I was wondering how many here have agoraphobia. I can go outside if I push myself but think I may have mild agoraphobia in that I have safe areas where I can go on my own(near the town centre where I live being one and partially along the seafront another) and get scared of being lost and trapped outside the ‘zone’.
If i get past the social anxiety I then have to get past the safe zone. I think in some ways that is harder than the social anxiety.
Although I feel less socially anxious with other mentally ill people fear of having to go outside my safe zone means I back away from certain places I could meet other people.
Growing up as a kid - teen and young adult, I had a serious case of agoraphobia with panic disorder.
Today I would say I still have agoraphobia minus the panic disorder, but the agoraphobia has improved, as long as I remain within my comfort zone - basically my comfort zone is a few miles around my house, in my town - anything further than this and I have a hard time coping by myself.
If I am with my father, I can venture pretty far away from my comfort zone - but I still do not do well in unfamiliar places, or in ultra crowded places
I think I’m the opposite… I feel better outside. I can even handle people when I’m outside. Something about being inside, I feel trapped. I feel like everything is magnified.
If I’m outside with maybe two or three people, I can be around them, but I have open space and I don’t feel like I’m under scrutiny or under a magnifying glass.
Inside… alone I get anxious enough. Add people and I’m really self conscious, and it just feels worse being trapped inside with people.
I guess I’m claustrophobic.
I am the same way - being alone inside my home raises my anxiety levels - I really am working on this, but maybe not enough
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My isolation annoys almost everyone that I know. I don’t know if you can relate but I find it difficult to follow simple conversations, and at times my senses are so heightened that sounds that most people don’t even pay attention to are incredibly distracting to me. Even going to the grocery store or walmart is so physically exhausting.
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I used to have panic disorder and agoraphobia all throughout my teens and when I first got sz, but after my remission in 2007 I was practically cured. I have since then relapsed with sz, but the agoraphobia hasn’t come back. I remember I had panic attacks when going into a crowded mall, but now doing that I am usually calm inside, except if I am having a bad sz day, then I would be paranoid and my surroundings would feel unreal. But rarely do I have panic attacks nowadays.
My wife has social anxiety and I also isolate myself but I would say the two are different. I have no desire to interact with others it does not give me anxiety though. I think the whole world is in on the conspiracy so I choose to be isolated but I can interact when I need to like shopping and what not.
Bump. /15characters
I tend to stay inside and keep the doors locked, there have been times when I was homeless and just kind of walking around outside with no house, apartment, or room to go to. I didn’t feel any agoraphobia then, though it comes back when I have an apartment to duck into. In that situation I become reluctant to go outside. I have a social phobia big time. It cripples my social life.
Lately everything causes me anxiety. It’s paralyzing. Like you I only have a “zone” of places where I’m comfortable. But yeah, people, work, school, anything and everything.
My parents just think I’m lazy. They don’t understand.