Becoming agoraphobic due to thick post nasal drip or ENS, i don't know

[shaun1984]

Hi, I've suffered from Social Anxiety since I was 15, I'm now 23. What's causing me distress at the moment, for over a year now, and is making me agoraphobic and has made me drop out of Uni twice in the last 9 months is, from what I have read, a thick post nasal drip among other things. I can feel mucus in my throat but when I try to clear it I can't bring it into my mouth to spit it out, I can only swallow it and it comes back within minutes. Occasionally when I do manage to spit some out it is clear mucus. A while ago I also woke up a few times choking on clear, thick, sticky mucus, which I noticed happened when I ate fatty foods. For a long time now when I wake up I tend to find myself sleeping on my hand/s or my arm/s with the blood circulation to these parts cut of and I find myself breathing very shallowly. -- The reason this is increasing my SA and making me agoraphobic is the fact that wherever I go in public the people I end up next to always cough and clear their throat. It's a normal thing that people do I know, but it happens everywhere I go and people always do it in such a manner, Heh Hem, which is also used to draw someones attention. I get it everywhere! I get it on the train, the bus, at the haidressers, at the cinema, in class which is why I dropped out. It just make me not want to go out.

[National Jewish]

This must be very distressing.  From the description, it sounds like you do have postnasal drip (PND), but it would be important for you to check with your doctor to be sure the mucus is not originating in your lungs.  Given the recent onset of this problem and its persistence for a year it might be appropriate for you to have a nose and throat exam by an ENT specialist and possibly x-rays of your nose and sinuses.  If it is PND, it can be treated with nasal washes and with a prescription nasal steroid spray.  A nasal steroid spray does not provide immediate relief of symptoms.  It may need to be used every day for several weeks to months for it to help.  To get the most out of a nasal steroid spray use it after doing a nasal wash.  A nasal wash helps remove mucus from the nose and sinuses.  Please read our nasal wash treatment information at http://www.nationaljewish.org/disease-info/treatments/alt-ther/nasal-wash.aspx to learn more about this technique.  Share this information with your doctor to see if you would benefit from this daily treatment.

As regarding the cutting-off of circulation while asleep, you might want to consider using extra pillows, propped-up so as to prevent you from compressing your arms and hands.  You might want also to consider the possibility that, having become so sensitized and worried about this mucus, you may be erroneously attributing responses to it, by strangers and others around you.  Getting rid of the mucus should resolve that issue for you.

[shaun1984]

It's even made me stop smoking, which I'd been doing for more than 10 years. I've been telling myself that I'm paranoid for so long, but I actually believe I am getting these reactions in public. I've been told to ignore them, but that's the whole problem with SA, I can't! I focus on it even more. -- I've read up on Empty Nose Syndrome and I have quite a few of the symptoms as well as all the psychological symptoms, but I'm unsure if the psycological symptoms are as a result of ENS or as a cause, either way I have all of them.

I am also experiencing shortness of breath often, which I put down to panic attacks, but it could be ENS.

What is it? What should I do? Please help. Thanks.