For several years I had an embarrassing problem.
My mental health was so out of whack that I was afraid to leave the house for a while there.
I will be honest and tell you that I was borderline agoraphobic during my mid-to-late twenties. At the time, I was so concerned with everything that could go wrong if I left the house. Not only was I terrified of financial ruin, but other people genuinely freaked me out. I felt like I was going to be kidnapped or murdered every time I left. The only thing that made me feel better was having my dog with me at all times for protection. That was, until my car broke down on the side of the road in the dead of summer. We had been blasting the air conditioning system for over three months at that point. I was obsessed with the indoor air quality control at our house because it was the only thing that I was responsible for. When we climbed into the car, I made sure that the AC unit was running at full blast. As we made our way down the burning hot road it was clear that something was wrong with my car’s thermostat. The temperature was climbing higher and higher and cold air was no longer coming out from the air vents. Finally, my radiator had enough as the engine began to steam. I pulled off to the side of the road and realized I had a lot of problems. It was burning hot and my dog was refusing to walk. Without any air conditioning we were both in quite a pickle. Thank God, a kind human stopped and gave us a cool place to sit until the tow truck arrived. Best of all, they didn’t even kidnap me!