by Joyce Gale

Created on: January 17, 2010

Dealing with Agoraphobia

My agoraphobia started with the death of my father and then my brother. For some reason this can trigger off this crippling disability. I started to experience very high levels of tension from which I came to a complete standstill. My faith vanished I did not believe in anything I thought my father was in the grave and that was that. I could not talk to anyone about it I completely shutdown.

Panic attacks are a frightening thing and for a while I could not even get out of bed. I was about thirty three at the time and had a husband and three small children.

My Doctor did not seem to have much of a clue, she just said it was nerves and gave me some pills. So I became afraid to actually live. In fact in the end I had to tell her myself. Two years of my life seemed to drift away. I sat in a chair all day, I was convinced I had something wrong with my heart. I would prepare the evening meal in the morning in case I couldn’t do it later as I did not have much energy. I could not meet people without panic or even talk to my next door neighbour. I became isolated. Although I had a fear of going out I also had this fear of being on my own, I went out in the car with my husband and children so as not to be on my own in the house. It was a viscous circle I had many phobia’s

It came to me that I had to do something my self, it was up to me to get better so it came into my head to see a hypnotherapist. There was only one in the whole area in the 1970’s and I booked an appointment with him. My husband drove me in the car. I visited this therapist over several weeks and found an enormous benefit. I felt more relaxed and began to improve slowly and could go into a small shop and stay for a while without rushing out.

During this time I was writing to a pen friend in Jersey (a small island off the coast of England and France).with the same problem as myself I found her address through an agoraphobic magazine. This lady had a tomato farm and did bed and breakfast. I wanted to go to Jersey so booked for us to go the following year. Before we went I booked some more sessions with the therapist again and was set to go. We all took the car five of us, husband driving and myself and three children. Going by ferry from Weymouth. It is worst setting out on the journey then after an hour has passed things got better. The worst bit of the journey is in the hold of the ferry where the cars are, you feel trapped. However I really loved being on

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