Hey, just want to let you know your not alone. I've also dealt with anxiety and depression on and off since I was a teen but in the past few years, due tobalotnof stress I've been under, the anxiety and depression has turned in to agoraphobia. It's hard for me tongi out on my own and even if i do go out with someone, I'm constantly anxious. I always feel like I'm anticipating something bad happening. It's almost like I'm afraid of the fear itself. I avoid situations that I think might trigger a panic attack because I fear the panic attack itself so much.Sometimes when Someone rings my doorbell my heart rate will automatically go up and u don't even know why. So I would say just hang in there untill you see the dr. It will be a great help. I'm still trying to figure this all out myself but you are right about the fact that this isent a death sentence. You have to keep a positive and hopeful mindset that things will get better. Good luck and I hope you feel better!!

Yeah I'm trying, I still have another week to go and I don't know that I can survive it because I keep getting suicidal thoughts about trapping myself and then I start feeling anxious, I feel like I'm going crazy.

If you have a back yard I would recommend going out there... if not try going on your front porch and just sit there and enjoy some birds. It's small step but a good one. Sometimes asking someone to pick you up for a ride helps because there is someone there for you.

You are definitely not alone in this! I know exactly how you feel. Right now I am trying to get myself to work, just like you, it's torture for me until I get home. And the doorbell can send me into a complete panic which can last the rest of the day. People here at daily strength have helped me through depression, abuse, and grief, so you have picked a good place for support

Do you know the cause of agoraphobia? Contrary to popular belief it is not the fear of the outdoors, that is how it manifests itself or one way at least. It is actually a fear of not being in control. You cannot control a lot of things, but you can control how you see them. To give you an idea of how to take back control think about two thoughts. "want to" and "have to" It is a lot easier to do something if you want to than if you have to. Think about it, most everything you do with ease you do because you want to. Want to is positive. Have to is negative. Positive bypasses the fear centre in your brain (Amygdala) and goes directly to Hypothalamus for a reaction. Without instruction from the fear centre, Amygdala the reaction is without anxiety. Negative thought goes through Amygdala and Amygdala has it's own collection of memories which it uses to decide if it should panic. If it does it sends a message to hypothalamus and Hypothalamus uses a whole different set of memories to create the symptoms you get with panic. Okay that was technical and there are no hugs there. Here is the hug, It can be cured by slow steady changing your thought patterns. You don't need to know how, just that thinking positive can not cause a panic attack. I can explain this better if you would like but it just gets more technical. I used a mantra based on "want to" to get over agoraphobia.