What other options do I have?

[Daisychain]

Hello,

Anxiety and stress have somehow crawled back into my mind and I can't seem to fight it off this time. I'm having difficulty leaving my house again,therefore I cannot see my counsellor. Nothing obvious has happened to cause this so I don't know where I went wrong. I'm back on my anti depressants so hopefully I'll be ok when they kick in. In the meantime what can I do to replace counselling? I really need it but she doesn't do house visits.

Thanks in advance :hug:

[Old Wolf]

Hi,
Ignore this if you already know of it. There is a more "physical" rather than a purely "psychological" approach that I have known help people whose anxiety stops them leaving the safety of their home. You may be able to adapt this to help you in your own particular situation.
This anxiety effects people in different ways e.g. unable to walk down street, unable to travel in own car, unable to use public transport etc. For some it's easier if there are plenty of people about for others it's harder. As in anything no two of us are identical so I will describe the most simple and basic example and you will need to "make it your own" by personalising it to the scenario that makes you panic/anxious.
It helps if, before you start, you can visualise what stops you, what it is that makes you anxious as if it is an object. One person visualised it as a dragon, one as a particular person, one as a black curtain that hid something behind it. The aim is to be able to get close enough to it so that in your minds eye you are able to : stab the dragons nose, black the persons eye or slash the curtain before you retreat again.
Whatever it is you choose it is forming a boundary that surrounds you and which keeps on encroaching on your safe space, keeps closing in UNLESS it is challenged. However every time it is challenged, its nose is stabbed, its eye blacked etc it retreats (one step initially but gradually by an ever increasing amount!). Your job is to protect your safe space by challenging it, stop it closing in, push it back and enlarge your safe space.
Now, before you start, you have to want to defeat the anxiety and be willing to make a promise to yourself, nobody else, to do this at least once a day, more if and when you feel you can but not less than once a day!
So taking the most basic scenario where the person can't even step outside the front door. Choose a time of day when you feel strongest in your resolve and do as follows. First day/effort: open door, take deep breath, step outside, turn round, step back in and shut the door. Second day/effort: open door, step outside and stand there counting until you feel you can't stand there any longer THEN count a further three (this is the "one step further" and it's this that stabs the nose, blacks the eye etc and forces the enemy back), turn round, come in and shut the door. Now before the next attempt you make a promise to your self that you will at least equal what you did last time i.e. count of say 30+3 = 33, you managed it then O.K. without anything happening to you so you can do it again. You repeat the process next time only this time you stand for at least the same count and then do 3 extra. Basically, you stand there until it feels unbearable again, which often is for longer than you did before, before you go that "one step further" and stab the dragons nose, slash the curtain or whatever, i.e. wait for a count of a further 3,5 or maybe 10 before retreating.
After each attempt, while you are celebrating your victory, you set the target for the next attempt. Eventually this may be how many steps down the path and then how far down the street etc. etc.
It doesn't matter that you are not as bad as the illustration, you start at the point where you are. You walk down the street or whatever until you hit that boundary of anxiety, the point where you feel unable to go any further and then you take the deep breath and GO "ONE STEP FURTHER" thereby blacking the eye etc.etc. Each time you do this you push back the boundary, you stop it encroaching on you, you force it back and before you know it the boundary, the dragon or whatever is in full retreat and your "one steps" become bigger and bigger!!!
One last thing - before you begin pick something special and personal to you to give yourself as a reward each time you take "one step more". (One person I knew got someone to buy them a packet of stick on stars - like you used to get years ago if you did well at school - and would stick one on their calender each time they managed to go "one step further" as a visual encouragement.)
One last, last thing. There may well be days when you don't manage to reach the target before you reach the anxiety boundary. DON'T WORRY. All you have to do is the "one step more" at that point on that day/time to claim the victory and retry next time!
Very long winded it may be but the above is offered as a posible way forward. The trouble with communicating in this way is the lack of feedback along the way. All of the above may be irrelevant to you but if it is of any use at all it will have been worthwhile.
All the best,
OW

[Cherrypie]

How you doing daisychain?

I have no great ideas other than chatting here about what is worrying you or maybe even telephone or email counselling but I was wondering if you had found old wolfs suggestion might be useful?

xcherrypie