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.

[kimmytree]

I'm sorry you've had such a hard time dealing with your anxiety. My experiences have been much more milder than yours, but I was diagnosed with social anxiety about a year and a half ago. I was put on Zoloft, and it has made things a million times better.

I would get very anxious too just going to the grocery store, and I was a loner in school. Once I was diagnosed and got treatment, I was finally able to switch from a small private school to public school for my senior year, and was perfectly fine with the switch. I was finally not scared to learn to drive, and now I'm in my second semester of college.

Therapy might work too, but that's what helped me.