# Grad trip



## anxiousangie (Nov 26, 2015)

I'm getting extremely anxious about my grad trip (high school). it is at the end of this year, however the forms and payment is due next week, and i can't decide if i want to go. I get incredibly anxious when I sleep away from home. My school and a weekend retreat type of thing two years ago which I had a complete panic attack on, and i have not slept anywhere outside of my house since. I have Generalized anxiety disorder and ever since i have been young I have had this issue with being away from my familiar neighbourhood. When I went on this retreat, I felt like i was suffocating. It literally felt as though someone had their hands around my neck choking me. My mom thinks that I will regret if I don't go. I don't have many friends, and I wouldn't want to burden anyone with the responsibility of consoling me when I panic. Any advice would be much appreciated.


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## Unnecessary (Nov 16, 2013)

Where's the trip?

Mine was a few weeks ago and at first I felt kind of like you: way too expensive and I probably won't enjoy it because of my anxiety. My mom told me the same thing so I went just to please her, and in the end it was pretty cool. I spent all three days basically by myself just relaxin'. If you're going to a mountain or a beach or somewhere calm like that I think it's a rather nice way of letting go of your problems a little bit, clearing your mind, and enjoying yourself.

Now, your problem with sleeping at unfamiliar places seems to be very extreme. You have to options here: you can muster up the courage to expose yourself and challenge yourself to beat your "sleep anxiety" once and for all, which would be a great achievement; or you can take the patient route and start exposing yourself little by little until you get more comfortable to spend more time far away from your home, which would be a great achievement too. You could also not do anything and stay in your safe zone, but that should never be an option.

If you really want to go but are still afraid, you can take a few objects that remind you of your home and family and sleep with them (corny but helpful) or you can even call your mom or your dad while you're on bed and chat with them for a while until you fall asleep, so you feel more comfy and secure. If you do take some objects to the trip and if you do manage to sleep well far from home, then you can leave the objects you brought at the place you stayed at (assuming the objects were yours and not somebody else's), symbolically leaving them along with your fear/anxiety, and come back home victorious and fear-free.


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