Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is a classic episode from our archives and from erstwhile host Christian Sager. This one deals with what agoraphobia is and what it isn't.
We wanted to share this episode because with many of us continuing isolation to help curb the spread of COVID nineteen, prevent our hospitals from getting overwhelmed and thus save both lives and money in the long run, we're all feeling a little hold up and anxious about going out around people, and agoraphobia isn't quite the right label for that, but people with this condition may be struggling with it. Right now. I'll let Christian explain. Hey brain Stuff, it's Christian Sager.
Doesn't it seem like some people aren't afraid of anything? But you know what, those people their phonies because they're scared of chainsaw clowns just like everybody else. They're just better at hiding it. Everybody had as fears, but not everybody has a phobia. Medically recognized phobias are different from normal fear in that they provoke a very intense reaction. They are unreasonable or unwarranted. For instance, being intensely afraid of a guy with a shotgun and a ski mask.
While that kind of makes sense, but being intensely afraid of balloons doesn't so much. And finally, they can interfere with a person's ability to live their life. But there are other anxiety disorders that, while very real and potentially very disruptive of a person's life, are far more insidiously vague, and agoraphobia is one of them. According to the d s M five, every year one point seven percent of adolescence and adults will be diagnosed with agoraphobia. So what
is it? Well, a lot of people have heard the term and have a vague idea of what it means, but a lot of these ideas are wrong, or at least they don't tell the whole story. So, for instance, some things that agoraphobia are not are a fear of crowds, a fear of wide open spaces, or a fear of
being outside. Though all of these may be a manifestation of actual agoraphobia, agoraphobia is actually a broader complaint that will often include some or all of the fears previously listed, so for some general layperson definitions to help you get the gist of it, here we go. Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and often avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless, or embarrassed. That's from
the Mayo Clinic. Or Agoraphobia is an intense fear and anxiety of being in places where it is hard to escape or where help might not be available. Agoraphobia usually involves fear of crowds, bridges, or of being outside alone. That's from the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. One more, agreaphobia is a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult or help wouldn't be available if things go wrong. That's from the
National Health Service in the UK. So really, agoraphobia is more broadly the fear of being trapped in a vulnerable situation, especially when exacerbated by an existing predisposition to panic disorder.
Very often, the person with agoraphobia specifically dreads experiencing a panic attack or other panic like symptoms in a situation where such an experience would be especially in opportune according to the d s M five and this is the latest edition of the Professional Diagnostic Handbook for Mental Health Professionals.
According to that to meet the diagnostic criteria for agoraphobia, you must have quote market fear or anxiety about two or more of the following scenarios standing in line or being in a crowd, being outside of the home alone using public transportation, being in open spaces, or being in
enclosed spaces. So the d s M five reports that the person with a gooraphobia fears or avoids these situations because of thoughts that escape and might be difficult or might not be available in the event of developing panic like symptoms or other incapacitating or embarrassing symptoms. What physically
happens is the following. According to the U S National Library of Medicine, these symptoms show up when you're experiencing a gooraphobia, chest pain or discomfort, choking or shortness of breath,
dizziness or fainting, nausea, rapid heartbeat, sweating, and trembling. Also, according to the d s M five, you can only meet the criteria for diagnosis if you always are almost always have the fear response to these situations, You actively avoid these situations or require the help of a companion in the level of fear you feel is disproportionate to the threat represented. This condition lasts for six months or more.
The fear, anxiety, or avoidance causes quote clinically significant distress or prevents you from living a normally functional life, and the suite of symptoms you experience is not better grouped under another diagnosis. For example, if your fear only occurs because you fear people's reactions to perceive flaws in your physical appearance, this might be a body dysmorphic disorder instead
of general agoraphobia. So if you have intense, persistent, debilitating fear that you'll begin to have a panic attack or another embarrassing or incapacitating episode while you're stuck in a place or situation you can't get out of or where you can't find help, you might have agoraphobia. That's a long one, and this can have some really serious consequences.
For example, more than one in three people with agoraphobia are completely homebound and unable to work, and sometimes people inappropriately self medicate with the abuse of drugs and alcohol. Agoraphobia often develops out of an existing panic disorder. For example, if a person experiences a panic attack in a particular type of place, say, for example, like an airplane or an elevator, he or she might start to avoid ever being in that situation again. Over time, this can develop
into full blown agoraphobia. Something like agoraphobia can sometimes be difficult to accurately diagnose, since it's associated with something like panic disorder, and also because the functional symptoms may resemble those of problems with different causes. For example, you may dread and avoid flying in airplanes because of agoraphobia, or maybe simply because you fear death by plane crash. The situational phobia is outwardly similar, but it happens for very
different reasons. All right, So maybe you're wondering, if I've got a gonophobia, how do I treat it well? The most common treatment responses are a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and antidepressant medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy is basically a common form of psychotherapy where the therapist helps the patient talk through thought processes and common behaviors and then replaces
those bad thoughts and behavior patterns with better ones. Antidepressant medication could also include drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or ss R eyes or serotonin neuro epinephrine reuptake inhibitors. So if you or someone you know are suffering from agoraphobia, there's help out there. All you have to do is seek it out. Today's episode was written by Joe McCormick and produced by Tyler Playing. For more on this and lots of other topics, is it How Stuff Work? Stop Calm?
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