What Is Agoraphobia?
Before I go into the specifics, I’m gonna quickly go over agoraphobia in general – what it is, and what causes it.. I’m not gonna give you the dictionary definitions here, because that’s not helpful at all. I’m gonna talk about agoraphobia as I see it, based on my own experience with it, and based on the experiences of all the wonderful people I’ve met who’ve also struggled with agoraphobia.
Okay, so for me, my agoraphobia was a defence mechanism. It wasn’t a fear of open spaces, or public places, or crowds. It wasn’t even a fear of having a panic attack in a public place.
It was purely a defence mechanism against facing any unknown.
Whenever I’ve mentioned this personal definition of agoraphobia to people with a similar problem, the usual response has been a moment of silence while they take in what I’ve just said, and then a nod, and then an agreement that this definition fits their agoraphobia too.
It’s a very subtle relabeling of agoraphobia, but sometimes a tiny adjustment in the way we look at something completely changes our perspective. And I know that by looking at my agoraphobia like this, instead of the way my doctor looked at it, I was in a much better position to find ways to cope with it. And to eventually beat it completely.
Okay, now onto causes of agoraphobia.
Everything I’ve learned and everyone I’ve spoken to with agoraphobia has proven to me, beyond a doubt, that an underlying anxiety disorder is invariably the cause of agoraphobia. This goes against a lot of the common and established beliefs, but I’m very confident that it’s the correct view.
Many people, many experts, believe that you can experience agoraphobia completely on its own, with no other anxiety disorders or symptoms. But these people, and these experts, have usually never suffered with agoraphobia and anxiety and panic disorders themselves. We have, and I think that puts us in a much better position to understand it.
In my own case, I’m sure that my agoraphobia developed because of my problem with generalized anxiety disorder. Generalized anxiety disorder, in case it’s new to you, is simply the excessive, irrational, and uncontrollable worrying about everyday things – things that that do not justify such excessive worrying.
My generalized anxiety disorder caused me to go more and more into a defensive shell. Looking back I see now that by limiting my movement and staying close to home, and eventually staying in my home on a constant basis, I was preventing my exposure to new and different things – new and different things that would ultimately become uncontrollable worries.
And that’s why I said that agoraphobia is a defence mechanism.
In my own case, it was the way I protected myself from new things that could potentially become worries and become a part of my generalized anxiety disorder.
There are many other forms of panic and anxiety disorder, and I believe that each of them has the potential to cause agoraphobia. Health anxiety (or hypochondria), social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, separation anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, even phobias. They all have the potential to cause agoraphobia.
And I’ve seen cases of all of them causing it.
Even in cases where there are apparently no other panic disorders as the underlying cause, there’s often one that’s gone completely unnoticed. Because the agoraphobia spirals out of control and becomes all that you can focus on, the smaller things, which are often the things which cause and control the agoraphobia, are impossible to see.
That’s why all of us who are affected by agoraphobia should look at identifying any underlying panic disorder causes, and addressing those, instead of addressing the agoraphobia directly.
This has to be a better approach – it allows us to address the cause, and not the symptom. Addressing the symptom will never achieve anything, except maybe masking the problem temporarily.
I’ve developed some incredibly simple techniques and strategies that work at beating all forms of panic disorder, and I’m confident that your agoraphobia and your underlying panic disorder will benefit massively if you start applying them on a day to day basis.
I’ve put together a series of videos where I teach the strategies I’ve developed over the past year – these are the same strategies and tips I’ve used myself to completely overcome my agoraphobia and my underlying panic disorders.
Get Instant Access To The Videos Here
Panic Disorder Treatment
Panic Disorder Treatment - 3 Things To Avoid
The TV News
You might be wondering how that’s gonna help with your anxiety, but this is one of the most important changes I’ve made in my own life, and that’s why I’m sharing the idea with you today.
The majority of TV news is toxic, it’s negative, it’s frightening, scary, and it’s the same wherever you are in the world. I’d never realised just how bad TV news was for our minds and our well-being until I heard someone say that they’d stopped watching the news because it was having such a negative impact on their mood.
That made me wonder how much damage it was doing to me.
So I gave it a shot, and I stopped watching the news. And I have to say, it really did help decrease my anxiety levels. And the reason I know it’s helped so much is that, whenever I happen to catch a glimpse of the news now, or for some reason I watch for 5 minutes, I immediately feel my anxiety start to come back.
It feels almost like a drug I was addicted to in the past, and going back to it, even for a few minutes, brings back all the side-effects I used to have.
And today reminded me of that.
When I knew I’d be writing this post today, I thought I should do what I normally never do anymore, and I watched the news for 30 minutes - on a few of the 24 hour news channels.
Within just 5 minutes of watching, I’d seen a story of an 18 month old baby who’d been tortured by his parents so badly that he’d died.
I’d seen a story of another mother who’d stabbed and killed her two young sons.
I’d seen a handful of stories about the financial crisis that’s been going on around the world the past couple of months, and how families were losing their homes and had nowhere to go, and how thousands more would suffer the same fate.
I realise by telling you these stories I’m passing on the news that I’m telling you to avoid, and I know these stories aren’t nice to hear. But I’m doing it to prove my point, and to show you how damaging these news stories can be to us.
Within those first 5 minutes today, I felt my heart racing like it hadn’t in a long time. I could literally feel my old anxiety symptoms kicking in, just from watching a few minutes of the news.
These news stories are tragic, and the victims of these situations deserve our sympathy, but it does us no good at all to know about them.
These news stories are truly awful things, but we have no control over them. There’s nothing we can do about them. So they just become these detached, random negative thoughts that go around and around in our minds.
