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Setbacks Don't Have to Set You Back
in Your Recovery from Agoraphobia
by Stephen Price
Setbacks can be one of the most discouraging things during
your
recovery from agoraphobia. They can make you feel like you
have lost weeks, months, or years of hard-won progress and
that you are back at square one.
Fortunately, this is not the case. Don't give up when you
experience a setback.
My recovery from panic disorder with agoraphobia didn't
happen
overnight. It was a hard fought battle with many setbacks.
But it
did happen, and today I am totally free from panic attacks
and
agoraphobia.
Your recovery may not happen overnight either, and your
progress toward recovery may not all be forward. You may
experience some tough setbacks along the way. I am writing
you today to tell you not to make too much out of these
setbacks.
I can remember working really hard with my desensitization
program and getting to where I could go to four high school
classes in a row before going home. It had taken me the
better
part of the past year to achieve this and I had started by
going
to only one class per day and slowly added classes over
time.
Then one morning early in my junior year of high school, I
had a
major panic attack during first period and had to go home. I
was
devastated. I thought all of my hard work had gone down the
drain and I would have to start my recovery over from
scratch. I was so consumed by these thoughts that I didn't
go to school at all for the next couple of days.
Looking back, I am glad to be able to tell you that my
thinking
was totally wrong. This happened in September. By
mid-November of that year I was playing on my school
basketball team and attending almost a full day of school on
a regular basis.
My encouragement to you is that all progress toward your
recovery from agoraphobia may not be forward progress.
There may be days when you experience so much panic or
anxiety that it feels like you are right back where you
started. But take heart, days like this do not mean you are
starting your recovery over. Each time you reach a new level
in your recovery, you can get back to that level fairly
quickly no matter what setbacks you
face.
It's best not to gauge the progress of your recovery from
agoraphobia on a day to day basis. In most cases, recovery
from panic disorder and agoraphobia is more like a marathon
than a sprint. You can best measure progress toward your
recovery over longer intervals of time.
Because of this, don't take setbacks too seriously no matter
how
bad they may feel. In fact, it might be better just to
expect to
have some setbacks along the way. In the end, if you persist
in
doing the things you need to be doing to recover, you will
recover from agoraphobia and get your life back, no matter
what happens on any given day.
Take it from someone who went through lots of setbacks but
ended up overcoming a case of severe agoraphobia with panic
attacks. Persistence wins in the end. I know this because I
did it – and if I did it, so can you.
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