I am sorry to hear what you have been going through. It sounds very scary and frustrating. It also sounds like you have a lot of insight into what you are going through. This will serve you. CBT will be a great tool for you and I encourage you to learn as much as you can - be sure to complete the entire program. Avoidance really can make anxiety worse - you will need to fight against your old patterns and slowly face what you are fearing.
Being alone can be triggering for many people. Challenging these anxious thoughts will be a great place to start. Check out the section on challenging negativity in order to work on these thoughts. Also, the section on relaxation techniques will give you some great tools to use while you are feeling anxious.
I joined today while franticly searching the internet for help. Panic attacks and anxiety are not something that are new to me, they are a big part of my life. I was always an anxious child, started having panic attacks as a teenager and by 20 years old I was diagnosed with Panic Disorder and put on my first SSRI and benzodiazepine. I went to multiple therapists over the years but soon learned how difficult it was to find a good therapist. A lot of therapists I went to really wanted to focus on my childhood and finding some kind of trauma or situation that caused me to be this way. I now realize that anxiety is genetic in the females on my mother's side of the family so it makes sense that my brain is just predisposed to anxiety.
What made my anxiety grow worse was my avoidant behavior to my panic attacks. It made me quit my jobs and drop out of school at 20 but with medication I was able to go back to school. The job part was harder and I struggled holding or even getting a job who wanted to hire me because I did so poorly in interviews. I started having panic attacks while driving that didn't stop me at first but I soon got so tired of constantly having to face my fear behind the wheel, I stopped driving all together and that meant I could no longer commute to school along with work. My world grew smaller and at least I felt safe at home. My life has been constrained to being home almost all of the time for the past 3 years and I almost didn't mind because at least I felt safe at home.
This past year and a half I have been going through some endometrial pain so I was put on birth control which made me feel pretty depressed and overall no better, last month they changed me to a new type of hormonal birth control which triggered me to start having these very intense panic attacks all day long every day. I stopped taking the birth control a week ago but the panic attacks and depressive symptoms have not gone away. I am used to panic and anxiety but it has never been this extreme to the point I have my hand on the phone ready to call 911 all the time. I've had to talk myself down multiple times a day to remind myself that this is just pure anxiety and I have to deal with it. What sucks now that I've been having these attacks at home, is that home is no longer my safe place, I don't feel safe anywhere and that terrorizes me. Now I am a bit concerned because I will be housesitting for the next week and will be all alone and am having a hard time coping with that. I started reading through the CBT stuff and it is already starting to give me some relief, a lot of information I have learned in the past but I feel like I need to relearn it. I'm just really scared to be alone and have a panic attack with no one to call to help me even though I know it can't kill me it still shakes me to my core.
It’s been a while since you were active on this site. Please extend your session below
You have been logged out due to inactivity.
Please sign back in.
We use cookies to help us learn about how our platform is used and how we can improve your experience. To
learn more please see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
