Dealing with Agoraphobia: Seeking Advice

Exposure therapy helps me a ton. I had severe agoraphobia during junior high (had to drop out of school because I couldn’t leave my house without having panic attacks) and I worked with a counselor for a couple years on building up to big wins by tackling small wins of exposure to situations that made me anxious. There’s something about it that puts me a place where I can say to myself “I thought my worst case scenario was going to happen when I did that, but it didn’t. I did something i didn’t think I could do and I get to be proud of myself for that even if nobody knows that was hard for me or understands why it would be. And I bet I can do even more things I didn’t think I can do.” Sometimes I avoid the thing I’m scared of because I know I’m not mentally in a place to handle the stress. But when I’m having a day where I feel good and notice a little bit of bravery or energy in myself, I capitalize on those days to try something that makes me a little uncomfortable - because even if it doesn’t go as well as I hope it’s just an exercise I am choosing to do (not being forced by circumstance) and because I’m choosing it I automatically feel less anxious because I get to be in control of my choices so it usually just makes the whole experience a little victory. Those little victories add up to unlock confidence to do the bigger scarier stuff in my experience!