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Difficulty leaving house

I've been fighting this for years. One therapist I worked with told me I'd leave the house if I really wanted to. Yeah, right. I can go out to sell my eggs, or to drive my mother to the store, but I need a day of rest afterward. I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions.
 
I can not calm the feelings
I became functionally house bound from anxiety for a period of time.

Getting past that involved a lot of distress tolerance - deliberately leaving home, for very short periods (I started with the letterbox and back) over and over.

At the same time, doing everything possible to empty out my stress cup and reduce my baseline stress levels.

It can feel like a life sentence not being able to leave home, but you will get past this. Be gentle with yourself, and don’t hesitate to call on your supports to help get you through.
 
What I find mine to be is the reason I am leaving the house and that the worst moment is usually walking out the door.

Going out for a walk in the neighbourhood? No way...
Going out grocery shopping - gonna buck up and do it.
Going to the doctor/dentist......good thing my wife is there to help with the hard part - putting on my socks, because putting on socks means I'm going out.
 
I suffer from agoraphobia. I also have a fear of being touched by people. It's so hars to go outside and my husband and my kids don't understand it, hell sometimes I don't understand it. Just going to the front door causes me to panic. My heart races my muscles tense up I can't breathe I get so scared I can't focus. The dogs bark and I go into fight or flight mode. My husband has to practically drag me through the parking lot for doctors appointments. I try to do everything virtually but I can't do everything that way.

Anything that can help I would love to hear.
 
Ah, the benefits of living on a sailboat or ranch. Where not leaving either more than once a month or quarter, is normal & expected.

Whenever I switch to living in a city or small-town-core? It takes me a few days to few weeks of exposure therapy to re-acclimate. Nothing I’ve ever found adjusts to the suburbs, though. There’s too much distance -and intention needed- between everything to spike myself in a serious, consistent, and effective way.
 
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When PTSD really hit, my relationship broke and I moved out on my own for a first time, not even in my native country, and everything was on me? Agoraphobia and anxiety really hit. I lived in a place where the closest groceries was in the same building down few flights of stairs and the bank was 7min walk away. Still there were times I couldn't get to the groceries and having to go to the bank for anything meant making stops every few meters to panic. Sounds rediculous and funny, but it wasn't. I was hyperventilating at any going out, when my apartment was so tiny the 'kitchen' was the hallway to the bathroom. Not nice. Living with roommates- not possible. It was a bad position to be in. Sometimes being on the bus was fine, sometimes even in a half-empty bus I had to get out before my stop. Same for groceries. I guess that was when I ate the worst because being in a store made my mind racing and foggy.

For me it was a condition of my PTSD I guess. When I got on meds and started therapy, learned DBT, did lots of healing (meditation, talking, writing, journaling, yoga, facing fears, changing the current stresses of my life) it just started improving. My skin stopped feeling like it was crawling every time I was near people, getting out started being easier, and then gradually enjoyable again. And then I found myself wanting things again- took me years, a bit more each year, but I started enjoying meeting people, working in person again, being social (I mean to an extend, still introvert by heart). So I just took it little by little. Even got to dating again, going to a pool, going to a house party with some friends and some new people! So for me, it was improving the reason I had it (PTSD) rather than working on the agoraphobia itself.

That's the best I can share.
But as you see in the comments all people seem to be different and require different things... I hope you find a solution that fits you!
Even if you always had it, I always had anxiety- we can work on things always. I believe that. Maybe it can't be removed but it can be lived with, and it can be easier than what you describe. And if you're trying baby steps- take what you think is a baby step and break it to few more steps, in my experience.
That's... my 2cents... wish I could help more.
 
That's exactly what I've been working on. I've been trying to push aside my dad to dad stuff and focus on healing the things that caused my PTSD to begin with. I've noticed that the more I heal the PTSD the better I seem to be on a day to day basis. That doesn't mean I don't have my bad days but....I get through them and that's what is important 🙂
 
I suffer from agoraphobia. I also have a fear of being touched by people. It's so hars to go outside and my husband and my kids don't understand it, hell sometimes I don't understand it. Just going to the front door causes me to panic. My heart races my muscles tense up I can't breathe I get so scared I can't focus. The dogs bark and I go into fight or flight mode. My husband has to practically drag me through the parking lot for doctors appointments. I try to do everything virtually but I can't do everything that way.

Anything that can help I would love to hear.
This is exactly me every day
 
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