Stuck in an agoraphobic mess?

[Sarah1988]

I am 28 years old and this is the second time in my life having agoraphobia. I am on disability and have been for about five years when in reality I would really like to look towards getting a job again.. Only problem is that the agoraphobia is showing no signs of improvement and instead has gotten even worse over the last month. The only place that I can go to is the park right down the street and only at night when I am sure no one is there. I cannot even seem to drive the car anymore because when I do and try to go somewhere the panic attacks get so intense that my leg jerks and I drive a stick shift so I need that jerking leg to work on the clutch... And it really doesn't. So now today I feel like I have had my last straw because they now want my car to go for emissions! I already have cancelled five doctor appointments and missed jury duty in the last two months... I am STUCK here. And not just that but I know that the car cannot pass.. I have been in and out of psych wards for mental problems over 100 times in the last 12 years. I just cannot pull any of this together. At some point I will have to live on my own.. But to be honest I get the sense I will have to be put in an institution. I cannot even go to the store. And I don't know if this affects it but I do smoke kind of a lot of weed. I was a pretty bad alcoholic, but that got to be too much on my body and I went through some really bad medical issues, but stayed home and refused to go to the hospital through all of it. So in the end, I smoke weed. Not the best thing, but also not killing my body like alcohol was. I guess I just don't know where to start or what to do. I also get a lot of negativity from other people over this problem. They just don't get it. And sometimes the lack of sensitivity from other people is enough to make you want to go insane. Anyways, what can I do to improve this situation?

[Kirk]

Welcome to the forum. I am very sorry you are feeling so poorly. I wish their was something I could say or do to make you feel better.
Maybe alternative therapy or medication may help as traditional therapy has not. A talk with an alternative medicine physician or
pharmacist may help.

[Nowuccas]

Hey Sarah1988,

A previous post follows:

AGORAPHOBIA often occurs as a result of having had a panic attack in a public place, and not wanting to repeat that experience outside of a place where someone feels safe, (which is usually at home) in a place where they feel exposed and unable to get help quickly.

Recommended reading: The Agoraphobia Workbook: A Comprehensive Program to End Your Fear of Symptom Attacks by Dr. Elke Zuercher-White and Dr. C. Alec Pollard, & Freedom From Agoraphobia by Mark Eisenstadt, & Master Your Panic and Take Back Your Life: Twelve Treatment Sessions to Conquer Panic, Anxiety and Agoraphobia (Master Your Panic & Take Back Your Life) by Denise F. Beckfield, from your bookstore, or amazon.com.

At the first sign of one, employ an ANTI PANIC ATTACK breathing technique. Advice from a clinical psychologist is to breathe in to the count of 3: (one thousand one; one thousand two; one thousand three) each takes around a second to say to yourself, in your mind, and out to the count of 3. Keep repeating this until the panic subsides, which will deal with the hyperventilation aspect. View http://deeplyrelax.com & www.deepsloweasy.com/html/intro.htm Note: the controlled breathing only helps with the symptoms, as do medications/herbal remedies. Address the underlying cause, which requires some form of therapy; see http://your-mental-health.weebly.com, re anxiety, on pages 1, h, & i. Page h shows the difference between panic, and anxiety attacks.

Read: When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life, by David D. Burns (2007), & Panic Attacks Workbook: A Guided Program for Beating the Panic Trick by David Carbonell, & How to Stop Anxiety & Panic Attacks: A Simple Guide to using a specific set of Techniques to Stop Panic Attacks, Agoraphobia, Social Phobia, Fear of Driving or Flying and Stress by Geert Verschaeve, & "Power Over Panic", by Bronwyn Fox, from your bookstore, or enter "panic attacks" in the searchbar at Amazon.com for more media. Some people recommend nettle tea, with a little honey. Others use Passionflower, Lavender tea, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, but use no milk or cream with herbal teas, or Valerian* (caution: use it* for 3 weeks at most!). Know how these affect you before driving, or doing anything dangerous, and it is far better to use the treatments, rather than relying on herbal remedies.

