What is Agoraphobia?
Agoraphobia
Leaving home can be a reason to panic for some. Agoraphobia refers to a fear of any place where escape may be difficult, including large open spaces or crowds, as well as various means of travel.
Definition
Translated from Greek as "fear of the marketplace," agoraphobia involves intense fear and anxiety of any place or situation where escape might be difficult. Agoraphobics may avoid situations such as being alone outside of the home; traveling in a car, bus, or airplane; being in a crowded area; or being on a bridge or in an elevator.
Endurance of such situations can put a person with agoraphobia under great stress, and a panic attack may result. Such high discomfort and stress may require another person's company in such situations.
Agoraphobia often accompanies another anxiety disorder, such as panic disorder or a specific phobia. If agoraphobia occurs with panic disorder, the onset is usually during the 20s; women are affected more often than men. Approximately 1.8 million American adults age 18 and over (about 0.8 percent of people in this age group in a given year) have agoraphobia without a history of panic disorder.
In panic disorder, panic attacks recur and the person develops an intense apprehension of having another attack. This fear—called anticipatory anxiety or fear of fear—can be present most of the time and seriously interfere with the person's life even when a panic attack is not in progress.
Agoraphobia affects about a third of all people with panic disorder. Typically, people with agoraphobia restrict themselves to a "zone of safety" that may include only the home or the immediate neighborhood. Any movement beyond the edges of this zone creates mounting anxiety. Even when they restrict themselves to "safe" situations, most people with agoraphobia continue to have panic attacks at least a few times a month.
People with agoraphobia can be seriously disabled by their condition. Some are unable to work, and they may need to rely heavily on other family members, who must do the shopping and household errands, as well as accompany the affected person on rare excursions outside the "safety zone." People with this disorder may become housebound for years, with resulting impairment of social and interpersonal relationships. Thus the person with agoraphobia typically leads a life of extreme dependency as well as great discomfort.
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@Lilylistens I have struggled with this cos of trauma and severe depression but for some reason through a lot of therapy and self work I am recovered from agoraphobia, however my natural instinct is to shut myself away from the world and people and thats not healthy for me. Agoraphobia can be crippling and horrifying and very very hard. It makes you feel trapped in a prison aka your house. Exposure therapy and volunteering in the community and my faith helped me, also other good friends showing me unconditional love helped me heal.
@peacefulSoul8 ~ I am glad you found things that helped you to heal.
Sounds like you have faced a lot, and I applaud your courage in facing those challenges, peacefulSoul8.
Thank you for sharing some of your experience with agoraphobia here in the forums, it is kind of you, I think, to share some of your journey with us here.
wow then i definetly have that :\ i'm not scared of closed places but i get an extreme feeling of tiredness anger frustration and anxiety when i feel like i cannot escape.:( it sucks specially when i have to go somewhere like a shopping mall thus a *marketplace*. thanks for elightening me on this! i used to call it claustrophobia but apparently it's different
I'm having increasing problems with this. For me open spaces have always been the worst like crossing a car park or field. However crossing roads have been a problem for the last 6 months or so and today even being on the bus made me panic. I feel like I'm going crazy and it seems my panic attacks have evolved over time. I now get a very strange deja vu like feeling and one the other day made me fall down and cry out. It was terrible, I'm doing a course of meditation which has just about kept me sane but I'm so scared I'm going to lose my mind/job/life. Has anyone found a way to overcome this? I'm awaiting a callback from my local mental health centre and hoping to get some counseling to help me.
My agoraphobia is only "new places" for the most part. The reason is that I can't anticipate or envision how my trip to this place will play out in my head, as I haven't been there before. I do not know the escape routes, neighborhood, type of people I will encounter, where to park. etc. I have gotten a lot better with this over the years (Thank you Google maps, Google Earth/street view ;)
Thank you, this was a very helpful post.
Social anixety is in my experience very generalised and people often see it as too broad of a subject and conditions everyone under that umbrella. To be able to precise your mental issue is in my opinion when it comes to getting to know yourself. I'll definiely keep and pass this link on to others.
For me, agoraphobia has gotten progressively worse in my 20s. I've had social anxiety since my family moved to a small cliquish town when I was 8 and really developed into agoraphobia while in college. Being around lots of people is so stifling - grocery shopping, eating at restaurants, standing in line. When I'm in these situations, I feel vulnerable, exposed, and under censure. I know how I must look to others - shifty-eyed, afraid, maybe even guilty (because I am so self-conscious and am telling myself to relax and get annoyed because I just can't seem to be 'normal'). That's why I joined 7 Cups. I don't quite know how to reframe and readjust in these situations. Does anyone have any good tips and suggestions on how to deal with these emotions?
Oh, I've never heard of this 
thank you for posting!
@TheHoneyDoll Its intense fear usually bc the person had bad trama happen and they don't wanna go through it again. Looking for their safe place, u know.
I think I might be agoraphobic? I get panic attacks anytime I travel and I get this feeling that something bad is going to happen. I also get it whenever any of my family or I leave the house. And anytime Im having to wait somehwere I get really anxious and panicky. I also get really moody and frustrated when shopping etc? I just always think something bad is going to happen and it really stresses me out :( does this seem like agoraphobia?
I have agoraphobia and it drives me insane.
I don't even know what I'm afraid of, I just know I feel a massive amount of dread whenever I know I'm going to have to go out to the grocery store, see a friend or just meet people in general. If I don't give myself time to think about it and just go, it works better. It tends to catch up to me after, but at least i manage to do the thing.
The thing that's helped me most is having a dog. I live alone with my extremely friendly, excitable dog. If I don't walk him and let him socialize with dogs and people he gets very hyper and I feel extremely bad about it, he deserves the best life and is the only thing that makes me feel like I want to get better.
Yeah I can't leave my house. Even opening night thof blinds sends me into panic mode because m afraid someone will see me and think I am an easy target.
