You Walk One Way, I'll Walk The Other.

[LuckyDuck]

I'm not sure why it happens, but whenever I walk outdoors, if I'm on one side of the street, and somebody is walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the street, my heart pounds. It's been like that for a very long time for me, dating back to early teens.

My chest gets tight, breathing is difficult, and I hold my breath and when the person has passed, I start huffing and puffing because man do my lungs need oxygen.

Now that spring (nah, we skipped spring here, we're straight into summer despite no leaves being out yet) is here, it's more difficult. A month ago I had a scarf. That made it easier because I could walk with my mouth hanging open. Now, it's total bearing down to breathe.

It only happens when I'm alone.

It's makes going outside difficult. I like the area I live in; it's a strong community. I should start forcing myself to go out more often. Maybe that will help. I don't know yet, but I'll never know if I don't try.

LD

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I admire your bravery and courage and your determination. When I am walking I too get nervous when someone else is walking.

 

[Friday]

How about when you're walking a dog?

What happens if you cross the street? (This would be a my-life kind of irony, instead of crossing to get away from someone).

 

[LuckyDuck]

Thank you, Gizmo. It does help knowing I'm not alone in this. Today is me walking out to get coffee. I'll be going in about 30 minutes.

FridayJones - I would love to have that opportunity. I never had a dog. When it comes to crossing the street, it is difficult. A few years ago I got hit by a truck and that is probably has affected my crossing the street for awhile yet. It's not quite the same because I am more vigilant but not out of breath. Funny thing is, that's when I'm most comfortable when someone is next to me while idling waiting for my turn to cross. It's sort of a strange "Well, I've got this person to back me up in case anything goes wrong." thought process. Especially with my boyfriend. He's 6'5". I'm 5'5". He's much more visible than me so cars really get the heck out of the way, you know what I mean?

 

[Friday]

<grin> I generally turn problems on their ear to see if it changes matters (hence the walking across the street Q). Found, rather shockingly, that it often does. I'll have a very specific trigger, so altering the scenario even just a little bit can either nix the trigger (awesome, love it when that happens!), or gives me enough distance from it that I can work on blunting it/ exposure therapy it.

Ex) Avoided all things military like the plague for a decade. Had to deal with some military stuff (unavoidable triggers and stressors I had adv notice of)... So I started watching Aussie & UK military stuff (partly how I found this site). The accent, slang, and uniforms were all just different enough that I could be okay. Ish. Most of the time. Then slowly started adding in US military stuff. Then finally USMC stuff. None of which is fixed or perfect. It more like I've got a big old bandaid over the gaping wound rather than stitches... But I'm workin on it.

Done it for loads of other stuff... Doesn't always work, but what doesn't work is almost as informative (aka useful!) as the stuff that does. Let's me figure out the edges of a thing. And once I've got the edges of it? I can start working my way in.