Agoraphobia
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A Love Letter
A farewell message to my readers about love and shame.
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HOYO HO!
Thoughts on moving on to my new home and how my agoraphobia impacts that process.
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More Portraits of Agoraphobia
Photographer Corinne Botz is continuing her photographic exploration of agoraphobia, looking at the faces of those of us who struggle with this condition and also, along her journey, becoming fascinated by our environments as well.
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Almost Home
About finding a home of my own, my fears and hopes and Divine Guidance.
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Standing Still While Moving Forward
Despite a lot of frustration and what seems like a lack of movement, change does happen.
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Moving On
About moving to a new home - and also about moving from a conditional emotional state of hoping to a more solid and useful state of wanting what you want.
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Uncertain Times
About facing an uncertain future and the loss of my home... and hopefully the finding of a new one. About fear and hope.
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The Perils of Katherine: Medicine, Meanness and Misery
Sad tale of eviction, anxiety and mean people and some second thoughts on Lexapro.
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Ice Cycles
Icicles, inner blizzards and the hope for an inner and outer thaw.
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Endings and Beginnings
Thoughts on endings and beginnings and living in the moment.
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Singing the Blahs
About the highs and lows of being human and coping with the blues and the holiday season.
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You Don't Have to Leave the House to Vote
Information about Absentee Ballots and a short political harangue.
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Pat's Story: A View from the Other Side
One woman's experience of the caretaker side of living with agoraphobia.
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Gennifer's Story
Gennifer - an agoraphobic, mother, student - shares with great directness and honesty - her experiences with this strange condition.
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Days of Whine and Neurosis
Some self pity and a request for the sharing of stories other than my own
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Blue Moon
Thoughts on Blue Moons, creativity and other relevant irrelevancies.
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Ant Medicine
Thoughts on patience and change.
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Seeing Stars
Thoughts on acknowledging our own pain instead of judging it and on seeing the beauty of who we are.
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Daffodils, Lexapro and Other Miracles
Thoughts on Spring, the disability process, anti-depressants and the miraculous nature of life.
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Reaching Out for Help
Thoughts on seeking Disability and other forms of assistance.
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Awareness, Acceptance, Action: Working with What We Have
Guest author Kaile Wren shares her experience with another aspect of agoraphobia which arises from severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
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Receptivity
Thoughts on the art of receiving, including the struggle of accepting the need for disability.
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Lost Clauses
Musings on the holidays and life.
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Transitions
Thoughts about the life transitions and gratitude.
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A Death in the Family
Thoughts on the passing of my good friend and companion, Abigail, the Antique Kitty.
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Portraits of Agoraphobia
Photographer Corinne Botz is seeking volunteers for a photo project on agoraphobia. She took photos of me a few weeks ago and we each share our thougths on the experience and the value of her project.
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Self Love
Thoughts about learning to love oneself and the relationship between shame, self-love, anger and agoraphobia.
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Caterpillars and Butterflies
About being in the now and about finding our butterfly selves.
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Out of Work
About the extra stress of unemployment for agoraphobic. And about hope.
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Anger
Anger anger anger and more anger.... and hopefully something beyond it.
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Seasons
Thoughts on learning to embrace the seasons of life and growth and being.
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Searching for My Bliss
About struggling to find one's way out of confusion and into a life in which one can recognize and pursue one's dreams.
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Inner Voices, Toxic Shame, Part 2
A continuation of the discussion of toxic shame. Thoughts about the inner voices that often rule our lives and how to work with them.
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Shame, Shame, Shame, Part 1
The first in a series of article exploring toxic shame.
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Snowbound and Then Some
Thoughts about being snowbound and belief bound, about facing up to uncomfortable questions about things like Disability and Medicaid.
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Resolutions
Some resolutions for the new year.
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Holidaze
Something a little silly for the holiday.
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Creating Joy
Thoughts on the difficulties of the holiday season and on our capacity to create joy.
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Sober Thoughts
Thoughts on alcoholism, it's impact on children, and it's relationship to agoraphobia.
