Defining Agoraphobia: Discover The True Definition Of Agoraphobia From An Ex-sufferers Perspective
There are two things that are apparent when you start to seek a definition for agoraphobia and that is that, depending on where you look, there is more than just one definition. If we take a look in a dictionary, we will find that the interpretation given there is similar to the following: a disease which results in the sufferer being afraid of open or public spaces which, can result in the sufferer becoming housebound.
The second usual definition goes something like this: An anxiety disorder where the sufferer lives in fear of finding themselves in an embarrassing situation from which there is no escape. More advanced agoraphobics may, indeed, become confined to their home in order to avoid any such discomfort occurring whilst in public.
We can see that the result of being housebound is the same in both definitions, how the sufferer becomes housebound, though, is quite different. So, lets compare both definitions to the real-life experiences of an agoraphobic.
I became an agoraphobic more than twenty years ago, following a series of panic attacks that...