I take my dog for walks; his presence lessens my fear considerably. If you don't have a dog, borrow a friendly one with good leash manners?
I don't generally believe in exposure type therapy, but in the case of my "hermiting", I simply had to make myself get out. Medication makes a big difference also. I was on desipramine at the time, to help, and it did.
I'm so sorry! That's horrible! People can be so mean and judgemental. They think because they are "normal" they can judge others! You are not alone. You have everyone here on this site!
Well I'm glad you overcame it! It's a horrible thing :(
I lived in an apartment in Kansas and had a similar lifestyle. I would only go out late at night to shop, and even though the apartment building had a free laundry room, I washed all my things in the sink and bathtub, then air dried them with a box fan. I did those things regardless, without any outside stressors, because I tend to hermit myself. It was pretty peaceful there for about a year, then my landlord started moving rowdy college boys and girls in. I ended up almost choking one punk who lived right next door, because he was chasing his screaming girlfriend around the apartment in the middle of the night, yelling he was going to ram a dildo up her butt. It triggered me, because my mother was raped in front of me when young, and I went off. Had the police there and everything. He became frightened of me and soon moved out. I thought I would be at peace again, then I'll be damned if my landlord moved another rowdy bunch in upstairs! They didn't like me, because I called and complained about their bs noise, so one of them threw a red icee all over my door. I went after them with some brass knuckles, and they locked themselves in their apartment. Soon after that, I decided to move to Oklahoma, because one of them tried to sabotage the brakes on my vehicle, and I knew I would split him from the top of his head to the crack of his ass if I caught him out somewhere. It was triggering me heavily, so I felt I had to leave.
