Agoraphobia is a crippling psychological illness which can persist for many years and take several different forms. In severity it varies from needing a companion to be present in order to venture into the outside world, to not being able to leave the house under any circumstances whatsoever.

One of the difficulties with treating this condition is that it is often 'layered' and not actually directly associated with being outside - although it certainly feels like it. When this is the case, the cause of the Agoraphobic response can be associated with a fear of:

It's not just those though and can actually be anything that is likely to be encountered in the outside world.

It is commonly believed that Agoraphobia is nothing more than an acute discomfort at being outside and many people might well be tempted to accuse a sufferer of seeking attention, or perhaps tell them to "Snap out of it," or "Pull yourself together!" none of which is at all helpful. Some people believe that all that is necessary is to somehow force the 'Agoraphobic' to venture out into the middle of a field and stay there until 'it' passes - which shows a complete and utter misunderstanding of the condition; some sufferers of this condition would actually find this not to be particularly uncomfortable.

The Symptoms
The physical symptoms of Agoraphobia can include:

All of these symptoms are, in fact, indicators of extreme anxiety and are typical of the symptoms of a phobic response. This does not render them any less significant or easier to deal with and the degree of arousal can become all but unbearable... unless the sufferer stays indoors, of course, and the vast majority of them eventually decide to do just that. There are not many therapies or medications which have a particularly good track record with this condition, usually because of it's multi-faceted concept - there is usually far more than one 'trigger'.

The brief therapies, where they work at all, tend to produce only brief results and the best chance of success comes from a combination of therapy and medication to quieten the associated anxiety.

See also:

• Anxiety
• Panic attacks