If one of my family members or a place of work asks me to do something, I will jump in and do it straight away without a second thought. But when it is things like walking to the shops or catching a bus to recover from agoraphobia I can’t get motivated enough to do anything. I don’t know why I have this attitude that I am not important enough to warrant effort and I suppose it doesn’t really matter where it originated from. So for this month my task is to changed my thought process that I am worthy of change in the long term and that everything I do is to make me a better and mentally healthier person.
This will be a hard one as I have obviously always thought this way and it will take a real conscious daily effort - will let you know how I get on.
We also talked about things we have and don’t have control of and which ones are blurred. Since its been raining for nearly 3 weeks now we talked about how I don’t have control of the rain, but how I can control how I think of it and the options I can use to work around it. Another example was how we don’t have control of how other people behave or act, but we have control over how we interact with them to make it a better experience.
She believes that I am doing really well and have all the skills I need to recover and that it is now up to me to put these skills into practice and reinforce them on a daily or weekly basis. This is a bit scary as I find it easier to do things when I know I have to report back to her (pleasing others again..) than to just do them for myself. I only have two visits left with her so I will see her monthly for these last ones.
Strange how others can see strengths in us that we aren’t that confident in, I suppose that I don’t feel that confident this week as I have had a bit of depressing run, but I will get there…eventually :). One great thing is that my anxiety level has definitely lowered since starting this therapy and that I am very grateful for.
Ruby
2 Responses to “A Long Time Between Psych Visits”
Hello,
I am diagnosed with panic disorder and agoraphobia but I actually havent left my home in 2 years with exception to go the dr and that can only be with my safety person and on xanax (a block away) lately I am more anxious than ever in my life and even just sitting at home. I have suffered with this for over 10 years and it will come and go and I have been on various methods of treatment none to be extremely beneficial or not have lasting side effects.The only thing I take now is an occassional xanax which doesnt help too much.I believe my symptoms are worse due to being premenapausal. can anyone give me advice or help walk me throught this I am panicking as Iwrite.
Welcome Elizabeth
I know exactly how you feel, my current backslide was due to menopause starting, personally I find doing progressive relaxation tapes and meditation really beneficial in lessening my anxiety. I was housebound for 6 months, and then 4 months this time round - 2 years is such a long time.
I don’t have a support person unfortunately, so I have to really push myself to go to places I really need to like doctors and chemist, the more I do it the easier it gets but I am still very limited in the places I can get to.
Chatting about it all on here really helps me to, as I feel I am making myself accountable in my attempts to get to places. I hope you stay around and chat with us, check my blog roll as well as there are many of us out there, what works for one doesn’t always for another.
I’m glad you left this comment, and I hope to chat again soon