[~Jessie~]

I was meaning to post this earlier this week.

During this past August, my family and I had gone on a road trip across Canada, out west. I was super stressed and very unhappy prior to the trip and very nervous about spending a month in this Westfalia van we got specifically for the trip. Buuut... it was awesome and I had tons of fun that I overcame some things while on my trip.

- I got more comfortable with using the public washrooms and even showers. It wasn't ever a huge issue for me but I would wait til a more private one was available. Now I really don't care.

- I expressed myself a little more with my family, if I was feeling awful or mad. Generally I just keep silent and build it up inside of me so no one knows if I'm bothered by anything or not. Now I feel a little more comfortable talking to them.

- I ordered my own food when we stopped at restaurants along the way. I even made a special request at one point without feeling any anxiety at all. I usually let someone else do the talking for me for ordering food, especially if I have a special request about something. I feel like I can do that now and feel comfortable with it since I did it over 10x on the trip.

I think is all. I had met my online friend(I've chatted to for 7 years now) and her boyfriend and her parents. I was really nervous meeting her boyfriend but overall it was fun to visit them. They are really nice people. Oh and I gained some weight(I'm underweight) so I have to keep up the momentum of it.

And yesterday I walked down my street to drop off a letter into the mailbox to that same friend I had met, all by myself. I usually wait til someone can walk with me or I put it off and don't do it all. Did it in the evening when I figured people would be outside but apparently no one really was... lol

That's all I have for now

 

[Shining Phoenix]

That's awesome . I guess this kinda lends credibility to the claim that travelling helps SA sufferers.

 

[strawberryjulius]

Wow, you've made a lot of improvement. Congrats!

 

[AussiePea]

Yeah sounds like a really successful trip in many ways, congratulations. I hope my trip away over the next month will be just as rewarding for my SA.

 

[~Jessie~]

Thank you, I feel very proud of myself doing all those things. I'm not much of a traveller but doing that really did help me out. Here I thought the trip would be a total nightmare for me, the only downside was I had a sinus cold half the time and my lower back was aching from sleeping in the van.

Going away for awhile helps, mind you, after 3 days of being back home I've felt like I'm slipping backwards again with unresolved issues. I try to catch myself though and keep it up a little bit at a time.

Ospi - I hope your trip goes well for you too