Tell me about your agoraphobia

[sams]

I've been an agoraphobic since I was young. Mine seems to be more related to open spaces than to being around people. I get to looking at the horizon and up at the sky and I begin to get very uncomfortable. If you're an agoraphobic, you have a pretty good idea of how things go from there. Up until a panic attack I had about three weeks ago I only got the symptoms in a few places, but now I'm getting them in places that I never did before. This frankly frightens me. I'm on Prozac which I think is helping a little. I'm still reasonably functional and face it every day and I'm hoping that soon I'll be able to at the very least get back to where I was prior to three weeks ago.

So that's my story...how about yours?

[sandram4]

hi i have agoraphobic now for 8 years i took it just after my brother died.i started to sit in never going out anywhere,that went on for years.untill all the sudden i got some help with congnitive behavioral theraphy,and that help a lot i now can go out with someone to all sorts places now i still cant go alone but it has help,and i put in for it again as it did stop there and i hope this time i can go out my self places

[rustyc]

I began experiencing phobias when I was 12 years old. Perhaps earlier, to an extent. I'm 54 now. The disorder can go into remission - sometimes for many years. It has returned in mild forms from time to time. 6 years ago, my panic disorder became full-fledged agoraphobia. After 3 years of being stuck in my home, I finally realized I was far too patient with my shrink. And after trying 6 of the newer meds with little to no success, I demanded that the most senior doctor in their offices do something. He immediately prescribed a small script of 5mg. diazepam (Valium). Bingo. By not over-using them, and knowing I have one pill with me at all times, occurrences of agoraphobia, and the panic attacks themselves, have been very few and far between.

I just wanted to say that I've heard reports from doctors that patients, with this line of disorders (agoraphobia, panic and post traumatic stress), don't seem to experience the success rates with these new meds that other types of patients who experience other types of aliments. I still think the newer meds were worth a try, though.

Along with a *safe* administration of meds like Xanax and Valium, I'm hearing good things about "cognitive behavioral therapy" . I haven't tried it yet, since my insurance doesn't cover it and it's way too expensive for the black hole I call "my bank balance".

My gripe, for what it's worth, is with the name of this therapy. When a layman, such as myself, hears "behavioral therapy", my first thought was of some guy with a history of doing something like getting into arguments, or actual scuffles, with a another guy at the next table of a restaurant whom he'd never seen before. You get my point (i'm hoping). Many of us will be turned off from seeing this type of specialist.

There isn't any inherent inappropiate behavior with panic disorder. And I'd like to remind anyone, who's been kind enough to read this far into my post, that panic disorder has been proven to be a physical ailment. It doesn't arise from "bad thoughts" or "flaws in one's logical abilities".

In recent years, a seemingly harmless inert placebo was in use during clinical trials in the US and in Europe. While some volunteers were given the actual test drug, the others were given this placebo. To the surprise of doctors, they were seeing sharp rises in the incidences of panic attacks among those given the placebo. Further clinical tests, this time on the placebo itself, showed that when introduced in IV form, patients with a history of PD had attacks within moments. Some others, who experienced the attacks, had no known history of PD.

So... the current state of this field of medicine is that PD is a physical problem. Obviously, stress can exacerbate the problem. Stress can also cause diabetics to go into insulin shock; heart patients to have severe angina; asthma patients to wind up in a hospital. But... we don't categorize those ailments as mental problems, or "mixed up" thinking. We don't view those people as "scaredy-cats".

That would be an outrageous thing to do. And it must be considered equally outrageous whenever the same is applied to folks who suffer the disorders we have.

As an aside, have you noticed that when the medical community actually knows next to nothing about an illness, the name they attach to it is nothing more than a description of its symptoms? Take "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". Well, yes, 1000s of doctors are presented with patients exhibiting extreme tiredness, weakness, and it seems to go on forever. Hence it's name.... and an indication that science isn't up to speed on it yet.

In the past, the disorders we're discussing had fallen into that twilight zone. Now I think we all have a real chance to work together, thru the internet, letters, etc. to turn the heat onto the med community merely by spreading the light of the knowledge we've recently gained. There are millions of us in the US, and many of us have family members who have some idea of what we've had to endure. And that is a massive group to push for open discussions thoughout all quarters of the nation and our medical communities.

In the meantime, for myself and I hope for you, I'm going to continue trusting my mental faculties, be cautiously optimistic about any suggested therapy (including meds), but always insist that the therapists understand that I expect them to be up to date and straight-forward when they suggest any course of treatment.

Thanks for tolerating my long-winded post.