Anxiety Attacks, Agoraphobia and the Safe Zone

Agoraphobia is linked to Anxiety Attacks in that the same symptoms are prevalent and the fact that Agoraphobia is often born out of fear of an Anxiety Attack.

The word 'Agoraphobia,' is from the Greek, and literally mean a fear, or morbid fear, of the marketplace.

Be very careful that you don't confuse this word with 'Agraphobia.' I've seen people make this mistake. Agraphobia means fear of sexual abuse, so you can well understand the need for care!

Agoraphobia used to mean purely a fear of open spaces, but since it's been found to link with Anxiety, it means nowadays a fear of crowds and also a fear of leaving a safe place. Your home, for instance. Actually, a good test for Agoraphobia is to see how easily you are able to leave home. If you have no problem whatever in walking through your front door into the world outside, then you're fine.

However, if you have a secret dread of doing so, then I'm afraid you're a victim of the condition. Sometimes, well meaning family members literally drag some poor relative out with them, feeling that once they have them outside, the symptoms will somehow evaporate. They don't.

The sufferer's then put through a period of living hell while the people he or she is with go shopping.

Sometimes, people have 'safe zones' in their own home. They've never had an Anxiety Attack in the bathroom, let's say, so the bathroom is the one room where they're completely safe. Once there, nothing can touch them.

I knew one lady who'd never left her sitting room for six years, let alone her home.

The initial trigger for this was that one day she was walking home with a basket of shopping, when she was approached by three men, jostled a bit while they talked about what she must be like in bed. Apart from being pushed around a little bit, that was all they did.

She reached home and never left. Her husband did all he could for her. Naturally, he wanted to take her to see the doctor, but she refused to go out even with him. He was a fireman, a great big chap. Even a gorilla would have felt safe with him! But she simply drew the curtains and lived from that day onwards in the sitting room.

The poor man divorced her after, I think, six years. In all fairness, she'd do nothing to help herself, and he had his own life to lead. Frankly, this was an extreme case.

I would think that anyone who suffers this condition will sooner or later want to help themselves. One way, of course, is that if you've suffered previous attacks, then re-examine them. You lived through them. You weren't injured in any way, so you've proved through experience that they're toothless tigers