Agoraphobia Stories
Heres a few personal experiences of my own and how I dealt with the situations. Ive panicked a few times in the last few years in public and its never been fun. These stories are meant mainly for amusement and for others to relate.
Broken Down Car
Our car broke down in July of 2005 right in the height of my panic attacks. I was still wondering when Id have them and what was causing them at the time and my car being broke down was the last thing I needed. I couldnt go to a garage so my mom had a friend come by to look at it. Being as Im the man of the house I had to be out there while he looked at the car. I figured Id go out long enough to satisfy him and go back in the house. He concluded that I needed a starter and offered to go get it for me. (he didnt know I had agoraphobia) I offered to give him the money but he insisted that I go with him.
He wouldnt go get the part until I went with him. Thank god like most places around me, the auto parts store was two minutes away. I finally went and he of course started chatting with the guy at the counter and of course they didnt have my part. We now had to go to another store fifteen minutes away! This wont work so when we got outside I explained to him that I feel sick and need to go home and that I had to use the bathroom. It worked and he got took me home but then said hed wait until I finished. I told him Id be a while and to go ahead with out me and he finally agreed and I got out of having to go with them.
Stuck In Traffic
Traffic in my area is very bad and in 2005 the state was putting in a new lane of traffic to help congestion. In the mean time they were holding up traffic and it would back up for several miles. It was early July and hotter than ever I was five minutes from home but I was stuck in snail paced traffic. At the rate traffic was moving I would be home in an hour or so. Of course I started panicking and I did a u-turn in the middle of the road and thankfully my mom lived a couple of minutes from where I was and traffic wasnt bad on her street.
We arrived but my mom was still at work and of course her door was locked. My neck was so tense and it was so tense it hurt. My wife was with me and I just couldnt sit out there in the heat. I couldnt go home until later that evening when traffic died down.
I went around the side of her house and took out the air conditioner and crawled through her window and sat there until she came home. She got mad at me when she did make it home because she said I broke in. At this time my mom didnt understand my condition or why Id act that way but Ive explained it to her several times since and I think she gets it now.
A Cab Five Minutes Away
Most of my anxiety experiences have been in my car or have something to do with a car and this one may be the most bizzare. When we gotten our car fixed in December of 2007 I hadnt been driving for two months at that time. Driving down the street was bad for me then so a trip about five minutes away was too much too soon. We actually called a cab to come get Tabitha and take her to the store she wanted to go to. Remember this is only five minutes at most down the road.
We waited for three hours on the cab and called several times and he never showed. Some of you may be thinking I could have already taken her by then. That crossed my mind but one minute or five minutes or even thirty seconds is plenty of time to start panicking so it isnt so much about the time. I finally got myself to take her. My foot felt extra heavy because when my anxiety was getting worse my foot would hit the gas more. We just had a small hill to go up and by then I was dying. I dropped her off and hurried out of there.
Usually at that point my anxiety melts away but I still had to wait on her and there was no way that was happening. So, I called the cab company while driving and asked if he could send the cab to the store she was at instead of his original destination and he said hed be there when he can. I knew hed never show. So, I drove home and thought to myself "I cant go get her" and turned the car around and started heading back. When I reached the small hill just seconds away she called and asked if I was ok but by then my mind was saying turn around. She asked if I wanted her to walk down that hill and I said no because I dont want her to have to walk.
I made myself go up there and halfway home I felt fine because I knew I was heading home. All this took around three hours and thirty minutes for something that should have taken no more than thirty minutes. She was only in the store for five minutes.