[Gallagher]

I see this thread has derailed into "what's your phobia", which was absolutely not my intention. At all.

I suppose I should say something other than that, since it's been 3 months since my last post here.

My phobia has shifted a bit as I've been trying to keep mindful of it. I've gotten better at tolerating some of the visual triggers, which helps in a lot of ways... but audio triggers have only gotten worse. I can tolerate staying in the bathroom for extended periods (which is where we have several holes in the walls that cause me problems), but noises for extended periods or when I'm particularly vulnerable get me 90% of the way to a panic attack. This is especially unfortunate because I've always been an extremely light sleeper, and being woken up by said noises are a guarantee that I'll be on edge and sick for the entire day. And when I'm on edge for that long, I start seeing things, which only makes matters worse.

If there are any other suggestions for how I might be able to work with this shift in my life, it would be appreciated. I'm not particularly fond of curling up in the farthest room in the house from my own bedroom when things get particularly bad. It, uh, sort of fucks up my day, truth be told.