I was diagnosed with general anxiety awhile back. My symptoms are more consistent with panic disorder (rather than having a constant anxious feeling, I’m fine most of the time except when I’m having a panic attack and then it’s really bad), but I haven’t been through a diagnostic process to diagnose or rule out panic disorder. 

My primary care doctor said that medication might help, but she would like me to try therapy first. I waited until it got really bad, so now almost a year later I’m finally on the search for a therapist. 

The problem is, pretty much every therapist in my insurance network is only accepting new clients via teleconferencing, either by phone or video chat. I understand that, with the pandemic and all, this is a safety measure, but doing therapy over the phone or computer will cause me a lot of stress. I have phone anxiety to begin with, and also I live with my family and I would be paranoid that they are listening to my therapy session. I don’t think I could be fully honest with an online therapist, and having to do online therapy might even do more harm than good in terms of my anxiety levels. 

How have you handled therapy during the pandemic?