Alone time please

Mood: Frustrated

I want to live by myself! Alone or with my boyfriend, but I really don't think I can live at home long-term. I will happily live at home for another year or so, to earn money and build up a little pot of gold while I get on my feet with Etsy and doggy experience.

Pot o' gold!

I do hope I can spread my wings and at least start really doing what I want to do :) at the moment I am researching materials and techniques that will make my Etsy pieces look more professional and better quality. Better to open the shop later after making everything at a higher level than giving in to impatience and opening it sooner!

My sister wants to go out each day and do stuff, which I understand, but I just want to be left to revise or stay inside. I don't know if I'm just an extreme homebody or if I'm slowly slipping into Agoraphobia. The thing is, it is more than just not wanting to go out, I feel more anxious if I leave the house, I don't feel safe. As soon as someone suggests going somewhere I tense up a bit. Sometimes I will go out if there are certain things I want, but I like to do all my research and browsing online at home so when I go out I get what I want and come straight home: that's fine.

A G.A.D. diagnosis might be required, I think I fit the bill

Thing is, my mum and sister love to make day trips and browse around places and they have the mindset (at least it comes across this way) of you can only be productive if you're moving about. So I might be sitting at my laptop working on my Etsy shop, revising, browsing for job vaancies, but it looks to them like I'm not doing anything or at least that it's a miserable way to spend the day 'Why don't you go out? You don't want to stay at your laptop all day!' as if it's torture. You might find this hard to believe but:

1) I'm actually perfectly content and
2) I am being productive :)

Another difficult thing as part of my family and having anxiety problems is that my dad is extremely mind-over-matter with things. He has full belief that you can be a self-healer with positive thinking etc which is great and I'm not disputing that being positive aids your health, but... I think because anxiety is a natural feeling that everyone gets, people can't distinguish between normal anxiety and someone who has a more debilitating, long-term problem with anxiety.

Normal anxiety or a serious problem?

I truly believe I fit in this category but I think for my family to support me in the way I feel would be best, they would need a letter from the doctor or some form saying 'Jess has blablabla' to make it official. I suppose the confirmation from a health professional gives people clarification. I would like to go through a diagnosis, but can you request that kind of thing? Would I benefit from it in any way if I was confirmed to have an anxiety disorder like GAD or something?