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The year was 1985 and I was a fourteen year-old excited about starting high school, playing sports, and making new friends. On the third week of school, I had my first major panic attack in my first period math class and my life came crashing down. It took me over a year to figure out what was wrong with me, and by that time I had developed a severe case of agoraphobia. I would spend the better part of high school either confined to my home or struggling with anxiety and panic attacks when at school. But the good part of the story is that I recovered by the end of high school and am able to lead a normal life as an adult. In this article, I’d like to share five of what I consider the ten most effective methods I used to recover from agoraphobia and “panic-proof” my life. 10) I learned to let my body go. For me, part of agoraphobia was the fear of losing control of my body in public. The more I became afraid that I might lose control of my body, the more I tightened my muscles to try to maintain control. Tightening my muscles only made me more likely to start shaking or trembling uncontrollably. To overcome the fear of losing control of my body, I had to learn to let go of my muscles through progressive muscle relaxation (tensing and releasing muscle groups). By not trying so hard to control my muscles, I was actually more likely to stay in control because I wouldn’t be tense enough to start shaking 9) I learned to get a natural high from breathing. My breathing preoccupied me much of the time when I had agoraphobia. I developed an irrational fear that my breathing might actually stop if I didn’t monitor it constantly. This fear could get so intense that I’d feel as if I was suffocating and try to suck in lots of air (or hyperventilate) to make sure I got enough air. Of course, the rapid, shallow breathing produced panic. After having repeated panic attacks, I began to fear the hyperventilation itself and worried about losing control of my breathing. I practiced deep breathing exercises at least three times a day until I eventually was able to produce a natural high that comes from deep, slow, breathing. Once I learned to control my breathing, I eliminated my fear of hyperventilating beyond control. After learning breath control, I could short circuit panic attacks, because for me, hyperventilation was the central feature that triggered most of the other panic symptoms. 8) I took baby steps to face my fear. Remember Bill Murray playing a neurotic taking “baby steps” in the late-80s movie, “What About Bob?” Well, taking baby steps didn't feel as comical in real life as Bill Murray made it look on screen, but “systematic desensitization,” as psychologists call it, played a key role in my recovery. Baby steps helped me recover because facing my fear in small doses reversed the process of negative mental conditioning that led to agoraphobia in the first place. 7) I outran my fear on a regular basis. Running helped me eliminate the “fight or flight” response by satisfying the urge to flee in the most natural way. Plus, running helped me expand my "safe" territory away from home and gain confidence that I could bring my body and breathing under control. When I was running I couldn’t truly hyperventilate. Although I would breathe fast while running, my body actually needed all the extra air. An added benefit to running was the kick of endorphins I felt after finishing. Those endorphins were like a natural tranquilizer that would hit my bloodstream and make me feel as calm as if I had taken a Valium or Xanax. No joke. 6) I pictured a new reality in my mind. I turned a major corner in my recovery from agoraphobia when I learned to visualize situations that evoked pleasant emotions as clearly as I could visualize situations that evoked fear. Most agoraphobics and anxiety sufferers have very powerful imaginations. The trick is to harness the powers of your imagination and get them to work for you as powerfully as they have been working against you. Through practicing positive visualization at least twice per day, I put my creative powers to work for me. More to come in Part 2.......
Article Source: http://www.agoraphobia.net
Stephen Price is a recovered agoraphobic with an informational website on agoraphobia. Learn all of the strategies he used to personally recover from agoraphobia in his new e-book, available online at: www.agoraphobia.ws/goodbyeanxiety.htm
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