. .	Overcoming Agoraphobia (Ann's testimony)

    My parents grew up poor and with verbally and physically abusive parents.  They tried to give us everything they didn't have as children.  Unfortunately, they unintentionally passed their emotional problems on to us.  My dad was always upset for no apparent reason.  My mom was always stressed out, worrying about everything and always complaining about how mean and insensitive my dad was to her.  However, my parents are very good people.  I now realize that they have never dealt with their past and unfortunately have passed that on to their children.

    As a young adult, I became very career-driven and a workaholic.  I tried to find happiness in my career.  Yet the more successful I became, the more unhappy I was.  I found that I buried myself in my work in order to avoid dealing with life.  I had two children and a husband by then.  I was too focused on my unhappiness that I basically missed out on my children's early years and my husband.    There came a point in my career when I started to experience panic attacks that only occurred at work.  They came right out of the blue, about once a month at first, and then they got progressively worsened and started occurring more often.  One day at work, I experienced a full-blown panic attack so intense that it seemed to last for days.

    From there on, I became "agoraphobic."  Anything and everything caused me anxiety and panic attacks.  I was no longer able to work and felt like I had lost all coping mechanisms.  I couldn't deal with the simplest things in life.  I then began to seek professional help.  I tried counseling, hypnotherapy, motivational tapes, books and some medication.  I even started attending a Christian church with a lady that I had met.  I became saved at that point and accepted Jesus as my Savior. I also started reading my Bible and searched the Internet for scriptures and information about God and His Word.  I grew up Catholic and went to private school all my life, so I'd had some exposure to God.  However I was not too familiar with God's Word.  In my Internet searches, I found Whole Person Counseling.  At this point, I was crippled by anxiety and panic and desperate for a solution.  I couldn't socialize, walk into a grocery store, let alone stand in line, work or do anything without experiencing panic.  My relationship with our acquaintances started to suffer.  My parents were worried sick about me.  My husband was desperate and didn't know what else to do.  My kids needed me.

    A month later, I was on my way to San Angelo, TX.  I experienced intense counseling, dealing with issues that I had buried for so long.  I learned a lot about God.  Basil is a true man of God.  His counseling was very powerful.  He provided me with the knowledge that I needed to know in order to overcome all this. I left San Angelo feeling more at peace and felt reassured that there was a solution to my problems, but I knew I had a lot of work to do.  I started working on my behaviors according to Scripture.  Initially, I felt like I was getting nowhere.  I was angry at times.  But I put my full trust in God knowing that I'd get somewhere eventually.  I would continually ask God to please lead me to the way of healing.  I may not have been healed instantly, but I figured that maybe God wasn't ignoring me and had a plan for me.

    It was my deepest desire to return to work and resume a "normal" life again, preferably to return back to the career that I had worked so hard for.  But the more I tried, the more I felt God leading me away from it.  One day I had just had enough.  I fell down on my knees in tears and told God that I was so sick and tired of living this way.  I asked Him to show me a way out of all this and promised Him that I would follow whatever path He lead me to. Two weeks later, I get a call from my husband who was at work asking me if I wanted to accept a job with his aunt as her assistant at a mortgage company.  I was terrified, but I knew immediately that this was an answer to my prayers, and I accepted the job.  A year later, I obtained my real estate license.  I transferred to an office closer to my home and began working as a mortgage loan officer.    I now had to start meeting clients face to face.  This was by far the most anxiety-producing experience of my life!  But God always encouraged me to do it and kept reassuring me that He would never leave nor forsake me.  I did it over and over again, always feeling anxiety and some panic.  I thought, when is this ever going to be over?  But I trusted God.  Every time I was faced with a challenge or obstacle, which seemed daily at the time, I kept God's Word at heart.  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13.

    Three months later, I was lead to move to another office due to the company was losing all their management and not running smoothly.  Again, I put it all in God's hands.  He lead me to an office which coincidentally is co-owned by an old friend of my husband and I.  We had lost touch with a couple of years back.  I felt this was completely God's doing.  Within six months, I became their top-producing loan officer.  The beauty of all this, though, is that I am no longer career-driven.  I just put it in God's hands and He made all this possible.  I work minimal hours and dedicate most of my time to my family and home, yet somehow I'm managing to be the company's top producer.  All four owners of the company as well as management are continuously praising me for being top producer and for all my good work.  It's funny how things have changed.  Before all this, I was always looking for acceptance.  I wanted to be recognized.  I wanted to be the best at everything, yet I felt that it was never good enough.  I've even told the co-owner, our friend, that I'm not interested in career status or social acceptance.  I'm just happy to be so blessed.  Co-workers ask me, "How do you do it?"  People are expecting me to tell them about my good salesperson skills and strategies.  But all I say is, "My faith."  I really have no other explanation for all this.

    Two months ago, my life-long dream came true.  My husband and I bought a house!  We've been trying to buy a house for the past seven years but it never happened.  In fact, we bought our friend, the company's co-owner's house.  We deeply admired his house years back and our dream was to have a house similar to his.  He put his house up for sale four months ago.  I prayed long and hard about whether or not we should purchase his home, again leaving it in God's hands.  The more I prayed about it, the more God made it possible for it to happen.  A week later, we were in escrow.  My only explanation for God leading me to this office is to make me top-producer in order to salvage my desperate financial situation and to lead me to purchase the home that we've always wanted. Sometimes I have to pinch myself.  It all seems too good to be true.  I wake up every morning thanking God for the numerous blessings He has bestowed upon my family and I.  I am a better mother, wife, daughter, friend and counselor to others because of my hardships.  A lot of this now makes sense to me whereas before I was completely blown away as to why God would allow this.  I have always been a good person and didn't know why He would allow me to become so sick with panic, anxiety and depression.

    My recovery happened because I fully trusted God regardless of how impossible recovery seemed at times.  It was not easy.  There were times when I felt He wasn't listening.  I felt like this was never going to end.  It took 2 ½ years after counseling with Dr. Basil Frasure to get to this point in my life. Today, I am free from anxiety, panic and depression.  I'M FREE IN CHRIST!!!!  I have never felt so free, happy and at peace.  Of course that doesn't mean that the enemy still doesn't try to attack me.  And I'm not saying my life is perfect because it's not.  But I have God on my side, and I am no longer a prisoner to anxiety, panic and depression.  I've told God that when this is all over, it is my desire to share my testimony with others who have been in a similar situation and feel that there’s no hope and to pray for them.

    I want to encourage anyone who's dealing with anything that is beyond your control to let God into your life.  Trust Him.  Read His Word and BELIEVE it with all your heart!  I HIGHLY recommend counseling with Dr. Basil.  His counseling is different from all others and has made all the difference in the world for me.  God will lead you to the path of healing if you ask Him, but you also have to meet Him half way.  I pray that you have found renewed hope by my testimony and that you find healing, and may God bless you as He has blessed me and my family.

    You can e-mail me at the e-mail address below for further details on my recovery, for encouragement and for prayer.    Please put please put "Basil Frasure, Ph.D." in the subject line.
 

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