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A phobia is generally defined as the unrelenting fear of a situation, activity, or thing that causes one to want to avoid it. The definition of agoraphobia is a fear of being outside or otherwise being in a situation from which one either cannot escape or from which escaping would be difficult or humiliating.
Agoraphobia develops in response to repeated exposure to anxiety-provoking events or is a reaction to internal emotional conflicts. Agoraphobia tends to begin by adolescence or early adulthood. Girls and women, middle-aged individuals, low-income populations, and individuals who have gone through traumatic events are at increased risk of developing agoraphobia. It tends to occur more often in individuals who have a number of different physical conditions, including but not limited to eating disorders, obesity, and asthma.
Other contributing factors include:
* Family:
- Having an anxious parent role model.
- Being abused as a child.
- Having an overly critical parent.
* Personality:
- High need for approval.
- High need for control.
- Oversensitivity to emotional stimuli.
* Biological:
- Oversensitivity to adrenalin and hormone changes.
- Oversensitivity to physical stimuli.
- High amounts of sodium lactate in the bloodstream.
The panic attacks associated with agoraphobia, like all panic attacks, may involve intense fear, disorientation, rapid heart beat, light-headedness, trembling, and dizziness. During a panic attack, epinephrine, adrenaline, and cortisol are released in large amounts, triggering the body's natural fight-or-flight response. A panic attack typically has an abrupt onset, building to maximum intensity within 10 to 15 minutes, and rarely lasts longer than 30 minutes.
The overproduction of epinephrine, adrenaline, and cortisol interferes with the production of serotonin and dopamine. Serotonin and dopamine are neurotransmitters that stabilizes mood and sense of well-being. When serotonin and dopamine levels are low, moods become unstable and sufferers are less able to cope with stress. In this state of chemical imbalance, people become more easily fatigued, the immune system is compromised, and there is more risk for experiencing anxiety and panic attacks. Even after the original stressor is gone, sufferers are likely to stay in a heightened state of anxiety.
Triggers for this anxiety may include crowds, enclosed spaces, wide open spaces or traveling, even short distances. Patients usually have a heightened sensitivity to bright lights, temperatures, sudden or harsh sounds, perceived personal boundaries, and other sources of physical stimulation. This type of physical stimulus easily overwhelms patients, creating an aura of disorientation. Many patients crave comforting, reassuring, and controlled physical stimuli which may include excessive eating, drinking, or sexual activity, so much that they may get anxiety attacks over not being able to obtain these stimuli.
Agoraphobic individuals often begin to avoid the situations that provoke even an anticipation of a panic attack. Those situations are avoided (e.g., travel is restricted) or else are endured with marked distress, or require the presence of a companion. Interestingly, the situations that are often avoided by people with agoraphobia and the environments which cause people with balance disorders to feel disoriented are quite similar. This leads some cases of agoraphobia to be considered as vestibular function agoraphobia. Research has uncovered a linkage between agoraphobia and difficulties with spatial orientation. Normal individuals are able to maintain balance by combining information from their vestibular system, their visual system and their proprioceptive sense. A disproportionate number of agoraphobics have weak vestibular function and consequently rely more on visual or tactile signals. They may become disoriented when visual cues are sparse as in wide open spaces or overwhelming as in crowds, or when those visual cues do not properly connect with the other senses.
Cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy are the most effective psychotherapies used to treat agoraphobia. If left untreated, agoraphobia may worsen to the point where the person's life is seriously affected by the disease itself and/or by attempts to avoid or conceal it. A specific form of psychotherapy that focuses on decreasing negative, anxiety-provoking, or other self-defeating thoughts and behaviors (called cognitive behavioral therapy) has been found to be highly effective in treating agoraphobia. In fact, when agoraphobia occurs along with panic disorder, cognitive behavioral therapy is considered to be the most effective way to both relieve symptoms and prevent their return. Another form of therapy that has been found effective in managing agoraphobia includes self-exposure. In that intervention, the person either imagines or puts him or herself into situations that cause increasing levels of agoraphobic anxiety, using relaxation techniques in each situation in order to master their anxiety.
* * *
Well, at least I have something to work with now . . .
