Haven't left my house in 8 months..? Options

[goth-nina]

I'm Agoraphobic, I've been diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder since I was 10.
For the first 4 months in high school, people thought I was a mute. Yeah, i know. I'm very quiet. I wouldn't yell even if I was on fire.

My mom was extremely a depressed person, so I think this was genetic.
During elementary school, it was very hard. That's when the bullying began, in the 3rd grade.
It hasn't stopped since I turned senior in high school. I graduated in June 2008, since July 1st, I haven't left my house.
I start college in Fall 2009, I'm considering taking it online. I just can't be around people. I can't even breathe in a
supermarket. My brother tried to take me Christmas shopping last December, & it was too much people, passing towards me, touching me, looking at me, I just started having slow panic attacks & ran into the car, & just bursted in tears.

I can't live like this. I can't even get across a room full of people. I always have to wait for hours for them to leave, so I can get my bottled water in the vending machine. My dad thinks it's stupidity, not extreme shyness.

So is there any advice anyone can give me? Should i go out, take it slow? Geez, I can't even do THAT, I always duck when a car passes by.

[Blyat]

Basically what Tomates said, start small. It's better taking your time with it.



I heard about a hypnotist that will hypnotize(wrong spelling i assume) a person and gives them an object and a certain colour to think about(ex a blue rbberband), so when they think they'll have a panic attack they can just look that that object and it relaxes them