Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is a classic
Speaker 1: episode from our archives and from erstwhile host Christian Sager.
Speaker 1: This one deals with what agoraphobia is and what it isn't.
Speaker 1: We wanted to share this episode because with many of
Speaker 1: us continuing isolation to help curb the spread of COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: prevent our hospitals from getting overwhelmed and thus save both
Speaker 1: lives and money in the long run, we're all feeling
Speaker 1: a little hold up and anxious about going out around people,
Speaker 1: and agoraphobia isn't quite the right label for that, but
Speaker 1: people with this condition may be struggling with it. Right now.
Speaker 1: I'll let Christian explain. Hey brain Stuff, it's Christian Sager.
Speaker 1: Doesn't it seem like some people aren't afraid of anything?
Speaker 1: But you know what, those people their phonies because they're
Speaker 1: scared of chainsaw clowns just like everybody else. They're just
Speaker 1: better at hiding it. Everybody had as fears, but not
Speaker 1: everybody has a phobia. Medically recognized phobias are different from
Speaker 1: normal fear in that they provoke a very intense reaction.
Speaker 1: They are unreasonable or unwarranted. For instance, being intensely afraid
Speaker 1: of a guy with a shotgun and a ski mask.
Speaker 1: While that kind of makes sense, but being intensely afraid
Speaker 1: of balloons doesn't so much. And finally, they can interfere
Speaker 1: with a person's ability to live their life. But there
Speaker 1: are other anxiety disorders that, while very real and potentially
Speaker 1: very disruptive of a person's life, are far more insidiously vague,
Speaker 1: and agoraphobia is one of them. According to the d
Speaker 1: s M five, every year one point seven percent of
Speaker 1: adolescence and adults will be diagnosed with agoraphobia. So what
Speaker 1: is it? Well, a lot of people have heard the
Speaker 1: term and have a vague idea of what it means,
Speaker 1: but a lot of these ideas are wrong, or at
Speaker 1: least they don't tell the whole story. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: some things that agoraphobia are not are a fear of crowds,
Speaker 1: a fear of wide open spaces, or a fear of
Speaker 1: being outside. Though all of these may be a manifestation
Speaker 1: of actual agoraphobia, agoraphobia is actually a broader complaint that
Speaker 1: will often include some or all of the fears previously listed,
Speaker 1: so for some general layperson definitions to help you get
Speaker 1: the gist of it, here we go. Agoraphobia is a
Speaker 1: type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and often
Speaker 1: avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic
Speaker 1: and make you feel trapped, helpless, or embarrassed. That's from
Speaker 1: the Mayo Clinic. Or Agoraphobia is an intense fear and
Speaker 1: anxiety of being in places where it is hard to
Speaker 1: escape or where help might not be available. Agoraphobia usually
Speaker 1: involves fear of crowds, bridges, or of being outside alone.
Speaker 1: That's from the National Library of Medicine at the National
Speaker 1: Institutes of Health. One more, agreaphobia is a fear of
Speaker 1: being in situations where escape might be difficult or help
Speaker 1: wouldn't be available if things go wrong. That's from the
Speaker 1: National Health Service in the UK. So really, agoraphobia is
Speaker 1: more broadly the fear of being trapped in a vulnerable situation,
Speaker 1: especially when exacerbated by an existing predisposition to panic disorder.
Speaker 1: Very often, the person with agoraphobia specifically dreads experiencing a
Speaker 1: panic attack or other panic like symptoms in a situation
Speaker 1: where such an experience would be especially in opportune according
Speaker 1: to the d s M five and this is the
Speaker 1: latest edition of the Professional Diagnostic Handbook for Mental Health Professionals.
Speaker 1: According to that to meet the diagnostic criteria for agoraphobia,
Speaker 1: you must have quote market fear or anxiety about two
Speaker 1: or more of the following scenarios standing in line or
Speaker 1: being in a crowd, being outside of the home alone
Speaker 1: using public transportation, being in open spaces, or being in
Speaker 1: enclosed spaces. So the d s M five reports that
Speaker 1: the person with a gooraphobia fears or avoids these situations
Speaker 1: because of thoughts that escape and might be difficult or
Speaker 1: might not be available in the event of developing panic
Speaker 1: like symptoms or other incapacitating or embarrassing symptoms. What physically
Speaker 1: happens is the following. According to the U S National
Speaker 1: Library of Medicine, these symptoms show up when you're experiencing
Speaker 1: a gooraphobia, chest pain or discomfort, choking or shortness of breath,
Speaker 1: dizziness or fainting, nausea, rapid heartbeat, sweating, and trembling. Also,
Speaker 1: according to the d s M five, you can only
Speaker 1: meet the criteria for diagnosis if you always are almost
Speaker 1: always have the fear response to these situations, You actively
Speaker 1: avoid these situations or require the help of a companion
Speaker 1: in the level of fear you feel is disproportionate to
Speaker 1: the threat represented. This condition lasts for six months or more.
Speaker 1: The fear, anxiety, or avoidance causes quote clinically significant distress
Speaker 1: or prevents you from living a normally functional life, and
Speaker 1: the suite of symptoms you experience is not better grouped
Speaker 1: under another diagnosis. For example, if your fear only occurs
Speaker 1: because you fear people's reactions to perceive flaws in your
Speaker 1: physical appearance, this might be a body dysmorphic disorder instead
Speaker 1: of general agoraphobia. So if you have intense, persistent, debilitating
Speaker 1: fear that you'll begin to have a panic attack or
Speaker 1: another embarrassing or incapacitating episode while you're stuck in a
Speaker 1: place or situation you can't get out of or where
Speaker 1: you can't find help, you might have agoraphobia. That's a
Speaker 1: long one, and this can have some really serious consequences.
Speaker 1: For example, more than one in three people with agoraphobia
Speaker 1: are completely homebound and unable to work, and sometimes people
Speaker 1: inappropriately self medicate with the abuse of drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 1: Agoraphobia often develops out of an existing panic disorder. For example,
Speaker 1: if a person experiences a panic attack in a particular
Speaker 1: type of place, say, for example, like an airplane or
Speaker 1: an elevator, he or she might start to avoid ever
Speaker 1: being in that situation again. Over time, this can develop
Speaker 1: into full blown agoraphobia. Something like agoraphobia can sometimes be
Speaker 1: difficult to accurately diagnose, since it's associated with something like
Speaker 1: panic disorder, and also because the functional symptoms may resemble
Speaker 1: those of problems with different causes. For example, you may
Speaker 1: dread and avoid flying in airplanes because of agoraphobia, or
Speaker 1: maybe simply because you fear death by plane crash. The
Speaker 1: situational phobia is outwardly similar, but it happens for very
Speaker 1: different reasons. All right, So maybe you're wondering, if I've
Speaker 1: got a gonophobia, how do I treat it well? The
Speaker 1: most common treatment responses are a combination of cognitive behavioral
Speaker 1: therapy and antidepressant medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy is basically a
Speaker 1: common form of psychotherapy where the therapist helps the patient
Speaker 1: talk through thought processes and common behaviors and then replaces
Speaker 1: those bad thoughts and behavior patterns with better ones. Antidepressant
Speaker 1: medication could also include drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake
Speaker 1: inhibitors or ss R eyes or serotonin neuro epinephrine reuptake inhibitors.
Speaker 1: So if you or someone you know are suffering from agoraphobia,
Speaker 1: there's help out there. All you have to do is
Speaker 1: seek it out. Today's episode was written by Joe McCormick
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Playing. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other topics, is it How Stuff Work? Stop Calm?
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