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Thread: Need some help

  1. #1
    Junior Member
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    Need some help

    Hey I'm new here. I posted a huge post last night, but I'm ot sure if any of the moderators are going to post it. If they choose to, I will delete this post. Anyway, I have agoraphobia and I think i have a strong underlying cause. I plan to take care of this cause using exposure therapy based on CBT. I keep an anxiety log journal that I write in almost every day to gauge my progress. I have trouble going almost anywhere without a safe person. That safe person happens to be my mom. I am 19. Male. What advice can you give me? Should I try and drive out as far as possible and just surrender to the anxiety when the panic symptoms start to come on, or should I inch out slowly and repeatedly go to a certain area until I am comfortable being there?

  2. #2
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    I'd go about it slowly and methodically unless you tolerate anxiety well enough to just go out and stay out until it starts to subside which might be a while. Alankay

  3. #3
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    So what you recommend that I do if I am out sitting in an open space and the panic symptoms start to come on? I wanna stay and surrender to them, so that I won't be going against my best interests in recovery, but do you have any tips? For example, should I try and talk myself through it? Anything else you might recommend?

  4. #4
    How do you do with listening to music ? How do you do with listening to a breathing app I would try that. I have driving anxiety I do ok on back roads but the freeway scares me. Play a favorite song over and over again, sing it, pray as your walking or driving or as the attack comes on. It's all about getting your mind on something else!

  5. #5
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    Thank you both for your responses. I always listen to music when I drive in my car. I went out today and didnt have any anxiety at all. I didn't go very far, but they were a bunch of other cars on the road, and that usually bothers me. I am starting to make progress.

  6. #6
    We're u in a car accident?

  7. #7
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    No it's a traffic kind of thing. I mean, I've been in a fender bender or two before, and when I first got my license and first car, and drove into shit and banged up my old stationwagon, haha, but never anything traumatic. With agoraphobia, most people don't like having a lot of cars on the road cause lots of cars leads to traffic which ultimately can lad to panic.

  8. #8
    Do you drive ok on back roads? I have about 15 minutes on freeway every morning on way to work I go a few exits at a time and then get off and take the side roads the rest of way. I really celebrate when I make it the whole way freeway. I have had issues since about two yrs after a very bad accident. I was not hurt but I was the driver, my bro and his best friend (like another bro) were hurt bad! Hit my head several times. I'm sorry you feel this pain, I would not wish it on anyone! I'm trying therapy next week for PTSD and I try to really keep a positive attitude and get my mind off drama. It's though tho I am a single mom with a mouthy teenager that thinks I'm crazy for turning the music down or saying calm down. It really sparks the panic

  9. #9
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    I hope you find peace, comfort, and resolve very soon. You seem like a sweety with a big heart.

    Funny thing about PTSD, is that for awhile I thought I might have had it, but, I'm pretty sure now that I don't. Post traumatic stress disorder occurs after witnessing or experiencing a situation where you are/were almost killed. Or when something of that nature happens to someone else and you are there to bear witness to it. The reason I thought that I might have it, is because I developed a childhood phobia at a really young age, (repeated exposure to a violent horror movie) and I think it has a lot to do with some of the problems I am facing now. As a youngster, our minds are undeveloped, and we don't yet have the tools to tell reality from fiction. So yea...

  10. #10
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    Positive self talk, controlled normal breathing and relaxing all the head, neck, jaw and shoulder muscles will help. I would start small while practicing all. Alankay

 

 

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