Agoraphobia is destroying my life
Hi, I've been suffering from agoraphobia for 5 months. I started therapy a week ago. Everytime I leave the house I get severe palpitations, pounding headache, tunnel vision and an overwhelming sense of fear. I always always feel like I'm about to die because of my high heart rate. I've been to cardiologists they ruled out any structural disease. Ekgs showed intense sinus tachycardia (approx. 170bpm). When my anxiety levels dropped my heart rate goes back to normal. However Im still not convinced this is not going to kill me. I have to pop a xanax everytime those panic attacks happen. I don't want to live like this forever. Being dependent on a pill just to leave my apartment. I also have substantially restricted my life. I don't travel, I don't commute, i don't drive anymore etc. Everytime I try to do something it ends up in failure. I always get massive panic attacks. Does anyone else suffer from it? How do you deal with it? God I feel so alone and desperate!
@Eaglebearer99
I am so sorry to hear that you struggle with this! For a while, I struggled with this. While I am certainly not telling you this is what you should do, I can tell you how I handled it! In the beginning, it was hard and a lot of my panic revolved around leaving my house, just as yours does. One of the most helpful things I did was to select a small object in my home. I would place it somewhere in my home that I could see it often. Then, when I left the house, i would carry that object with me, and any time I felt like I started to panic, I would be able to grab the object and remind myself of my house and how I would be back there soon to place it back in its spot. Another thing that I did that really helped me was setting time limits. So I would leave the house and if I was going to the grocery store, I would say "I am spending no more than 2 hours away from my house at the grocery store." that way, I had something to count on and reassurance when I was out that I would be going back home soon. That is something I did starting in small increments and then slowly increased the amount of time that I was away from my house. I hope this helps!
Jenn Marie
