Hi all!
Sarah is my name and I'm 20. For the past number of years I have been experiencing anxiety and panic attacks mainly when I leave my house. I'm terrified of being out on my own. For college, I need to get a bus which takes me an hour away from home and I haven't been able to do that for the last few months. I know what makes me anxious and I know that it's irrational. I know that anxiety is harmless and panic attacks won't result in anything bad. When I think about leaving the house or getting that bus to college it doesn't seem like such a big deal and I always tell myself that I need to just go for it. I always think of a time (not that long ago) where I could leave the house and even use public transport alone without feeling anxious at all. My panic attacks are so severe that I can't 'just go for it', though. I get extremely lightheaded and dizzy to the point where my surroundings spin and I feel like I'm going to faint. The symptoms are too strong and too much for me to cope with. I don't know what happened to make my anxiety become so debilitating. I have been trying out exposure therapy for over a month - I put myself in situations that make me anxious and I stay in the situation, sitting with my anxiety until it passes. This hasn't made any improvement to my anxiety. I'm at my wits end and I can't see a way out of this. Please help!