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No Complaints
About hope and looking for the blessing in everything that happens.
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Climbing Laundry Mountain
Thoughts about dirty laundry and shame.
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Small Things
Thoughts on the power of small, simple acts to bring about change.
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Bullies and Blessings
Blessing in disguise.
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Mirrors and Distorted Lenses
Some of life is how we look at things... or something like that.
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Only Love Prevails
About inner and outer peace.
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The Three-Legged Deer
Thoughts on learning to handle anger and truly experience the full range of emotions.
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Positive Thinking
Thoughts on the struggle between gloom and positive thinking
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It's Not Personal
Thoughts about one of life's most difficult and most profound truths.
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Carole: In Memorium
About my older sister.
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Peace
A discussion of peace - in the world and in the heart.
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Change
Thoughts on change and our relationship to it.
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Therapy, Part 2
A further discussion about the benefits of therapy and a collection of links to hopefully help you find the right therapy/therapist for your needs.
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Backslider Blues
A bit of a regression and a lesson hopefully learned.
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Therapy, Part One
Thoughts on the benefits of psychotherapy.
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Out in the Big World
Thoughts about moving back out into the world
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Hope
A meandering journey to a discovery about hope
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A Letter to God
Thoughts on the power of letter writing as a form of healing
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Wanting
A bit off topic. Thoughts on allowing oneself to truly have dreams.
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An Agoraphobic's Romance, The Conclusion
Well, enough people have requested a sequel to the previous article, that I had to stretch my imagaination a bit and come up with ending to the story.
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An Agoraphobic's Romance
A bit of a break from the norm. This is a silly little fiction piece I wrote a number of years ago. Hope it makes you smile.
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Getting to Know Madeleine, Agoraphobia and Obesity, Part 2
About getting to know the voice of our self hate and changing the nature of that relationship.
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The Body Burden: Agoraphobia and Obesity, Part 1
About obesity and it's relationship to agoraphobia.
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Addicted to Shame
Thoughts on the idea that toxic shame as a form of addiction.
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CyberSpace vs the Real World
Thoughts on the impact of cyberspace and the internet for an agoraphobic.
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Writer's Block and Worrying
Doing a bit of whining, I'm afraid. Demonalians have been at play in my life again. Sigh.
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Forgiveness and Responsibility
Looking at ways to redefine these two words which are so misunderstood and as such are a source of much pain.
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Abigail the Ancient One
Animal Companions are wonderful healers in all our lives, but especially for those of us who struggle to leave home. Today is my friend Abigail's twentieth birthday and I just wanted to acknowledge the gift she is in my life.
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Agoraphobia and Sexual Abuse, Part 3 - The DUH Syndrome
More thoughts on the impact of sexual abuse and how it relates to agoraphobia.
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Agoraphobia - The Legacy of Abuse
Continuing the discussion of Sexual Abuse and Agoraphobia. Our guest editor, psychotherapist Dorothy M. Neddermeyer has written a wonderful and insightful analysis of the connection between sexual abuse and panic disorders. Thank you so much Dorothy. You are awesome.
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Agoraphobia and Sexual Abuse, Part 1
The first installment of an exploration of the relationship between sexual abuse and agoraphobia.
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Messages
Thoughts on the messages we give to ourselves, both in our spoken thoughts and our body language.
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What We Tell Ourselves is Who We Are
Thoughts about procrastination, beliefs and learning to love ourselves just as we are.
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Demonalia, Oh Demonalia
Further explorations of life in Demonalia.
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Let Us Pray
Thinking I had covered all the healing modalities, I suddenly remembered another one: Prayer.
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Please Don't Yell at Me
About life lessons, old fears and learning to advocate for oneself - or not....
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Curves in the Road
Thoughts on accepting and dealing with change and challenge.
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Medical Assistance Plan (MAP)
MAP makes Reiki seem downright traditional. It is genuinely magical and, for me, has been nothing short of miraculous.
