hi becky, is it coming out of your house your afaid of, or is it driving or both?

It's both

hhhmmm you maybe having a phase of anxiety which does rear it's head up from time to time with bipolar...

hope you get better soon

Thanks. Yes I'm having lots of axiety.

oh, i just read your post again...yah, both of these have happened to me before..actually, i am pretty reclusive, accept for going to work...i don't even go to the grocery store in the day time, only late at night when noone is there... but i think yours may be anxiety related..especially the driving part...a few years ago, i got into a car accident, the car was totaled but noone was hurt...but after that i was so afraid to drive, i mean i was terrified...it took me 15 minutes just to get out of the drive way onto the main road...but i just forced myself to keep driving , even though i drove really slow and i was so nervous...i think as far as the driving goes ..if you just force yourself, even if it is just up the street to the grocery store or something, each day..just force yourself to do it, and take babysteps...first just little tiny drives..then you can drive farther...each time, so you don't get too anxious. Also, bring a cd of some music you really like and that makes you feel relaxed, or confident.... adn that will help..as far as goig outside, maybe if you just start with a little walk, and talk positively to yourself when you walk, and when you tell yourself you can't do it...or this or that..just try to replace it with something positive...that may help..it's hard for me to answer the going out part...because i have become such a recluse, but i hope you feel beter beckyp...

I sometimes get anxiety when I am in tight traffic or stopped at a light.
Lately it's been good....what a relief!
Just going through the motions, I believe, teaches my mind that things are ok...I do commute by bike 3-4 days out of the work week, it's a big relief from the stress of driving.

Seroquel helps me out immensely with this type of fear and paranoia; both of which I have suffered from immensely. It can be quite crippling and I feel for you absolutely. It is a terrible thing to experience but the good news is that it is treatable and it is just a matter of finding the right medication to quell it.

This sounds like the kind of problem that cognitive behavioral therapy is good for. If youre not familiar, heres 10 Reasons to Consider CBT.

http://www.healthcentral.com/anxiety/c/1950/17898/10-reasons-cbt

An interesting thing about CBT is that, with some problems, its principles can be put to use by reading. The Handbook of Self-Help Therapies reviews studies that compare reading therapy with conventional, in-person therapy. With panic disorder and depression, reading was found to be as effective as conventional therapy. Reading therapy for specific phobias, such as fear of spiders, was found to be better than no treatment.

The books named as treatments are Coping With Panic by George A. Clum, Feeling Good by David D. Burns, and Living With Fear by Isaac M. Marks.

Although the Handbook deals with studies on Feeling Good as a depression treatment, the Burns book is also recommended for anxiety. Its by far the most popular of the books mentioned in the Handbook, a best-seller that has been endorsed by a number of mental health associations.

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=71-9780380810338-0

Coping with Panic has been shown to be as effective as conventional therapy for panic.

I use to do that well with comeing out of my house it comes back a little at times but i just face it ..head on and go out..i hate malls if i need sumthing there i'll go get it though i mean its no fun hideing inside all the time filled with anxity ..rather be out pluged into my ipod knife in pusre and cell on hip..dosent mean im not careful*parndio) as for drivein i understand..thats why im hesntent to get my drivers linces but its a need once agin and maybe it will become ok..i mean sure there will aways be times it comes and gose kinda like moods..

i suffer from agorophobia... driving is a nightmare sometimes... and coming out of the house is scarey too... i do take medication for it also... my klonopin enables me to go shopping and other errands that i need to do... i feel that my fears have evolved from my panic/anxiety disorder that i have... which has been left untreated since the early 90's... which led to the agorophobia... this i have been told by professionals... and it came on by the loss of my father in 2002 and gradually has gotten to the point where i am now... i would seek help for this condition... only my opionion... :)

i hear ya. i have a really hard time taking kidlet to the busstop on really cold days and it is only one street over. i think from now on i will bring my dog. when shopping i have to go first thing it opens up or i freak. if i could stay inside all day i would be perfectly happy. i would never leave the house again. last night was a big deal for me, dh and kidlet went out to the horse, so i was going to be left home for the evening alone. i "had" to go to the grocery store for necessities and my dh has had me been getting my nails done, he thinks it is good for me to make me feel better(he also wants me to go out and get my hair cut and colored - hasn't been cut for 5 months - and colored - i haven't done that myself for about 3 months and i have really bad grey roots but i don't give a shiite) - so i go to the grocery store, get my 10 necessities and get the hell out of dodge and walk down the strip mall to the nail place and have a total panic attack. i can't look anywhere but on the table. the nail tech is vietnamese and can barely understand a word of english except, you pick color? you want shorter? you need fill? so, i can't very well carry on a conversation to calm myself. had to take 2mg ativan before and took another 2mg 2 hours later.

i am so happy to stay in my house with my sweats on and hair pulled back. no driving, no nothing except shopping for groceries at 8am in my sweats and my hair looking like shiite. kidlet recently told me, thru dh, that she is embarassed to go out with me because of the way i look, all desheveled. they are trying to pretty me up and i don't give 2 shiites. they think if i look better i will feel better and want to leave the house, hell to the no, i want to stay home, in my cocoon, my safety zone where nothing will happen.

I'm getting much more apprehensive about leaving all the time. I don't cook for myself I eat only where I can drive up for fast food and they deliver through the car window. I won't go inside unless I am with others. I only go to the grocery store early Sunday mornings or late late at night. This morning I needed to mail a payment. I had to count the steps to and from the mail box. (86 total) The fear of not being punctual on payment was greater than my fear of walking outside. Its so dang irrational.

My cocoon is getting smaller and smaller. I'm looking for ways to remain functioning even if it is in a small radius. I hate to go across town to the dentist. Fortunately my pdoc is close by and there are a lot of fast food places between home and work. I can get most all services I need within a few miles. (I'm reducing my carbon footprint but I'm destroying my self reliance, and self confidence, and self respect.)

Ive recently found it harder and harder to leave the house, there is no good explanation for this but it has got worse during depression! I now find it hard to even answer the phone! (((HUGS))) to you!