Hello, I'm new and a recovering Agoraphobic.

[Bethour]

Hello! My name is Beth and I'm 27. I am new to this forum and looking for some people to talk to. I don't leave my house much because of my issues but I really crave social interaction. For the most part I am doing on. I have good days and bad days of course but I feel like I am consistantly, although slowly, moving forward. Right now I am not necessarily looking for advice, just friends. I'm gonna copy and paste what I wrote in the biography section on my profile because it's a bit more detailed about my mental health history. I hope that's ok.


My name is Beth and I'm 27. I've been suffering from depression and anxiety since I was 11. At 15 it got worse and I became Agoraphobic. From the age of 16-17 I didn’t leave my parents house (literally). My parents enrolled me in a residential program in California and I went there for 6 months. I have mixed feelings about the experience. After coming home I was doing great for a bit, but I slowly slipped into once the deepest depressions I’ve ever been in. It lasted a few years. Finally at the age of 22, I started to come out the other side. I went on new medication and although I wasn’t depressed, my anxiety had only gotten worse. Then I turned 25 and I don’t know if it was because of the whole brain development thing (your brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 25) but something in my slowly started to change. My Psychologist had been wanting me to start working with an OT for a while, but I hadn’t been willing to let a new person in. So I took the plunge and it was the best decision I’ve ever made in terms of my mental health. My OT is amazing. She just gets it. Her approach is so practical, but in the right way. I don’t really know how else to describe it. I still see my Psychologist once a month to keep tabs of the big, deeper stuff. I finally feel like maybe, just maybe, I can get better. I still have a long road, but this whole hope malarky is pretty awesome!

[gypsylee]

Hey Beth and welcome

That's great you've found some hope. I'm 43 and been battling this my whole life, and you do change and get stronger. Sometimes it feels like you're even worse than when you started but that's one of anxiety's little tricks.

This place can be pretty crazy but there are a lot of people here who understand and do their best to help.

All the best,
Gypsy x

[salvator here]

Right here with ya'll on the Agoraphobia. Welcome and you will find many others here also going through this here.