Quote:
Originally Posted by Bjørnen
Hey there. How bad would you say your anxiety is when you are around civilisation? If it is pretty bad, I suspect your therapist's idea was to slowly increase your exposure to the stressful environment, until you become accustomed to it. If five minutes at the grocery store is mundane, that could be a good thing! This type of exposure therapy is also used for OCD treatment, because, scientifically speaking, most people when exposed over time to their triggers, become desensitized to them (I'm sure you're already aware of that part).
Anyhow, I dealt with mild agoraphobia some years ago, for a short time, so I don't feel fully qualified to comment on this. But I have seen some success with exposure treatment. I hope someone who has dealt more directly with agoraphobia will chime in here.
Hoping you get to the bottom of this.  |
My anxiety when out in public is quite bad, I tend to get extremely paranoid so feel I'd rather stay home where there aren't any physical triggers. My therapist thinks I just need to keep pushing myself to do regular day-to-day activities until, like you said, I become desensitised to going out and civilisation. I'm sure, with time, it'll all fade away and seem like nothing. It's just so incredibly miserable being confined inside every day -- because 'inside' is the only place I feel 100% safe -- with going out in public feeling even more uncomfortable and unsafe being the other option.
Thank you so much for your kind, warm, supportive words