What is Agoraphobia?

Agoraphobia is the most common of all phobias and the most intractable. It is not connected with any mental disease or physical illness, nor is it a fear of people. It is a classical conditioned emotional reaction.

It is a overwhelming and incapacitating fear of being away from the seeming safety of home. Anywhere where the sufferer can’t make a quick and easy escape can bring terror if they feel they cannot make an escape.

The lack of knowledge and help in the community can lead to the complete or partial inability to:

* go out alone
* stay in the house alone
* go to the letter box
* go to the shops, supermarkets
* stand in queues
* be in crowded or open places
* attend theatres
* attend school functions
* go on family holidays
* take children on outings
* visit relatives in hospitals
* cope in hospitals
*keep appointments at dentists, doctors, hairdressers etc.
* do something on day and not another.
* work

Often sufferers do not know what they are suffering from, yet they do know something is wrong. The reason for this is the lack of available knowledge on the subject. Someone with agoraphobia is likely to be afraid of losing control because a panic attack may come out of the blue, which then programs the body to become highly sensitised to bodily reactions as strong as those felt when faced with a near fatal accident, drowning, a tiger, pouncing from behind – it is an overall feeling of impending doom. It is a fear from which many fears grow. There is a great difference between the natural protective fear and the extreme terror experienced by the agoraphobe.

Agoraphobia is no respecter of persons, male or female, confident or shy, from any socio-economic group, or any age. Well meant advice of " pull yourself together" is said in ignorance, as it has nothing to do with will power.
A sufferer does not show any obvious signs of this condition and looks perfectly healthy in most cases. This is confusing to themselves and to their families and they are often accused of not facing responsibility.

The cause, is a result of emotional shocks over a period of time when the body is at a low ebb, and this is when a panic will most likely occur. These usually are: death of a loved one, major operation, road or other accidents and in some cases is precipitated by prolonged anxiety. The panic attack shows itself in physical forms and this in the past has not been explained to the sufferer thus causing a fear on fear cycle.

The symptoms of a panic attack are: severe palpitations of the heart, so strong the sufferer feels as though they are having a heart attack, blurred vision, dizziness, a feeling of unreality, panting and over breathing, urgency to empty the bladder, muscular weakness which causes fatigue. All these symptoms happening at once bring about a confusion of thoughts and bewilderment; this leaves the person with an overwhelming urge to run and hide. With these symptoms occurring frequently without an answer, it causes depression and fear of insanity which then forces those suffering to keep the problems from their immediate family and friends. This adds to the conditioning of avoidance.

Agoraphobics can be de-sensitised and helped back into an independent life style again, by understanding all the steps of recovery and putting them into practice. First, with the help from others, then gradually alone. Public support and understanding is very necessary.

Reproduced with kind permission from the StateWide Agoraphobic Group