Cybervato wrote:
Myk you are lucky you didnt go into full on agoraphobia.

I did. I was house bound from sometime around January 1 through July. I don't know when it became agoraphobia because I started getting multiple migraines every week on Xmas vacation and didn't know how to deal with them like I do now so they pretty much kept me house bound. That and a new huge Super Walmart is what set the agoraphobia stage. I think by February or March I was pretty well convinced I was dying.
I would guess by March or April I was extreme because I made an excuse not to start a garden.
That whole year is a blur.
I went from planning on driving myself to a wedding 6 hours away to not being able to go outside at all.

Above where I said I didn't go agoraphobia I meant when I was a kid I avoided panic situations but didn't go agoraphobic from it then.
I'm kind of amazed I didn't go agoraphobic at college. It would've been easy.

I am sorry, Myk I shoulda read your post more closely. I am sitting here nodding that I went through many of those issues. Super Walmart Definitely would be a trigger.

In hind sight when Walmart came in and they closed down our local grocery I should've started going to Kroger when I couldn't manage walking allllll the way back to Walmart's dairy section. That was the first conscious decision I remember avoiding going places or leaving places without getting what I was there for during that period.

Once I found out where the bathroom in the back was things got better going there.

I did run out of our local grocery once because of a panic attack but getting in and out of there wasn't such a daunting task so it didn't cause them.

I'm going through my recordings to see if anything will help now of if I have to make a new set.

Here's what I had on my loop back then,

I have to get through this myself
I am feeling fine
I can handle being alone
Nothing bad is happening
Nothing bad will happen
I've beat this before
I am strong enough to beat it now
I feel good
I can handle being in a crowd

Yep thats a long walk to get a gallon of milk! Even now that my anxiety has eased up, Its still a long way to go! I totally agree that using a myriad of tools in conjunction with each other is a big key in keeping our anxiety managable.