If anyone has had anxiety/ agoraphobia and now doesn’t, what did you do to fix it?

[Didisquat]

Just that really…. Would like to hear if anyone has successfully cured this and how the heck they did it??
thank you

I developed significant anxiety and agoraphobia as a result of menopause. Sertraline has significantly helped me and given me my life back.

This reminded me that years ago, I encountered someone in an online forum - not here; it was Craigslist - who had agoraphobia. She posted every few days, not in a mental health forum but just a general women's chat forum, about little steps she took, going out, getting batter and better. I always thought that the mere act of confronting it and posting about it might have helped her.

My husband did, a combination of medicine, counselling and baby steps each day - e.g walk in the garden, end of the drive etc. even when it was the last thing he wanted to do he pushed through.

Medication (propranolol and mirtazipene) and baby steps. Although I've stopped taking the meds (not planned I just forget) and actually feel better. I feel real again so maybe they made me worse.

I started with,
Walking to the post box opposite my house.

Walking to the corner.

Going to the park with friends picking me up and dropping me off.
Then meeting the friends in the park but walking there on my own.
Getting the bus into town with dc.
Getting the bus on my own but meeting someone at the other end.

Walking into town with dc.
Walking into town alone to meet someone.

Next on my list is walking into town to do the shopping I need alone.

I'm not 100% better, but I did order the coffees in a cafe today instead of making my mum do it.

Citalopram helped with anxiety to a degree.
I did a CBT course but found it made me worse, which I blame on the practioners more than technique. I'm glad I never got as far as to the planned gradual exposure which was set at a far too quick pace to fit in with their timescale and removed anything you relied on for safety like phone, headphones or bottle of water early on. I think you need to keep to very small steps that feel manageable to build up a steady foundation as it can quickly go like snakes and ladders

What did help was giving myself permission to ignore much of the CBT advice which was only piling on the pressure to be always trying to achieve things. What works for me is to not force it, accept I'll take the steps when I feel ready and I usually achieve more than I expected that way.
Staying in a situation to ride out the adrenaline /anxiety doesn't work for me, it makes me feel unsafe, the heightened anxiety can last from hours to days.
Wearing headphones, music works as both distraction from brain chatter and noise cancelling the outside stimulation which helps keep me calmer.

I had to re-embrace my ' inner protector/ gut feeling' as it was like having a war in my mind every time I was anxious in a situation. I had worked hard to ignore the overactive alarm as told in CBT, but in doing so it split me and found it's an even worse place when you can't trust yourself. I had a therapist who helped me see it had done a good job of looking after me in the past, instead of viewing it as an enemy dripping poison in my ear causing me all these problems I reinstated it as protector and by listening rather than try ignore It helped turn down the volume and was less active.

Discovering I'm Neurodivergent has made me reflect differently on the experiences and now more likely to accept I know whats right for myself.

I was doing well with recovery but pandemic has sent me back to start again 😫

Mindfulness- I started with apps (Calm and Headspace), then joined a group. Also practiced grounding techniques every day. It’s like having broken legs, you need to do the physio to help heal - doing nothing will make things worse. Keep fighting it.

@SwirlNhurl it's the same for me about trying to tough things out. Just makes me stay anxious for days afterwards 😞
I find it comforting to know that I'm not the only one.