Posted by Chelsea on 15/4/2009, 10:31 pm, in reply to "Hello from a new member!"

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve written. Sorry. I meant to make an update right after my first counseling appointment, but I got side tracked with school and everything else. I just got back from my second appointment. I am liking my counselor a lot. She is very understanding and knowledgeable. Although she didn’t know AP exactly when I came to see her, she seemed to know a good amount about phobias and social anxiety, so it wasn’t hard for her to try and understand where I was coming from. My assignment for this week is to try to use a bathroom where people are present, but if I’m not able to go then pour water into the toilet to fake it. We couldn’t help but laugh at this idea but I’m willing to try, and interested to see what it will be like. Next week she wants to start working on biofeedback with me. I’m looking forward to this since not only will it be able to help with my AP but my every day social anxiety. De-sensing is going well. I’ve been able to change a couple of anxiety causing thoughts. One thought I noticed that caused me a lot of anxiety was when I was just about to enter the bathroom. When I was at the door, I would play a game with myself, where I would guess if someone was in the bathroom or not. If my anxiety rose a great amount before entering, I took it as someone being inside. If it didn’t, then I took it as no one was. I never noticed this until I started practicing. Now, instead of thinking like this, I’ve been trying to think that I hope someone is inside so I have more times to practice. I feel it’s working. I’m still not able to go, but a lot of times I feel that I’m really close to going and all I need is to feel a little bit more comfortable to go. Thank you all for your replies and advice. I hope you are all doing well. Also, a special hello to Matty. It is definitely nice to see someone around my age on here, and congrats on the job. Be sure to keep us updated on how everything is going. It is also hard to find a job here, especially with how bad the economy is right now. I’m feeling a job would be a good idea for the summer so I have more time to practice and be out of the house, but I don’t know. Right now, I have trouble getting out of the house at all because all I end up worrying about is, “what if I have to use the bathroom?” I’m hoping therapy will help me enough so I will be motivated and feel comfortable enough to take the next step and find a job. It's one of the big reasons why I went to get help overcoming this. I don't want to be jobless living in my parents house forever!

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