Agoraphobia Support Group

I suppose I should qualify that with "personally know a fully recovered agoraphobic."

I'm sure most of us know the Bassett, Linden, Barry, etc.. success stories, I'm more interested in "real" people that have beaten this.

Just curious.

By the way, I own the Linden Method, and aside from some pretty good meditation/visualization tracks and an interesting read it didn't do much for me.

yeah, I did Linden... hearing about it I was thinking "Hey, this is going to cure me." No such luck.

I have never personally met someone 'cured' from agoraphobia. I would say some people on here are doing 'well' but I don't think anyone would say they're 100% cured (maybe Anna, j/k )

So, not to sound pessimistic, but I'll say it again: Does anyone truly ever get over this? It doesn't look good from where I'm sitting.

Post edited by: jmick, at: 01/12/2010 11:55 AM

I work and go out and do things and I was lucky enough to get diagnosed with Panic Disorder before the agoraphobia really set in.

But yes there are still certain situations when I just don't want to go out. And there are certainly still times when I am out that I am very uncomfortable. So even though I have very mild agor, I agree with Kevin. I dont think there is a permanent fix for this. I think there is just a level of control and understanding you have to reach to live with it.

OK, well I wish Kevin was right about me but... I will say this. I am not 100% cured but I am mostly free. That is why I am so passionate about the whole outlook thing and floating, accepting, self-love. Those things are what allowed me to make the leaps that I did. No work-book did anything for me other than make me feel like a failure in the long run. I have all this optimism because you have to remember I was COMPLETELY housebound for a long, long time. I was unable to put one foot out the door. Panic was immediate. Now, I can go anywhere as long as someone takes me. This means I can be left just about anywhere on my own as long as I know I will be picked up. Getting to places on my own is a challenge. I am working on that. I have a zone in which I can drive but it is limited. Take me to a huge mall though and leave me there and no problem. Movies, theaters, parties, walking downtown Toronto, long car trips, all good. I still get anxious at times but I have such good coping methods that I am able to ride through those feelings before panic strikes. I have not learned the true key for me until quite recently and the difference is amazing so I know it will only get better. I say there is hope people!!!! It has been a long road for me but I was clueless for a long time.

Well I read this hoping to see someone say yes..but not expecting it .All the reading ive done seems to suggest that the majority of people improve over time ..but some go backwards at times too .What it doesnt sugest is that a cure is very likely...im begining to think im stuck with it to some degree..esp since I can see looking back that ive had it (though less severly) forever..I thought I was just cronicly shy and socially inept.

I'm begining to wonder if there is some pysical predisposition in our brains that makes us prone to this ,perhaps something to do with the way we form conections when we experience certain events or process information .

Hmm..seem to have gone off trck there..lol..sorry

I haven't met someone who has completely recovered, however... At my best, in 2006, I was holding down a full-time job, took the subway comfortably in a fairly large area of the city, took the train on two five-hour return trips, and did a 60-km two-day fundraising walk, 10 km of that walk without the friend I was doing the walk with (she got sidelined with a knee injury). So... although I'm definitely nowhere near that free at this point, I know that it is possible to have significantly less struggle with anxiety/panic. Maybe that offers some hope???

I would say a partial yes on my part. I was totally housebound in May and now go to school, shop, go to the store and easily go places on my own with no anxiety. The only real times I have issues was like last week when I lost my dad, but other than that its been trudging head on into it. when I was diagnosed I jumped both feet in and started desensitizing. But I am an odd duckling and an extreme extrovert so any way out of this isolated hell was something I wanted badly. talking with my therapist, even having a Panic episode I was still going out and doing things with little to no anxiety and we decided that I was about 95% cured, with minor instances of actual agoraphobic episodes. But none of that is to say that at any moment it could all come crumbling down...

I've posed this question before... if there was a cure. And a professional told me that once you develop things like OCD, agoraphobia, etc, it can be managed, you can live a normal life, but there will always be bits of it left.

I do know several people who have totally recovered from this disorder. I use to attend a support group for anxiety disorders. The ones I know say they do experience anxiety like all people but they now know how to process it and they keep it from going to panic. I think they have also learned to live a less stressful life all the way around. We are born with the predisposition for this condition and we are sensitive by nature, so we have to keep the stress levels down, the best we can and learn to accept. I do believe there is total recovery. Just my feelings on the subject.....

there is never a recovery. you are a panic attack away from becoming agoraphobic. life is today

I did the Bassett program and it didn't do anything for me!!! I really don't think anyone ever truly recovers from it, because in the back of your mind there will always be a little something, whether or not it's fear or apprehension or excitement.