I don't understand agoraphobia and I avoided working with it bc I think it's stupid. Why should I not want to go and live my life? But I'm in the house for days, I can't seem to go to the store or go visit others. It's really a struggle, and its gotten progressively worse. I feel rather desperate. If anyone's done exposures for agoraphobia, what did that look like to you?
I find your post interesting. It got me thinking I know I have OCD & GAD which overall I manage ok . But with that said I believe I have a low level of agoraphobia additionally . One thing I have to do is give myself a bit of a hard push at times . For example planning a type of trip for any length of time , within reason and then make every effort to go and make the most of it . Normally I will bring much of my quirks and idiosyncrasies with me and do the trip in a controlled manner, but at least it forces me out of the house every now and then . For example perhaps consider something oriented towards classical music, Mozart and so on .
Thanks, I've tried to really use music as a tool with some intermittent success. I tend to listen to stressful music though lol. A hard push sounds about right. Thanks for chiming in
Here is something I give thought to more often as I am not exactly a spring chicken 🐓, LOL ! Life is short I need to remind myself whether I have just days to be alive or many years , time is the one thing we can never get more of ultimately. So I push myself with that thought process, to power through at times 😊
I just don't want it... And I know I haven't accepted it, and that I have to get through this block. It feels so, so stupid to me. And I'm sorry that it does, because I know it's so very real. I want to wish it away but I know I need to work it away
I used to have agoraphobia when I was a kid then had exposures and got better. I honestly don't remember what my exposers were about. Sorry!
I hear you. I was first screened around 12 or so, diagnosed at the time with ocd and "agoraphobic tendencies". I'll figure it out. I just don't want to be stuck anymore. I just don't get it.
I did not mean to tag myself lol
I've heard with agoraphobia that there is usually a fear or elevators too with it. I don't understand it but maybe you can do ERP with that if you have that? I might be way off
I find elevators to be very uncomfortable haha. Maybe I should go to a mall.
@InvitedMozart Funnily, I've always felt that way 😂 the elevator to the top of the Washington monument was cool. Maybe a goal for the future 🤔
@InvitedMozart See how it feels. Jordan Peterson was the one that said it. I can't find the clip though. So many of him out there.
This is my first post and I wanted to post because my ocd feels like something that will always control my life and nobody truly understands because no one in my life experiences this. I’m hoping to maybe find a community who can relate. I’ve always had an intense fear of death. The fear is of my own death and my loved ones. I’ve had 2 debilitating episodes of this and the most recent episode being a month ago. The first one lasted about 3 months of constant intrusive thoughts about death and the meaning of life. I also feel as if I’m not real and the world around me isn’t real. It’s almost like I’m completely gone and I can think of nothing else. I would sleep to escape it. Nothing has purpose or meaning. I even question happiness of others. I question why anyone would be happy if they’re gonna die eventually and why aren’t they thinking about it?? I know it’s ridiculous when I come out of it. But to be honest the thoughts never fully go away. They pop up every once in awhile when I’m in a good state with my ocd, and almost everyday when I’m in a bad state. The severe episodes I’ve noticed have happened when I’m in a period of high stress in life. For example I’m moving in with my boyfriend next week. All that my therapist has told me is to work on my grounding techniques but it’s hard to explain to anyone who’s not experienced it that grounding doesn’t help when I’m in that headspace. It seems like when I get there I just have to wait it out and eventually it’ll pass but not fully. Does anyone have anything that’s helped them?
I just started working on my first exposure today with my therapist after screening and creating the lists for several weeks now. We did an exposure together and now I feel 100x worse than I did coming in. I won’t go too into detail but it involved looking at a VERY gory image that had to do with my fear of natural disasters. I called my mom and talked with her and she was shocked and wondered how in the hell that would help me! I agree. Did any of y’all feel this way when you first started or is this just not the right kind of therapy for me?
I have contamination OCD that causes me to excessively wash my hands/clean items with disinfectant wipes. I know I just need to start with small exposures but how do I do that without spiraling? I tried a while back by just touching the outside of my dishwasher and not washing my hands after and it led to me being unable to even exist in my house. I basically lived on my couch for three weeks as it was the only 'safe' space that I had not touched with my dirty hands. I had to take a week off work to clean my house to make it somewhat liveable. I still haven't got round to cleaning everything though so things like my kitchen are still no-go zones that I don't enter. I just don't know how to start ERP without it making everything worse. Any advice would be appreciated. I am not seeing a therapist at the moment due to financial constraints.
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