Think the origin is definitely stress related. For a number of years I would only get the odd panic attack maybe one every couple of months. Didn’t even know they were panic attacks at the time. They only seemed to occur when I was driving on the motorway. Randomly out of the blue I’d feel like I was going to faint and go all dizzy and get a sense of derealization. Driving everywhere else was fine. It was weird because I’d always loved driving and was pretty confident. Then the attacks started happening in work when I was in a busy office or out socialising. I only realised that they were panic attacks when I googled “going dizzy when driving”. As for exercise no I hardly get any and I know it’s something I should change. Probably also my diet too.

Hi, thanks for getting back to me:)

So what I was try to say I guess was that I went off sick from work in 2012, and since then apart from the one time I went to the meditation class, everything else I’ve tried to beat the agoraphobia has been through the health service. I’ve been prescribed a couple of different ssri medications which may have helped with the day to day anxiety, fr example racing thoughts etc, but didn’t stop the panic attacks. This was probably because I’d let it snowball and completely take over my life before asking for help via the doctor. I also was prescribed beta blockers which were great as they took away the adrenaline feeling which I hated.

I’ve also had some cut therapy, from guided self help to two separate high intensity courses. With the CBT, I know that the whole point of it is to get to the stage where you ride out an attack and then prove to yourself that there is nothing at the other side, but that’s what I’m struggling with.