an anxiety disorder. By my early 30's, I had developed OCD and had reached a real low point in my life in early 1993. I ended up being hospitalized for a few weeks. Up to this time, I had seen various counselors at the local Mental Health Center. Some were helpful, other were not. After talking with other friends, it seems most of them were not impressed with the place I was going and the treatment I was receiving. As I look back at that time, part of the problem was that I did not advocate enough more myself. I have learned over time I need to do a better job of that. At this point my anxiety and ocd are more manageable, because I have realized I needed to change the way I think about things as well as how I react to different situations. Also I needed to lower my expectations toward my self and others. I find that positive self-talk is very important in combatting anxiety and fears. The changes that are necessary for each individual have to come from within. Other people can support you, but each person has to their own work on them self. I have a couple of support groups I attend which help a great deal. Well, I guess that is it for an introduction. I look forward to hearing from all of you. Greg.

[dee]

thanks to all of you, i cant tell you the excitement i felt when i found replies, i'm not exactly a good example to anyone having had agoraphobia for 20 yrs. I get out with someone i trust (my mother or sisters) but only locally, i mainly have crippling social anxiety. its really nice to read about others with the same problems. thanks again for replying.

[sarah]

Hiya Greg

Good to have you on board.
You sound like you have had it rough but are making good progress. Thats great to hear!
You have a great attitude. Look foreward to some great advice from you.
Feel free to post any problems/questions you may have.
Once again, welcome

love Sarah
xx

[Meg]

Dear Dee and Greg

Good to hear a little bit more about each of you.

Dee are you working on extending this 'local' that you refer and are you getting any help ?

Greg- well done for helping yourself so much . We look forward to hearing more from you. There are often queries from OCD sufferers and it would be good to have someone on board who has been there and got that Tshirt.





Meg

"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We're afraid."
"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We will fall!"
"Come to the edge."
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.

- Guillaume Apollinaire