Agoraphobia & Social Anxiety Support Group
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder, often precipitated by the fear of having a panic attack in a setting from which there is no easy means of escape. As a result, sufferers of agoraphobia may avoid public and/or unfamiliar places. In severe cases, the sufferer may become confined to their home, experiencing difficulty traveling from this "safe place."
How do you set goals ie learning to leave your house? Or do normal activities again? Any suggestions would help...
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Just thought I would join this group now that I am a widower. My wife passed away May 28th. She was "The Wind Beneath My Wings". When I met her, I was a drunken, dope smoking, fighting, hell raising biker. She told me if I could get rid of the inner storm within me, that I could be a blessing to people. God placed her in my path to stop me. I have been drug and alcohol free now for 53...
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For westerners, this is the other side of the world, where everything is exotic and unfamiliar. Piracy is still a problem on the Java Sea, and English is not widely spoken. The Java Sea is about 1,600 km long, 400 km wide, and loiters loosely between the islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. The equator is a few degrees north, so...
Going to the post office to buy stamps, even if I didn't need them, was sometimes all I could push myself to do.
If you live within walking distance of anyplace where you can buy or drink a refreshing beverage, it would be an ideal start on getting out into the world again.
Pick a place that you would like to experience, decide how and when you will get there, and GO!
Wishing you the best.
[1] Choose hope.
[2] Practice makes progress.
[3] Start small.
[4] Go with the Growers
[5] Know your brand. What specifically is the cause of your anxiety? How did it arise? What has been its course?
I have had multiple brands. One example: After amnesia caused me to repeatedly wind up totally lost and in bad neighborhoods instead of the common destinations to which I thought I knew the route, I eventually became afraid to leave my home.
I overcame this particular brand of anxiety using a self designed program of Exposure Response Prevention Therapy. In essence, I created a ladder of increasingly more anxiety-provoking exposures based on distance from my home, time away from home, familiarity of route, and degree of support. My goal was to build my tolerance of uncertainty (for other brands, my goal was to build tolerance of perceived judgment or sensory stimuli etc). I started by stepping outside my door briefly with a friend.
Later, I drove to the grocery store and sat in the parking lot by myself. Another step a no-purchase shopping trip of 20 minutes with a friend, Later I drove to my therapist's office on a non-appointment day while my friend gave me directions and encouragement by phone, etc. Overall, it is the idea of baby steps. You are retraining part of your brain that becomes overactive in response to a stimulus to pay less attention.
Some other techniques that have helped me:
》"Tend My Garden ©2018 MJ Calli" - look for the root distorted thoughts. Dig out the weeds and water the flowers.
》"Casino"...Assess probability, Weigh the Pros & Cons. Play the odds.
》"Starring"... pretend you are a confident, secure person.
》"Citizen Scientist"... purposefully exaggerate your response, mimic others etc Try different venues and audiences. Collect data.
There are more, but that is a sampling.
In general,...
1) practice when it matters less
2) start with triggers small and few
3) remember your subconscious doesn't know true vs. false; tell it positives more than negatives regardless the quality of your present conscious thoughts
4) be prepared with what soothes you and reward yourself
5) Don't assume what physically feels like anxiety is anxiety. Following my diagnosis on the high-end of the Autism Spectrum, I discovered social places, most public places, city streets, multiple voices, parties, and talking face-to-face create physical feelings of anxiety in me because I am extremely oversensitive to sensory stimuli. I became emotional fearful only because I feared the mysterious unpleasant physical experience. (For me, that turned out to be reasonable to a degree as I have adrenal insufficiency, so too much stress will kill me). Meds may correct a biological imbalance, but they are only training wheels. At the same time, they may do nothing if an anxiety disorder is not the actual cause of your symtoms.