If the place where you live in, your family, your city, are triggers to all your symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks, would it be a good or bad idea to move away? I´m considering this, but the best option that I have is to move to another country and I have a few worries about this.
I´ve learned that avoidance only makes fear stronger. So by moving away, is it possible that I could develop a kind of phobia to my own family and city? A few years ago I lived abroad for a few months, and back then I already got an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach as soon as I drove into my city, like I didn´t want to come back home. And at that moment I wasn´t having anxiety, but I was starting to notice how I was much happier and comfortable when I wasn´t at "home" with my parents. I don´t have a job (can´t find one because I have agoraphobia) and can´t afford to live by myself, so at 30 I´m beginning to feel like an eternal teenager. Besides, I´m noticing my parents´ attitude towards my anxiety problems is only making things worse. They seem to get so annoyed, like it´s my fault, and that only increases it. And most of the time they´re in an angry bitter mood that also triggers all my symptoms.
So seeing that other times being away made me feel better and more independant, it occurred to me that maybe it would be good to try and get better somewhere else, in a more supportive (or at least less stressing) environment. But anyway, first I would need to ask the one person that I trust where I used to live abroad, to see if I could count on them. I don´t have a very close relationship with them anymore, but at least I would know that I have someone that I trust close to me if I needed them.
My idea is that a friend would come and stay with me for some days to see if I could really adapt (I never had trouble before, but now it´s completely different), and then after my friend leaves I would spend there at least some weeks or months, trying to "decondition" myself and regain confidence...
I´m not really sure if this makes sense or it´s crazy, but I´m getting worse by the day and I think staying here I´ll only end up exploding. I also am aware that it could go very wrong if I move and there are no improvements and I end up feeling more frustrated and embarrassed. I don´t know what to do.
I´ve learned that avoidance only makes fear stronger. So by moving away, is it possible that I could develop a kind of phobia to my own family and city? A few years ago I lived abroad for a few months, and back then I already got an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach as soon as I drove into my city, like I didn´t want to come back home. And at that moment I wasn´t having anxiety, but I was starting to notice how I was much happier and comfortable when I wasn´t at "home" with my parents. I don´t have a job (can´t find one because I have agoraphobia) and can´t afford to live by myself, so at 30 I´m beginning to feel like an eternal teenager. Besides, I´m noticing my parents´ attitude towards my anxiety problems is only making things worse. They seem to get so annoyed, like it´s my fault, and that only increases it. And most of the time they´re in an angry bitter mood that also triggers all my symptoms.
So seeing that other times being away made me feel better and more independant, it occurred to me that maybe it would be good to try and get better somewhere else, in a more supportive (or at least less stressing) environment. But anyway, first I would need to ask the one person that I trust where I used to live abroad, to see if I could count on them. I don´t have a very close relationship with them anymore, but at least I would know that I have someone that I trust close to me if I needed them.
My idea is that a friend would come and stay with me for some days to see if I could really adapt (I never had trouble before, but now it´s completely different), and then after my friend leaves I would spend there at least some weeks or months, trying to "decondition" myself and regain confidence...
I´m not really sure if this makes sense or it´s crazy, but I´m getting worse by the day and I think staying here I´ll only end up exploding. I also am aware that it could go very wrong if I move and there are no improvements and I end up feeling more frustrated and embarrassed. I don´t know what to do.
