I've been living with severe anxiety since I was a kid. When I was eighteen, I started having really severe anxiety/panic attacks and there were times when I'd black out. I landed in the ER numerous times after these attacks and blackouts, waking to find myself strapped to a gurney and screaming my head off. Sometimes I'd wake to find scars on my wrists from suicide attempts. I've been given numerous medications to help stop the attacks but they all failed. Some of the side effects caused more attacks.

In 2008, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and put on new meds. Right now, the combination I'm on seems to work and I no longer have attacks and I don't black out anymore, but I'm still living with a high level of anxiety.

I have anxiety about leaving the house and agoraphobia. I have a lot of social anxiety- I don't go out because of it and I don't see the few friends that I have. When I'm in a large group, say like a small party, I get really anxious and have to remove myself from the group to calm down.

Isolating myself from others is how I deal with my anxiety now. Is this really a healthy way to deal with it?