For people with severe anxiety, these kinds of news stories are just fuel being poured onto a fire.
Maybe you don’t watch the news - I’m sure a lot of people have already turned off, as I have. And if you have then you’re one step ahead of so many other people. But if it’s still something you do, I really think you’ll benefit from removing it from your life.
Give it a shot for a week and see if it makes a difference for you.
Avoid Downbeat TV, Movies, and Books
It might sound obvious to recommend avoiding these things, but from my own experience in the past, I found that when I was going through a really bad time with my anxiety and depression, I would almost seek out these downbeat things on TV and in books and magazines.
They say misery loves company, and I guess you could say that about this.
A couple of years back, when I was as bad as I ever was with my anxiety, I saw a trailer for the movie “My Life,” to say it was on TV the next day. Now, I knew what this movie was about because I’d seen it before. I knew it was about a terminally ill man coming to terms that he was dying, and I knew that the previous time I’d watched it, it had left me in pretty bad shape.
What I should have done, considering I was already going through a bad time in my life, was to avoid it, not let it interfere with me, and just move on.
That’s what I should have done, but what I actually did was sit there for two hours the next afternoon and watch every second of it.
Looking back, it was a really stupid thing to do. But like I said, when my mood was low like that, I almost hunted for this kind of thing to watch. It was almost as if I felt I had to be around things that matched my low mood.
The simple act of watching that movie played a big part in causing the worst couple of weeks of my life.
In that following two weeks I’d been to my doctor 3 times, and to the emergency room once. And I’m sure that watching that movie, when I was already in terrible shape, played a big part in my problems.
Even though I can see how damaging this was to me 2 years ago, at the time I didn’t realise I was doing anything wrong.
And that’s why I think it’s worth us consciously deciding to avoid things like this when we’re in a vulnerable state. And perhaps it’s even worth us avoiding it at all times, even when we’re doing well.
I never watch things like this anymore, or read books on subjects that I know will bring me down.
It’s just not worth it.
Try avoiding these more general downbeat things on TV, and in magazines and books. Force yourself to stay away from these things for a week or two, and I think you’ll find you do much better without them.
Don’t Mix Anxiety With Loved Ones
This is a tough subject to talk about, and a tough idea to come to terms with.
Because if we have friends and family who are close to us, then obviously that’s the first place we turn when we have a problem or when we need support.
But what I’ve discovered, in my own case, and in the cases of all the people with anxiety that I’ve had a chance to talk to these past couple of years - what I’ve discovered is that eventually, if the anxiety is long-term, taking the problem to friends and family almost always makes the situation worse.
And it’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the nature of anxiety disorders.
When it comes to this kind of thing, the people closest to us are powerless to help, so they get frustrated. And it’s also impossible to know what severe anxiety feels like, or even what it is, unless you’ve experienced it like we have.
So when we keep going to the people we’re close to, looking for support and advice, eventually there’s a strong chance they’ll reach that limit where they just don’t want to hear it anymore - they know they can’t help us fix the problem, they don’t truly understand the problem, and that time comes and they don’t want to hear it anymore.
I know I had a couple of people in the past who I’d go to with my anxiety problems, and I guess I just took it too far too many times with them, because eventually they reached their breaking point.
And that’s not good for anyone, and it can really damage friendships and relationships.
If I’m realistic then I know impossible for most of us to never go to our families and friends at these times. But what we can do is limit the number of times we go to the people closest to us.
We can go to them when only they’ll be good enough, but at all other times I think it will help us all if we find other places to turn.
Anxiety Disorder Help
It seems like you hear it all the time from nearly every one you know – “I’m SO stressed out!” Pressures abound in this world today. Those pressures cause stress and anxiety, and often we are ill-equipped to deal with those stressors that trigger anxiety and other feelings that can make us sick. Literally, sick.
The statistics are staggering. One in every eight Americans age 18-54 is looking for some form of anxiety disorder help. This totals over 19 million people! Research conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health has shown that anxiety disorders are the number one mental health problem among American women and are second only to alcohol and drug abuse by men.
Women suffer from anxiety and stress almost twice as much as men. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in America, surpassing even depression in numbers. Anxiety is the most common mental health issue facing adults over 65 years of age. Anxiety disorders cost the U.S. $46.6 billion annually. Anxiety sufferers see an average of five doctors before being successfully diagnosed.
Unfortunately, stress and anxiety go hand in hand. In fact, one of the major symptoms of stress is anxiety. And stress accounts for 80 percent of all illnesses either directly or indirectly.
In fact, stress is more dangerous than we thought. You’ve probably heard that it can raise your blood pressure, increasing the likelihood of a stroke in the distant future, but recently a health insurance brochure claimed that 90 percent of visits to a primary care physician were stress-related disorders.
Health Psychology magazine reports that chronic stress can interfere with the normal function of the body’s immune system. And studies have proven that stressed individuals have an increased vulnerability to catching an illness and are more susceptible to allergic, autoimmune, or cardiovascular diseases.
Doctors agree that during chronic stress, the functions of the body that are nonessential to survival, such as the digestive and immune systems, shut down. “This is why people get sick,” he says. “There are also many occurrences of psychosomatic illness, an illness with an emotional or psychological side to it.”
Furthermore, stress often prompts people to respond in unhealthy ways such as smoking, drinking alcohol, eating poorly, or becoming physically inactive. This damages the body in addition to the wear and tear of the stress itself.
Stress is a part of daily life.
It’s how we react to it that makes all the difference in maintaining our health and well-being. Pressures occur throughout life and those pressures cause stress. You need to realize that you will never completely get rid of stress in your life, but you can learn coping techniques to turn that stress into a healthier situation.