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Dirty Dishes
Thoughts about what panic is like and my initial impressions about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
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The Most Effective Form of Therapy
Guest columnist, Neal Sideman, is President of the Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder (APD) Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to helping people overcome panic disorder, agoraphobia and related conditions. He sent me two items to share with you. First a richly informative discussion of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and second a lovely piece called "The Attitude of Allowing." Thanks, Neal, for both these wonderful articles.
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Reiki
Some information and links to information on an ancient healing technique.
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Crossing Bridges
Thoughts about the literal and figurative bridges of life as well as thoughts on the virtues and folly of taking on responsiblity for the happiness of others.
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I Believe! Or Do I?
Thoughts on how what we believe helps and/or hold us back from abundance, happiness and love.
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Demonalia Strikes Again
A look at how and why we sometimes dive into the Abyss of Pathos Pool in Historic Demonalia. It's a sad story, but it does have a happy ending.
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Baggage Handling
Thoughts on coping with - and maybe even discarding -the emotional baggage that we all carry through life.
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Home for the Holidays
A bit of holiday blues and thoughts on love, truth and family.
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An Agoraphobic on the Road, Part 2: Coming of Age
Additional driving and life lessons.
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An Agoraphobic on the Road, Part 1: Who's Really Driving
Lessons learned driving also seem to be teaching me lessons about life. Or at least I hope so...
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If You Don't Want to Hear It, Then You Probably Need To
Diana, the youngest of my sister's three magnificent children shares her experience of being the niece of an agoraphobic. She's incredibly smart (and I'm not just saying that), she's beautiful, and she's interested in all sorts of things, most especially animal rights and justice. She is a vegan and the best niece an aunt could wish for.
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Of Friends, Beauty and Thanksgiving
Thoughts about friends, beauty, life, and gratitude.
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Still in Demonalia
A visit to Psycho Swamp in Demonalia and some thoughts on the feeding habits of ego-gators.
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Further Explorations in Demonalia
Thoughts on the inner voices that often run our lives and how to live more happily with them.
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EMDR
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) is a fascinating technique for dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other intense traumas which are often part of agoraphobia.
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Exploring Demonalia
We all cope with inner demons of one sort or another. We can either fight them or find ways to benefit from what they have to teach us.
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Knocking Down Walls
Walls of shame and embarrasment about our feelings lock agoraphobics and non-agoraphobics alike into prisons of pain. It's time to knock those walls down.
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Fear and Fear Mongering
Thoughts about fear, the role it plays in our society, and how dangerous this is for all of us, not just agoraphobics.
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Emotional Freedom Techniques
I want to start exploring some of the healing approaches that have helped me. This article is about a relatively new healing approach called Emotional Freedom Techniques. In the wake of the resent terrorist attacks, this may be something that lots of people will want to experiment with right now.
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Terrorism and Love
A prayer for love and peace. In memory of the dead.
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Gifts In Ugly Wrapping Paper
I don't know how to describe this one. Enter at your own risk.
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Elephants in the Living Room and Other Mysteries - Part Three
A look at some of the underlying kinds of beliefs that invite elephants into our living rooms in the first place.
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Elephants in the Living Room and Other Mysteries - Part Two
Thoughts on encouragement, elephants and truth.
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Elephants in the Living Room and Other Mysteries - Part One
This is the first part of an exploration of how certain disfunctional behaviors reenforce the agoraphobic pattern and make it difficult for family and friends to help us cope.
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Why Me? Why Us?
A look at some of the underlying personality factors which make some of us more prone to agoraphobia than others.
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Panic Attacks
A non-medical description of what a panic attacks are like based on my own experience. I don't know that the intensity of these experiences can be conveyed to those who haven't gone through it but I've given it a try.
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A Redefinition of Agoraphobia: The Shame Factor
A continuation of my redefinition of agoraphobia, this time exploring the role that shame plays in keeping agoraphobics house bound.
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A Re-Definition of Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is a misunderstood condition. I hope to provide a clearer picture for the average person of what it means to be agoraphobic.
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