Agoraphobia is a term that is used to describe a number of related phobias that are connected to situations such as:
leaving home, going into shops, being in crowds or public places, travelling alone on buses, trains or planes.


This condition can often lead to a change in behaviour where a person with the condition will avoid situations that may cause them anxiety. They may start only leaving the house with a friend or partner, or ordering groceries online rather than going to the supermarket. This change in behaviour is known as avoidance. Avoiding normal activities can lead to an individual’s life becoming restricted and it can happen that in the end they won't leave the house at all even with someone else. This is a really debilitating condition!

I have discovered that many people with agoraphobia also have panic disorder and a history of panic attacks. In these cases, agoraphobia often develops as a result of a previous panic attack.

The mechanism is that the person may worry about being in an environment or situation where escaping or getting help would be impossible or embarrassing if they were to have a panic attack. They may also think that having a panic attack will be life-threatening. For example, they think they stop breathing or their heart will beat too fast and they will have a heart attack.

It is usually only possible to address a severe case with professional help and the sooner that someone calls out fr help the sooner and the better chance they have of getting better.

I was reading up on this recently and I was surprised to find out that it was once believed that all cases of agoraphobia were related to panic disorders and panic attacks. However, research carried out in the last two decades has shown that almost half of people with agoraphobia have no previous history of panic disorders or panic attacks.

In such circumstances, agoraphobia may be caused by different phobias, such as a fear of crime, terrorism, illness or accident. However, people who have agoraphobia without panic disorder are often motivated by the same fears as those with panic disorder, such as experiencing their first panic attack if they are in a situation or environment that provokes anxiety.

I must admit that I have never known anyone directly who had this condition but it is true that Mind, a mental health charity, estimates that in the UK there are around 10 million people with a phobia of some sort. As many as half of all those people with a phobia may have agoraphobia.

However, there may be many more people with phobias (including agoraphobia and this is probably due to the fact that some people do not feel comfortable talking about their condition, and therefore many cases may go unreported as the sufferers literally suffer in silence.

Interestingly, agoraphobia is twice as common in women as men, and the condition usually starts between the ages of 18 and 35.
It is estimated that agoraphobia without panic disorder affects around 4% of women and 2% of men during any 12-month period.

Men always want to be a woman's first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a man's last romance..