Re: Who supports you? Who understands you?
I don't know if anybody completely understands it. I find the people that understand it the best are people who have anxiety or other phobias of their own, and my parents because they've dealt with me for 21 years. A few of my friends have anxiety issues, and they understand it better than most others.
I have much more support than I have understanding. Most of my friends are very supportive, and so is my family. My boyfriend is extremely supportive, and he understands the basics (that I'm terrified, that I do certain things, that I know it's irrational but it's still real to me) because he has a phobia of flying, but he doesn't get the full extent. For example, he only gets scared when he has to get on a plane, whereas I'm scared all the time and he doesn't understand why I can't be normal until I'm v*ing. I try to explain it to him like...You plan when you will ride a plane. You know exactly when it will happen, so you don't need to be afraid until then. Planes don't just swoop down and pick you up and *poof*, you're flying! Whereas v* can happen anytime anywhere without any warning, and you can't run away from it. He understood that a bit more, as to why I'm afraid all the time.
As per explaining the phobia, what you said above is basically what I say to most people. Usually I stick with "I can't deal with v*". When I explain it to someone important like a friend, usually they see me in action and realize it's worse, or I just leave it at the basics and they usually come in time to understand it's more severe than the average. There's probably a better way lol, but oh well.
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