Agoraphobia

The actual fear is of being unable to escape, whether you're locked in a mass of people at a football game or stuck in an elevator or a dentist's chair. Many of us can't travel alone, particularly to new places, and many find it impossible to take public transportation.

Agoraphobia is often related to claustrophobia - feeling surrounded often makes us panic.

Sometimes it can happen after a prolonged illness where you had to be home or in a hospital, or it may come upon you with no warning at all.

It is the most severe form of all neuroses. Although it is the most commonly treated phobia, fewer people suffer from it than from other phobic disorders. Because they fear having a panic attack in a public place, true agoraphobics have great difficulty going outside of their homes.

Agoraphobia can range from mild to severe. In extreme situations, the sufferer ends up confined to just one room of their home or even to a "safe" chair or their bed.

We feel we can't hide the feeling inside of us any more and fear that what we are feeling at that point where we will be noticed by others. We worry, "What if I run across the room", that we would cry or do something foolish or embarrassing. We are afraid of the way we feel and where it could take us.

The thought of "Will it happen to me again?" haunts us. We become afraid of being afraid. It's such a horrible feeling to have and some of us become housebound. We lose our friends, our life, everything. Nothing in our life seems to be going well.

But there is good news. Agoraphobia can be treated with professional help.