Agoraphobia develops in response to repeated exposure to anxiety-provoking events or is a reaction to internal emotional conflicts. Agoraphobia tends to begin by adolescence or early adulthood. Girls and women, middle-aged individuals, low-income populations, and individuals who have gone through traumatic events are at increased risk of developing agoraphobia. It tends to occur more often in individuals who have a number of different physical conditions, including but not limited to eating disorders, obesity, and asthma.
Other contributing factors include:
* Family:
- Having an anxious parent role model.
- Being abused as a child.
- Having an overly critical parent.
* Personality:
- High need for approval.
- High need for control.
- Oversensitivity to emotional stimuli.
* Biological:
- Oversensitivity to adrenalin and hormone changes.
- Oversensitivity to physical stimuli.
- High amounts of sodium lactate in the bloodstream.
The panic attacks associated with agoraphobia, like all panic attacks, may involve intense fear, disorientation, rapid heart beat, light-headedness, trembling, and dizziness. During a panic attack, epinephrine, adrenaline, and cortisol are released in large amounts, triggering the body's natural fight-or-flight response. A panic attack typically has an abrupt onset, building to maximum intensity within 10 to 15 minutes, and rarely lasts longer than 30 minutes.
The overproduction of epinephrine, adrenaline, and cortisol interferes with the production of serotonin and dopamine. Serotonin and dopamine are neurotransmitters that stabilizes mood and sense of well-being. When serotonin and dopamine levels are low, moods become unstable and sufferers are less able to cope with stress. In this state of chemical imbalance, people become more easily fatigued, the immune system is compromised, and there is more risk for experiencing anxiety and panic attacks. Even after the original stressor is gone, sufferers are likely to stay in a heightened state of anxiety.
Triggers for this anxiety may include crowds, enclosed spaces, wide open spaces or traveling, even short distances. Patients usually have a heightened sensitivity to bright lights, temperatures, sudden or harsh sounds, perceived personal boundaries, and other sources of physical stimulation. This type of physical stimulus easily overwhelms patients, creating an aura of disorientation. Many patients crave comforting, reassuring, and controlled physical stimuli which may include excessive eating, drinking, or sexual activity, so much that they may get anxiety attacks over not being able to obtain these stimuli.
Agoraphobic individuals often begin to avoid the situations that provoke even an anticipation of a panic attack. Those situations are avoided (e.g., travel is restricted) or else are endured with marked distress, or require the presence of a companion. Interestingly, the situations that are often avoided by people with agoraphobia and the environments which cause people with balance disorders to feel disoriented are quite similar. This leads some cases of agoraphobia to be considered as vestibular function agoraphobia. Research has uncovered a linkage between agoraphobia and difficulties with spatial orientation. Normal individuals are able to maintain balance by combining information from their vestibular system, their visual system and their proprioceptive sense. A disproportionate number of agoraphobics have weak vestibular function and consequently rely more on visual or tactile signals. They may become disoriented when visual cues are sparse as in wide open spaces or overwhelming as in crowds, or when those visual cues do not properly connect with the other senses.
Cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy are the most effective psychotherapies used to treat agoraphobia. If left untreated, agoraphobia may worsen to the point where the person's life is seriously affected by the disease itself and/or by attempts to avoid or conceal it. A specific form of psychotherapy that focuses on decreasing negative, anxiety-provoking, or other self-defeating thoughts and behaviors (called cognitive behavioral therapy) has been found to be highly effective in treating agoraphobia. In fact, when agoraphobia occurs along with panic disorder, cognitive behavioral therapy is considered to be the most effective way to both relieve symptoms and prevent their return. Another form of therapy that has been found effective in managing agoraphobia includes self-exposure. In that intervention, the person either imagines or puts him or herself into situations that cause increasing levels of agoraphobic anxiety, using relaxation techniques in each situation in order to master their anxiety.
* * *
Well, at least I have something to work with now . . .
feeling: 
intimidated
intimidatedlistening to: Pressure - Billy Joel
2 thoughts | thoughts?
tired
melancholy
dorky
sleepy
cynical
relieved
bouncy
enthralled