I think you're making a good effort, Jack. You recognize the problem. You say you have to make yourself go out. And you manage to do that, even if it is on a limited basis. Maybe there aren't any shortcuts other than just making oneself do it. Like - I don't believe you can think your way out of it. I say that because I have been trying to do that and getting no where at all.

The posts on this thread have been helpful for me to read. Based on the way agoraphobia is diagnosed when I look it up, it does not sound like anything I have ever had. My problem is depression/anxiety/social shyness. Something kind of new has started though. I don't want to set foot outside my apartment door. I haven't gone out to get the mail in about 3 days. I put the trash container out 2 days ago to be collected. It is still sitting near the curb. I am scared to go out and bring it back to where it belongs outside my kitchen door.

I ask myself: What the heck am I scared of? Partly, I'm scared of any neighbors seeing me. They know I'm depressed and I'm embarrassed. When I'm not in a depressed mood, I have no trouble going out to feed the birds and prune the rose bushes and sweep up the walk ways around the small complex I live in.

This fear of going out is horrible. I am afraid the neighbors are going to spot me and think "Oh, here comes the crazy lady." Well, that's my theory for why I can't manage to put a foot out. But I don't know for sure why I'm getting this way. Right now I do feel afraid of people.

So, to Jack and all of you who've posted above, I've benefited from seeing that others get this way too. I didn't know where on the Forums to go, so I put agoraphobia in the "advanced search box" and up came these threads with that word. I picked this one to start with and, as I read, it seemed to me like "these posters are talking about what I'm dealing with, regardless of what anyone calls it."

I'll go back and read over this thread and look at others. I am inspired by Jack saying that it's a matter of making yourself do what you don't feel like doing.

Jack, you are going to work. I would say don't worry about too far down the line. Where you are working may not be your final destiny. But. for now, it's a real accomplishment.