Scarlett is a former Panic to Peace student with an amazing story! Despite struggling with panic attacks for years, Scarlett recently finished her master’s degree and now works as a professional writer. Today she’s joining me to talk about her journey to recovering from panic disorder, emetophobia, and agoraphobia!
This might come as a bit of a spoiler… but today, Scarlett travels with her family and does many of the things she thought she’d never be able to do again. Her story is filled with so much inspiration, so let’s get into it!
How Panic Attacks Began to Shrink Scarlett’s World
Scarlett has struggled with panic attacks since she was sixteen years old. Despite these uncomfortable panic attacks, she was able to function normally until 2020, which is when the panic attacks became much more frequent. In response to these panic attacks, she quit her job and began restricting other areas of her life.
When Scarlett started to experience nausea as a result of the panic attacks, she started to restrict certain foods to avoid nausea and potentially vomiting. Ultimately, this led to Scarlett restricting foods she had no allergy to, which made it hard for her to eat a well-balanced diet. This intense fear and avoidance of vomiting is known as emetophobia.
Scarlett’s Journey To Overcoming Emetophobia
Scarlett mentioned that it was extremely difficult for her to find professional help for emetophobia and agoraphobia because she lives in a rural area. Ultimately, Scarlett joined Panic to Peace so she could start creating a healthy relationship with anxiety and panic attacks!
After years of trying to push away panic attacks and the symptoms they cause, Scarlett started to realize that this avoidance was fueling the anxiety. With lots of small steps and practice, she began to realize that she needed to allow herself to feel the nausea and panic. She started reminding herself that she was safe, even if she was nauseous, panicky, or scared.
As Scarlett started to make these shifts, she became much more confident in herself. In our conversation, she said “...That's when I stopped cycling through panic attacks all the time. And when they reduced to just 20 minutes and that was done, just by allowing myself to feel it and not trying to avoid it, and not taking like a Zofran to avoid vomiting…allowing myself like to eat foods that I was afraid of that I'm not allergic to, that's when I really started to make progress and get better”.
Where Scarlett Is Today
Scarlett is still on her journey to agoraphobia and emetophobia recovery, but she has made so much progress. And I am so incredibly proud of her! Recently, she went over 30 minutes from home to a New Year’s Eve party, which is something she hadn’t been able to do in over three years. And although panic still pops up from time to time, it looks a whole lot different. Now, she knows that she’s safe to experience panic, no matter where she is.
I hope that you enjoyed hearing a bit about Scarlett’s recovery journey! For all of the details about Scarlett’s story, make sure to listen to the full podcast episode.
And if you’re looking for some support in your recovery journey, you might love my 10-week program, Panic to Peace! My signature program provides you with the skills and tools you need to create a healthy relationship with anxiety and live a life filled with lots more peace, joy, and freedom. If you want to hear how Panic to Peace has changed the lives of my students, you can read their testimonials here!
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