Author Topic: New Board  (Read 8875 times)

Pip

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New Board
« on: January 02, 2013, 11:03:59 PM »
Zaf suggested we have this new board which is a great idea as it is a real problem.

stewart

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Re: New Board
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2013, 04:59:19 AM »
Good idea Zaf & Pip...

I can go out to the shop if i have to, but i get very agro hate being around crowds of people, and start swearing when i cant find things, and when the shop is crowded i will just leave the trolly there, even if its got stuff in it, frozen or not.

the driving part is ok, as i find it a little relaxing, though i have ti time it so im not driving when my meds kick in
Without Love we are just a handfull of chemicals suspended in water

Zaf

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Re: New Board
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2013, 08:56:54 AM »
Thanks Pip


At my worst I cannot bear the curtains open but I have found over the years that as the problem eases I have a sort of selective agorophobia, sometimes specific places or situations (like stewart crowded shops) or sometimes the length of time I'm outside even if I'm feeling OK in the place or situation, recently Ive noticed that to be my main problem which I'd really like to overcome before the spring arrives

Z xx
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Pip

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Re: New Board
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2013, 01:34:33 PM »
Crowded shops are my worst waking nightmare although I'm better than I used to be.  I have been known to leave a trolley full of food in the middle of a supermarket because I couldn't handle a lot of people round me.  I also suffered with anxiety if I was out more than a couple of hours.  CBT helped last year so I have my coping mechanisms in crowded places now.

Catbrian

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Re: New Board
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2013, 09:58:07 PM »
I was diagnosed with Agoraphobia about a year ago.  It came as a bit of a shock.  At first it was a ridiculous idea, as far as I was aware, Agoraphobia meant never being able to cross over the threshold of your property.  A little research later, I soon realised the Psychiatrist was spot on.  I am your typical agoraphobic but I do hide it from everyone, it's my "S.M.H.I." (Secret Mental Health Issue!!!!).  Maybe at times I've ran out of excuses for not being able to do things, but I've never confessed to it being due to a MH condition.   In fact, how could I?  I had been living with it for years without realising what it was

I haven't left Wandsworth in London for 13 years, I can't travel on confined transport like trains and planes and have very much missed visiting Scotland in all this time.  If I really need to, I will travel on local buses but have been known to press the emergency button on the bus door and alight whenever my phobias have reached the point of strangulation. 

Recently I wrote of the difficulties I had with hospital appointments and how no room was made for someone like me, freaking out to the point of either fainting or hyperventilating.  We're not looking for preferential treatment, only a little sensitivity to know we are suffering while sitting for hours on end in busy hospital waiting rooms, and usually most of the other patients talking in foreign languages, it's easy to mistake it for another country, which doesn't help my 2hr-need-to-be-home issue. 

I'm currently neglecting my health needs because I cannot face the whole set-up.  I need to visit the GP next week but I'm dreading it.  He will see it more as wasting hospital time.  Somehow they think because the appointments are important, I'll be able to wave a magic Cat-wand and the phobias are all tucked away for the day.  It's a case of, if you want the treatment bad enough, you'll willingly undergo the torture

Like Zaf, I describe mine as "selective Agoraphobia", but I think many others do too.  It seems agoraphobics can do some things but not others.  I can go to Asda but only if I'm not depressed and I go through the doors at midday, because staff and some customers are familiar.  If I visit a public place, like pub or café, I spend most of my time feeling completely paranoid that the staff want us to leave.  Rather than enjoy the company of whoever I'm with, my eyes and brain are all over the place. 

And lastly, but not least, it's been many years since I've been away from home for more than 2-3 hrs.  The norm would be 2 hrs with rare exceptions of 3.  I start to get completely bamboozled by people talking and bumping into my space, the sweats and dry mouth with darting eyes focussing on every potential threat, then make it impossible to look even half normal, so the paranoia kicks in and I find myself almost running in the direction of home!!

I think this section on Agoraphobia is an excellent idea as I do believe more people suffer from this condition than they actually realise themselves.  I also hope by talking we might find little steps forward to being able to beat this 'mother'!!

stewart

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Re: New Board
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2013, 10:22:29 AM »
just thinking back to when i was pl the flight back here from Aussie, the doc asked how i managed being in a relativly small place with so many people...... thet was cos once we weas in flight thee was plenty of drinks the stewardesses kept bringing round when i wanted one.

so a feww large scotches and a diazapam or two and i slept for a while.
Without Love we are just a handfull of chemicals suspended in water

Pink Princess

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Re: New Board
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2013, 08:55:25 PM »
I want to be shut in nearly all the time. I feel safer.

popsicle

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Re: New Board
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2013, 09:13:39 PM »
Hi Pink Princess, a relative of mine was agoraphobic for many years.  The only time she would go out was to walk her dogs or ride one of her horses.  They had stables at the end of their garden.  She wouldn't even go on holiday so her husband would tae the children away for breaks.  Eventually my relative learned to drive which helped but now she is elderly she has got bad with agoraphobia and wont go anywhere.  It's been tough on all the family and she never got professional help either.