Michael Grant, 69, lives in Narrabundah housing run by Salvation Army. He and other residents were given three months notice to evict.
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Mr Grant said he has been sober for ten years, eight months and two days. He has agoraphobia, chronic fatigue syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, and a physical disability.
He is concerned being evicted will undo his work in overcoming his agoraphobia - fear of leaving familiar locations.
I moved in here on Friday, October 26, 2018 after a period of violence and displacement.
I had been housebound for so long that by that time I could not have told you whether it was the agoraphobia or physical debility that was keeping me that way.
On March 4, 2020 I acquired a mobility scooter. On April 23, 2020, I began a campaign of agoraphobic desensitisation with the aid of the scooter.
When I got to the local shop for the first time on the scooter, after several trial run trips past the shop, it was the first time in 30 years that I'd had the liberty to do a bit of extra shopping for myself.
Something always gets left out of the shopping list I give to my carer.
![Agoraphobia sufferer Michael Grant has been told he must leave his Salvation Army-owned apartment with three months notice. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong Agoraphobia sufferer Michael Grant has been told he must leave his Salvation Army-owned apartment with three months notice. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/135763310/7ca1ddb8-0d99-4808-883a-23da80d4fe8d.jpg/r0_43_800_493_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Until quite recently that trip to the shops has taken quite a conscious effort of will.
There was, until recently, a takeaway shop - hamburgers, fish and chips etc - and I could tell you tales of agonised waiting outside the shop because entering the shop exceeded my skill on the scooter as there was a step.
Waiting for that hamburger, or whatever it was, took considerable nerve and I would distract myself by ringing someone on my phone and conducting some sort of very deliberate conversation.
After some considerable time and repetition to substantiate my recovery, I can now say that it is quite some time since I have experienced genuine clinical panic, although there is still considerable anticipatory anxiety.
Hard and lonely work, but it is working.
How being compelled to relocate will affect my recovery is an open question. I have not left this area since I arrived, either by myself or in anybody's company.
Complementary to these desensitisation excursions is the issue of my physical debility.
Complementary, because in order to continue to build on this initial phase, I need to become physically versatile enough to use public transport and in order to do this, I will have to ditch my dependence on the mobility scooter.
I'm still some way short of this goal.
My physical rehabilitation began very early in my sobriety and is still continuing in the shadow of looming eviction.
For the last 12 months, I have had the support of a physiotherapist.
I've got to the stage where I'm able with some discomfort to walk for a distance of 1.4 miles and a little over with no walking stick, no walking frame, no artificial support whatsoever.
This is the result not of weeks and months, but of years of work.
I would accept relocation on the condition that it was conducted in such a way as not to compromise my agoraphobic recovery both in terms of what I have achieved so far, as well as in regard to the future.
I would request that I'd be left to continue the work that I'm doing here in this suburb until such time as I am able to make a proper decision about where to go next.
What I'm doing is working.
- Please contact lanie.tindale@canberratimes.com.au with any inquiries.
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