u/golightlycat

Hi everyone, I have a question for those of you who are currently in therapy or have been in therapy for agoraphobia.
I’ve been browsing this subreddit for a few weeks now and have read a lot about medication, exposure therapy, dealing with safety behaviors, etc. By comparison, I rarely see people talking about therapies that focus on the underlying causes of agoraphobia.
I’m aware that agoraphobia can be triggered and maintained by different factors. Still, I’d be really interested in hearing about your individual experiences with exploring and working on the underlying causes in therapy.
Did you feel that addressing the underlying causes was helpful for you? What did that look like in your therapy?

Hi everyone. I wanted to ask if anyone else experiences this kind of mild panic feeling that lasts for hours but never turns into a full-blown panic attack — and that you kind of fuel yourself by not doing the things that would actually help (not eating, not moving around, etc.)?
For example, yesterday around noon I briefly felt dizzy and nauseous, which was actually pretty logical because I hadn’t moved around yet, hadn’t been outside in the fresh air, hadn’t eaten anything, and was still doing household chores. But immediately my brain went: “Oh God, you’re going to faint, and now it’s the weekend, so an ambulance is going to have to come and you’ll have to go to the hospital. ALARM ALARM.”
So I sat down, drank some water, went out onto the balcony for a bit and ate a banana (one of my “safe foods”). That helped for a little while, but the feeling kept coming back throughout the day, sometimes better, sometimes worse.
By the evening it was at its worst. I started gagging, had a racing heart, felt dizzy, etc. And by that point I STILL hadn’t eaten anything except the banana, a bread roll and some chips 🤡. Then I suddenly felt REALLY awful, started crying, and afterwards I felt better.
I have no idea why I’m describing all of this in such detail 😅 I guess I just want to know if there are people who experience the same thing. Especially people who get these low-level panic feelings at home (particularly on weekends) and then somehow end up fueling them themselves by not eating, not moving, avoiding things, etc.

I’ve had panic disorder with agoraphobia for 17 years. I live in Europe (in a country where buildings generally don’t have air conditioning), and after going through therapy, I was actually symptom-free for many years.
Then the first major heatwave hit this year, and somehow it brought all my symptoms back — just like when it first started in 2009. Now I’m right back in the middle of it, and it feels like I have to start all over again with so many things.
I wanted to ask if there are any others here whose panic attacks were triggered or brought back by the extreme heat this year?
I’m honestly so scared of all the summers we still have ahead of us… 😔

Hi everyone, I’ve been dealing with panic disorder and agoraphobia for a while now. Unfortunately, I still get panic attacks at home quite often, too.
Lately, I’ve developed a new symptom that’s really freaking me out: sometimes I suddenly get extremely cold, start shaking, and feel feverish. The pattern is usually something like: nausea → dizziness → feeling really cold/shivering → extreme exhaustion.
And of course, this new symptom is now making me anxious all over again… you know how the vicious cycle goes.
So I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar? Has anyone else had intense chills or shaking as part of their anxiety/panic symptoms?

Hi,
ich bin Psychologin mit diversen Zusatzausbildungen und einigen Jahren Berufserfahrung. Immer öfter hinterfrage ich meine Berufswahl und daher hier meine Frage: In welchen Berufen ist man als Quereinsteiger aus der Psychologie gern gesehen? Vielleicht tummeln sich hier ja ein paar Menschen, die selbst der Psychologie den Rücken zugekehrt haben, oder die zumindest wen kennen, der/ die das gemacht hat…