Hi, megasanguis, I would try to treat it like a science "experiment" and go toward Pittsburgh as far as you can get and see how far that is, if you can increase it any, what directions/roads are maybe better than others, etc. Then I would work on learning all I could about the City in great detail and find someplace you want to visit there, a particular store or museum or "place" that might be worth seeing and be greater than the fear of the City, see if you could visit that place and then once's that's safe, broaden out.

I would check too and make sure you don't have a fear of the fear? Anxiety can do that, it might have nothing to do with going to Pittsburgh, you might just be afraid of being afraid of going to Pittsburgh :-)

I personally would work on not being afraid to have panic attacks. They're just panic attacks. I'd keep going to/toward Pittsburgh anyway and that will stop them I think. If you don't pay attention to them, there's no point in their being there.

Did you grow up around Pittsburgh or come from somewhere else? I would, if you're at all interested, look at that particular phobia and why you chose it rather than something like being afraid of. . . spiders or elevators, etc. It's pretty "diffuse" being afraid of Pittsburgh :-) Hard to combat. Maybe you don't like competing, the adjudicated parade. What other things have happened in Pittsburgh that you have tried to go to or not? How long have you felt this way, when did it start?