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General Category => Discover Seattle! => Topic started by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 11:03

Title: Agoraphobia
Post by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 11:03
What are peoples' experiences with this.  Do you have it.....or know anyone who does?
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: Gopher on Aug 31 07 11:16
I've only known one person who was afflicted with this, it made her life well-nigh impossible (and also her husband's).
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: kitten on Aug 31 07 11:19
I've never known anyone who had it, and fortunately I don't either.  But I feel sorry for those that do.  It must be so difficult to cope with life that way.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 11:19
Any insight as to how it started.....what the signs or symptoms were Gophie?  
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: Gopher on Aug 31 07 11:27
No, I didn't get to know her until she'd had it for about 20 years.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: Lil Me on Aug 31 07 11:36
I have a bunch of friends who are medicated for anxiety/panic disorders, but not that one in particular.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: Lise on Aug 31 07 12:50
Is there a correct phobia term for people who are extremely scared of being on the dental chair? Because we've come across far too many. There was a woman who absolutely refused to sit on the chair and a guy who kept grabbing our instrument and jerking up. Talk about being stressful yourself when it comes to dealing with them. We have to calm them down all the time, almost to the point where you have to hold their hands.

  Far too many people have a phobia about needles and yet they would go (willing) into any surgery but complain to no end when it comes to local anesthesia in the mouth. The anesthesia that we give are mild, numbs one area and it goes away after a couple of hours yet you won't believe how many people are scared to death about it.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 01:23
I have dental-a-phobia Lise.  And yet needles don't bother me in the slightest.  I have to go through a major psych to go to the dentist.  Terrified, mortified, stupefied, petrified.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: kitten on Aug 31 07 08:21
I have a fear of needles in the mouth.  I'm okay with the arms or the derriere, but when it comes to the mouth....Arrrgghh!
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 08:29
Heroin wouldn't even do it for me at the dentist.....LOL

  Anyways.....I was asking about agoraphobia, as I've discovered that I seem to get a pain in the back of my head, that goes down my neck and into my right shoulder blade.  I can't turn my head.  I always just think it's because I worked too hard in the yard.

  Hubby mentioned a couple days ago, that I seem to get this every time I have to go somewhere (away from home)   I poo pood it at first, but I believe he might be correct.

  Then somebody mentioned that it sounded like agoraphobia.  As far as I know I've never had a phobia.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: kitten on Aug 31 07 08:32
Did you experience it when you went into town to shop or when you visit in Vancouver?  Or is it going to places you haven't been before where you are staying overnight?  Could it be stress associated with the unfamiliar?
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: 49er on Aug 31 07 08:33
Lise wrote:
............The anesthesia that we give are mild, numbs one area and it goes away after a couple of hours yet you won't believe how many people are scared to death about it. [/DIV]
 but I hate the feeling when the needle hits a nerve  
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 08:45
Me too 49er.  You have to pry me off the ceiling with a crowbar.

I KNOW it's not a pain tolerance issue.....I have a huge threshold for pain.....it's something else.

   Did you experience it when you went into town to shop or when you visit in Vancouver?  Or is it going to places you haven't been before where you are staying overnight?  Could it be stress associated with the unfamiliar?

  I don't think I experience it when I go to town.....that I just procrastinate about.....for days....sometimes weeks.

I DO get it when I have to go to Van.....so it's not about the unfamiliar.  It's seems kinda contradictory, because I LOVE to go on a road trip.....and yet I will get it when I know I'm going.

  I don't know if this has anything to do with agoraphobia.....that's why I was hoping somebody knew something about this.[/DIV]
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: kitten on Aug 31 07 08:50
It does sound like an anxiety attack more than agoraphobia.  You feel uncomfortable when you are out of your own milieu.  It seems to give control to others rather than being in control of your surroundings.  I feel that way myself quite frequently.  I much prefer staying at home and having people come to me instead of leaving the comfort of familiar surroundings to visit elsewhere.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 09:11
   I guess that's where the confusion comes in for me.  Because I don't think I feel consciously uncomfortable.  I'm a relatively 'low stress' kind of person......so an anxiety attack doesn't feel like it applies.  It's clearly doing something physical, whatever it is.[/DIV]
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: kitten on Aug 31 07 09:17
I was thinking that on an unconscious leven that you are most comfortable in your own home.  When you leave your comfort level is reduced to an extent.  Agoraphobia is a fear of open spaces, which you seem to have no trouble with.  I don't know what else it could be other than anxiety that manifests itself in illness or pain.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 09:24
I associate these things with weakness......I know that's probably not so.......but I still do.(//vny!://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/10.gif)
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: kitten on Aug 31 07 09:28
It is NOT weakness!!!   You can't help how it affects you...it simply does.  I bet you would scold me silly if I said the same thing, so don't go thinking that about yourself.  It would probably take years of professional therapy to find out why you react this way, so as long as it isn't too extreme just accept it as one of those annoying things you have to put up with.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: Lise on Aug 31 07 10:07
Being fearful of something is not a weakness. I do agree with kitten on that. It can be resolve but it'll take gut and willpower.

  I have a weakness of heights though......it's weird. Like I can stand looking down mountain or from a tall tower but if you put me in front of an air ballon, I get scared right down to my willies.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: kitten on Aug 31 07 10:11
I can handle heights as long as there is a barrier like a wall or railing, but I go to pieces on a stepladder when I try to change a lightbulb.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: P.C. on Aug 31 07 10:23
I think there is a physical difference between a fear and a phobia.....and maybe a psychological one as well.   (well at least I think there is)  I wonder if the difference is, that a phobia is an 'unfounded, or unrealistic' fear of something.  I mean it's reasonable to be fearful of some things.....that's basic survival or self preservation instincts.
Title: Re: Agoraphobia
Post by: kitten on Aug 31 07 10:27
I agree, and that's why I don't think it's a phobia.  I think it may be some buried fear that you can't remember.