Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. Hey, brain stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Sager. Doesn't it seem like some people aren't
Speaker 1: afraid of anything? But you know what, those people their
Speaker 1: phonies because they're scared of chainsaw clowns just like everybody else.
Speaker 1: They're just better at hiding it. Everybody has fears, but
Speaker 1: not everybody has a phobia. Medically recognized phobias are different
Speaker 1: from 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 mayor O Clinic. Or Agreaphobia is an intense fear
Speaker 1: and anxiety of being in places where it is hard
Speaker 1: to escape or where help might not be available. Agoraphobia
Speaker 1: usually 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 gorphobia 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: The level of fear you feel is disproportionate to the
Speaker 1: 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 will begin to have a panic attack or
Speaker 1: another embarrassing or incapacitating episode. While you're stuck in a
Speaker 1: place or a situation you can't get out of or
Speaker 1: where you can't find help, you might have agoraphobia. That's
Speaker 1: a 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 agoraphobia, how do I treat it well? The most
Speaker 1: common treatment responses are a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy
Speaker 1: and antidepressant medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy is basically a common
Speaker 1: form of psychotherapy where the therapist helps the patient talk
Speaker 1: through thought processes and common behaviors, and then replaces those
Speaker 1: bad thoughts and behavior patterns with better ones. Antidepressant medication
Speaker 1: could also include drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
Speaker 1: or ss R eyes or serotonin nora epinephrin 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. Check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube,
Speaker 1: and for more on this and thousands of other topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com.