claustrophobia and the Tourette

In this post, I want to talk about claustrophobia and the Tourette. Claustrophobia is anxiety from closed and crowded places or places that you can’t run away from. From personal experience, I found that Tourette has a direct connection to claustrophobia and is affected by it. In my case, it appears in a lot of situations where I need to stay in closed and crowded places, and the Tourette then appears a lot and often. Every time that I need to go into a crowded place where I know there is only one exit and there is no clear route for escaping, the level of the anxiety becomes very high, and the Tourette soon follows. It is manifested by a shortness of breath and a feeling of drowning and losing control. It can happen to me in places in the kibbutz-like: the dining room, pub, cultural hall or public places outside of the kibbutz. Even though I am in a supporting environment in the kibbutz or Midreshet Ben Gurion, it can still happen to me, and I find this very frustrating. Outside the area of the Ramat Negev regional council, it is more significant and appears much more frequently, which increases the frustration that I experience when going into public places and leaving my comfort zone. This makes it very difficult for me to perform in my ordinary life and to go out to public and crowded places. I try to get over this by working on myself, which includes guided imagery and a positive approach to different situations that involve going into crowded and public places. I also try to adopt the approach of thinking ahead about different scenarios that can happen and how can I avoid them or handle them better which helps to lower the severity of the situation and helps me get over it. Even though I try my best to do all these things a lot of the time, I don’t always succeed, and I fall  back into negative thoughts which don’t help me get over these situations In conclusion, claustrophobia and Tourette are connected and fuel each other, which I discover each time anew as if it is the first time and this frustrates me. I try to get over this and not be afraid of public and crowded places but that doesn't succeed all of the times I must persist with this positive thinking and work on myself to overcome these fears and not to give up to the Tourette and in this way improve my quality of life.