Sorry

[laurentellez]

What is agraphobia????

[anxiousraver]

Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by anxiety in situations where the sufferer perceives the environment as being difficult to escape or get help. its also when they cant leave their house because they are "scared" of the outside world. their home is their comfort place. they cant go to the fair, or shopping malls, or open spaces, because it causes them to have anxiety. my aunt has agoraphobia and cant leave her house, or go on car rides, without panicking.

[Enduronman]

It is the end result of being frightened by the outside world, because it doesn't look the way a person thinks it should look. The outside world will never change to fit the perspectives and ideaology of the person that is scared. Once anxiety reaches these levels caused by misconseption and misperseption then the only way back out is with medications and therapy. Hoping, wishing, praying, for it to go away or stop won't work. The individual put this disorder in there themselves. It is hard for this person to ever again be able to remove this false and unrealistic fear without alot of help, guidance, assistance, and reassurance that there truly isn't anything out there to be petrified of...It is in the higher levels of a very powerful form of anxiety that all started with just simple anxiety or mild fears gone haywire. They must have help to recover again.

E-Man.

[Judie]

Agoraphobia is a fear of a Panic Attack, nothing more nothing less. As we experience the horror of Panic Attacks and the loss of control we begin self treatment with " Avoidance " because we believe we can control Panic by avoiding triggers. The problem with this is that there are no definitive trigger places so slowly but surely we continue to limit our exposures. Our mind tells us that our homes are our safe zone ( everyone with agoraphobia or not feels this) and we often selectively choose a safe person, whom we trust as well. If people stopped and thought about it they have equally as much anxiety at home ( unless you dealing with Social Anxiety as well ) as they do outside their home.This is why "exposure therapy" works because you are reconditioning your mind to know that the triggers aren't any particular place, they are in fact internal. Your mind ( your thoughts ) bring on the attacks. If you can learn to accept, ignore symptoms, and change you thought process from" I always have attacks in traffic" to Look at this traffic, I wonder what these people do for work? What am I going to do this week-end ? If this doesn't work count backwards from 100 to 1 by sets of 7 , 100, 93..... Most people have to think about this, they concentrate and take their thoughts away from anxiety.You need to always realize that negative thoughts feed anxiety. If you are afraid of a certain place, exposé yourself to that place with a person you trust ( or alone) tell yourself and that person the goal is to keep your mind free of any anxiety...not even a" I feel good right now I have no anxiety " That alone opens your mind up to the thought of anxiety. Your mind changes focus to the anxiety , don't allow these thoughts to creep in the back door. A safe person can distract thoughts with you away from anxiety by keeping the conversation going. After you have experienced this feared place without an attack (and you will ,unless you have allowed negative anxiety thoughts into your mind ) be very confident that you are mastering your anxiety. If you do experience symptoms so what ? Ride out the symptoms with deep breathing. My point is this with repeated exposure you train your mind to know that it is in fact your thoughts that can bring on, abort or completely block Panic Attacks. You will gain self confidence and soon recovery.

[Judie]

Agoraphobia is fear of a Panic Attack, people tend to complicate this. The fear of open spaces, trapped areas etc are just the fear of not being able to " run" from the Panic. Ironic because you can't run from a heart attack, yet fear knows no logic. It's a spiral of thoughts and avoidance of the attack that's all. The fear of a Panic Attack is tremendous, the sufferer will go to lengths to "avoid" this. It isn't complicated the reasons for the attacks can be very complicated but the attack itself is relatively simple.

[Malyn]

Agoraphobia is a fear of a Panic Attack, nothing more nothing less. As we experience the horror of Panic Attacks and the loss of control we begin self treatment with " Avoidance " because we believe we can control Panic by avoiding triggers. The problem with this is that there are no definitive trigger places so slowly but surely we continue to limit our exposures. Our mind tells us that our homes are our safe zone ( everyone with agoraphobia or not feels this) and we often selectively choose a safe person, whom we trust as well. If people stopped and thought about it they have equally as much anxiety at home ( unless you dealing with Social Anxiety as well ) as they do outside their home.This is why "exposure therapy" works because you are reconditioning your mind to know that the triggers aren't any particular place, they are in fact internal. Your mind ( your thoughts ) bring on the attacks. If you can learn to accept, ignore symptoms, and change you thought process from" I always have attacks in traffic" to Look at this traffic, I wonder what these people do for work? What am I going to do this week-end ? If this doesn't work count backwards from 100 to 1 by sets of 7 , 100, 93..... Most people have to think about this, they concentrate and take their thoughts away from anxiety.You need to always realize that negative thoughts feed anxiety. If you are afraid of a certain place, exposé yourself to that place with a person you trust ( or alone) tell yourself and that person the goal is to keep your mind free of any anxiety...not even a" I feel good right now I have no anxiety " That alone opens your mind up to the thought of anxiety. Your mind changes focus to the anxiety , don't allow these thoughts to creep in the back door. A safe person can distract thoughts with you away from anxiety by keeping the conversation going. After you have experienced this feared place without an attack (and you will ,unless you have allowed negative anxiety thoughts into your mind ) be very confident that you are mastering your anxiety. If you do experience symptoms so what ? Ride out the symptoms with deep breathing. My point is this with repeated exposure you train your mind to know that it is in fact your thoughts that can bring on, abort or completely block Panic Attacks. You will gain self confidence and soon recovery.

Wow I love this