YOUR home town? The end of your road? Your own house? How far does your comfort zone stretch?

Sam Rowe, 20, loved hanging out with friends. It wasn’t until a brutal attack in the street left him with such crippling anxiety he realised he could not even leave his own bedroom.

Four years on Sam, from Old Heath in Colchester, talks to new people on a daily basis.

But his journey has been long ... and difficult.

Sam’s life changed dramatically when he was 16.

A student at Thomas, Lord Audley School in Colchester, he was walking to the shops with two friends after spending a night watching films.

He said: “It was quite dark, we were walking down Mersea Road and at first we could hear a party was going on.

“Then all of a sudden some people were out the front yelling, one of them started swearing at us.

“My initial reaction was to turn around but before I could even see what was going on I just got full-on headbutted in the face.”

Sam and his friends were familiar with the group but had never spoken to them.

Before he knew it he was being pushed into the road and was repeatedly punched in the head.

Sam suffered minor concussion and the case went to court with the culprits being given community service.

At first, Sam did not associate his developing anxiety with the attack but he found it more and more difficult to go out with friends.

In 2014, he started a course at Colchester Institute which was when the anxiety started to show.

He said: “At first it was nerves I was able to control. Things got really awkward and I didn’t know w h y. “It peaked after my first year at college, I started to not go in.

“It got to the point where nearly every morning I was going to college and throwing up in the woods.

“Every time I was meeting anyone I just threw up and it made my anxiety ten times more worrying.”

For a while he kept his feelings hidden telling everyone he was fine and saying he did not need help.

“I was oblivious,” he said. “But the key point that made me think I needed help was when my parents started getting upset when I was being sick.

“After that I literally didn’t go out at all. I lost my two friends who had been with me the day of the attack and I fell out with other friends who said they could save me and fix me.

“When about half a year had passed I hadn’t even left my room, I was just realising I was only ever going to get even more depressed and that confined space was going to get smaller.”

He had a few unsuccessful counselling sessions before finding a leaflet for North and Mid Essex Mind, based in Colchester.

He filled out the form and got a call saying a counsellor could visit him at home.

He said: “I was so nervous about coming to a place like Mind because I thought it was scary. I thought it was rock bottom and I would be automatically crazy.

“I said I wasn’t going to answer the door, my counsellor came in and I was shaking so much.

“She was really lovely and the first day she said we had to go out for a walk. It was the worst thing ever. I did nearly throw up.”

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It took time, but Sam finally gained the confidence to walk to the end of the road, then to the shops, then eventually into the town centre.

He was given distraction techniques to try such as counting the number of people wearing hats and then went on to exposure techniques, where he was left in shops by himself. He said: “I had to sit in Culver Square for 25 minutes on my own and that was the worst but after about 20 minutes I realised no-one was even noticing me, everyone else was doing their own thing.”

After nine months of therapy, Sam started a horticultural course at Abberton Rural Training,but unfortunately the course came to an end as it could no longer fund young students.

Sam decided to push himself further than he had ever gone.

He said: “On the last day I tested myself and did a big speech in front of the mayor and everyone.

“I told them the course should be funded for young students. After that I had so many people speaking to me.”

About five weeks ago Sam started a job at The Book Service in Frating and his confidence has continued to improve.

“It was quite difficult but I kind of prepared myself for that because I knew I was going into a massive warehouse and knew I was going to be trained with hundreds of other staff,” he said.

“But everyone was really friendly, I was just honest with people and they were really nice about it.

“Now I have settled in I’ve made friends and I speak to new people every day.”

Sam said if anyone in the same situation is looking to get help, they should take their time.

He said: “Don’t worry about how fast it’s going to be, if you worry about going out you are not going to help yourself.

“I would also say do lots of research, if you don’t understand it you are more likely to say no to help.”

Sam is an advocate for exposure therapy, saying it really pushed him.

He said: “A lot of people think it’s embarrassing, I thought it was at first, but no one knows what you are doing when you are out there.

“The only person who knows you’re doing exposure therapy is you.

“It’s really hard but you’ve got to force yourself to be positive, keep track of where you started and from then you can just see how you can finish it.”

  •  Mid and North Essex Mind offers a Support, Time and Recovery service for adults living with a mild to moderate mental health problem.

For more information about the services on offer visit mnessexmind.org or call 01206 764600.