What is agoraphobia?

Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder. If you have agoraphobia, you avoid going places or doing things because you are afraid you will have no way to escape or will panic and have no help. For example, you might have an intense fear of driving, crossing bridges, or being in shopping malls. You fear the reactions, called panic attacks, that you might have in these situations. The fears can disable you. Fear can prevent you from leaving your home. A person who has agoraphobia may also have panic disorder.


My case...

Actually, i suffered of it since few years ago and I cant handle it sometimes. It comes to me when Iam in a small room (car, flight) which crowed with the ppls or has a bad ventilation, smelly, suddenly turns to dark (especially in cinema). It cause me cant sleep soundly... Actually i feel better since year ago, but now i become worse when i learnt that i have to further my studies at KL, then it comes to me again... I really felt unsecured, start to think a lot... especially i know i have to take a flight. I try to convince myself dun to be panic, everything will go well but cant ... still in panic, unless take a walk, inhale the fresh air to distract my mind. And think while in LRT and it is crowed with ppl, if suddenly it comes to again then what should i do?

I talked with my family too, they cant help me either... Unless taking a pill. Please guide me, if you suffer too and how do you calm down yourself especially in flight, lrt... Iam totally prostrated...

When i read your post, i do feel it. The panic.

when watching the Poseidon in cinema, i made myself uncomfortable for more than 1 hour. Especially i cant inhale normally and thought myself nearly to drown when i saw the exciting scene! That movie made me felt unease!

it must suck being you when you travel on the LRT

next time i find someone who freaks out, i know its U!!!.

till we meet

My granddad has got extreme hypochondria to the extent that the psychiatrist almost diagnose him with Munchausen biProxy syndrome which means he can somehow show signs of diseases or illnesses he doesn't have. (And he also go out of hsi way to get attention from people by 'getting' sick) He gets panic attacks where he can't breathe and he thins he is sick/dying/in pain etc but actually there is no pathological/physical reason for it. I feel sadlah watching him go thru that, old man already and get stressed like that. Unfortunately this also stresses out my family,aisayman.

sounds alot like clastrophobia, you can see a psychiatrist/psychologist to try to find the cause and eventually overcome it or you can try to do it with friends or alone. try to think about what makes small confined places makes you scared and what happened to you to cause you to fear it.

my friend who is a psychiatrist told me to visualise my "happy place"(i know it sounds corny) whenever i started to panic from heights(afraid of heights yay ) it does work if you can reach your "happy place" in your mind.

This post has been edited by malaysianPotato: Jun 9 2006, 11:28 AM

i got phobia...for insects...any types of insects including butterfly...
and i'm terrified of going into a lift alone...once i waited outside a lift for more about one hour to wait for someone, anyone to go inside the lift with me...

You'd rather wait for an hour than just taking the stairs?

rofl i also have entomophobia, its quite embarassing being a guy.

come on, there is nothing embarrasing out of it... haha, be relaxed and dun think too much of it... everyday, you will getting better than yesterday...

I have slight these phobias of these, they make me uncomfortable but not to the point of fainting/breathless/sweating...

Lightning/Thunder
Claustrophobia
Blood
Magnified images of bone marrow/nerves/blood vessels

rofl easier said than done, swarmed by ants as a child, stung by bees aswell as wasps... go figure i hated insects but managed to get attacked by damn near all of them.

me with spider, cockoroch...
and sometime..
when hear rempit.. also got afraid... when suddenly.. got PEEEEEENNNNG sounds from the moto.. huhh

I was diagnosed with panic attack before CNY 06. I freaked out with thought of death looming. Gila punya takut. i thot i am the only one. now got gang here.

hrm... never really had a panic attack...but i do get scared in lifts alone... or maybe i was just imagining things... but no.. nothing in particular that i'm afraid of...

bf is afraid of snakes.. even if he's watching a movie and they've got snakes in it also he'll get goose bumps...

lol.. like my mom.. haha!! even tho she is born in the year of the snake but she's terrified of snakes..

I'm just afraid of height.. if i stand some where really high up and look down, it feels like i wanna throw myself of the tower.. damn.. and it makes me nauseate..

oh the high places thing.. i tot that's normal for everyone... you know just look straight down and you feel lethargic and actually feel you're falling down... i tot all those are normal reactions?

DUNNO? some of my friends don't feel a thing also..

erm...scared to watch horror movie in cinema considered??or be alone in a dark or low light area??afraid of bugs??if yes then i have oso lor...

i have sociophobia i m scared of talking to stranger