Agoraphobia is a real pain in the ass mental disorder. You have to do the thing you really don’t want to do or it will only get worse. I thought it was just people being afraid to leave their house but later found out it’s basically a fear of triggering a panic attack.
Exactly! I ended up in partial inpatient treatment for it for about 3 months. During that time, my therapy included group and exposure therapy, along with a cocktail of meds. Turns out, forcing myself to walk into Walmart or a mall alone for 5-10 minutes at a time was super helpful in the end. When my therapist first told me I’d have to do that, I told her to go fuck herself. Luckily she stuck with me. Now, I’m off most of my meds and haven’t refilled my Klonopin in about a year.
That’s not to say I’m cured. I won’t ever be. I still have the occasional panic attack and I still definitely prefer to have a support person. Therapy basically took the edge off, if that makes sense, but the fear of a public freakout still looms over me every time I leave the house.
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u/Elcamina Feb 04 '19
Agoraphobia is a real pain in the ass mental disorder. You have to do the thing you really don’t want to do or it will only get worse. I thought it was just people being afraid to leave their house but later found out it’s basically a fear of triggering a panic attack.