Free online PANIC COURSE - www.panic-attacks.co.uk also available by email. See the section on panic attacks at www.mind.org.uk also in Ebooklet form. They recommend letting a panic attack run its course, without doing anything to treat it, so you KNOW you will survive it. The usual maximum is 25 minutes, until symptoms begin to subside. Also see www.anxietypanic.com/signs.html and http://www.onestepatatime.com (chatroom, and one free email is allowed to their resident expert on joining [free] - more if a paid up member) and

http://www.medicinenet.com/panic_disorder/artic and http://www.anxietynetwork.com

Practice a relaxation method, daily, and when needed, such as http://www.drcoxconsulting.com/managing-stress.html** or http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/mindbody/a/Meditation.htm or http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate or Yoga Nidra, ( http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showthread.php?34171-Questions-relating-to-troubles-with-meditation&p=224951#post224951 ). 20 mns is ideal, preferably in the morning, or afternoon.

Hypnosis is merely a heightened state of suggestibility, in which you are better able to communicate with your subconscious mind. 85% of people are suggestible, to some degree, so you could either seek professional hypnotherapy, or quicker, cheaper, and more conveniently: http://www.hypnosisdownloads.com has: Agoraphobia, and Perfect Partners: Stop Panic Attacks + Breathing Exercise, or http://www.instant-hypnosis.com has: Beat Agoraphobia, and Stop Panic Attacks, and http://www.asktheinternettherapist.com has: Remedy for Agoraphobia: CD or MP3. Professional advice is to use preferably only one, or at most, two at a time.

My post on panic and anxiety attacks may be found at http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showthread.php?33197-Do-I-have-anxiety-disorder-or-something-worse&p=220006#post220006


To summarise: Basically the approach is to learn, and employ an effective anti-anxiety breathing technique, so that you know that you can cope with them. Learn, and employ an anti-anxiety technique, such as Progressive Muscle Relaxation**, or EFT.

EFT:
Give the Meridian Tapping Technique / EFT a good tryout, to see if it helps you. It is free via mercola.com or www.tapping.com (13 free videos), or www.eftuniverse.com or www.emofree.com or one of the many YouTube videos. Google: "YouTube; EFT videos".
Professionally instructed is generally preferable (Google: therapists; EFT; [your location] ). - There is a version for use in public places at http://eft.mercola.com (if you like, you can claim to have a headache, as you employ the acupressure massage / tapping on your temples, but you would then be restricted to subvocalising: saying it to yourself in your mind: "Even though I have agoraphobia, I deeply and completely accept myself)."

Once competent with an anti-panic attack breathing technique and anti-panic attack breathing technique, I suggest going out the front door and possibly to the end of the street before returning. On the next day, go a greater distance, and so on, in easy stages, building confidence every day.

Hoping something in the above helps.

[gypsylee]

Hi Sarah and welcome :)

I'm probably classed as Agoraphobic as well.. I get really bad social anxiety and tend to stay at home a lot. Even when I don't have actual anxiety I stay home because traffic and people really annoy me. So I like to wait until it's dark before I go out and do shopping.

You said you've cancelled a lot of doc appointments.. So have you actually seen one about all this? I don't have much faith in them but just the act of going and talking to someone can make quite a difference.

Cheers,
Gypsy x

[Hrow]

Hi Sarah! I am sorry to hear of your struggles! I have heard it said that "In this world we will have struggles." I think that is in the Bible somewhere. I think working with your counselor and continuing to take little risks would be helpful. May be just work for a few hours instead of a full day. May be walk to places so you don't have to drive. I don't think smoking and drinking is a good idea. It only creates more problems and health issues. It is ok to live at home until you are sure you can make it on your own. Just some thought for you to think about. Take care and give yourself time and room to make mistakes.

[Kirk]

My internal medicine physician once told me to take whatever steps are necessary in order to get ones life back on track.