Symptoms of Agoraphobia
The most visible symptom of agoraphobia are very obvious indeed and can have far reaching social impact on both the sufferer and their family. Agoraphobia is defined as the fear of the market (taken from a literal translation from Latin), but this definition is very inaccurate. The main symptoms of agoraphobia are that the sufferer feels unable to be away from a person or place which represents safety to them. Agoraphobia sufferers also feel unable to travel long distances often or find it difficult to move away from areas of easy access to an exit, medical assistance or a place of safety.
One of the most ‘creative’ symptoms of agoraphobia, is the sufferers ability to devise mechanisms to allow themselves easy access to medical help, ambulance access, car access, wheelchair access and some even consider such things as air ambulance access.
What is it with Agoraphobia sufferers?
Anxiety sufferers all have one thing in common, a personality trait which is true of every single sufferer – an incredible creative intellect – I call it Emotional Intelligence. Without this creativity, anxiety and agoraphobia sufferers would be unable to ‘create’ these, sometimes intricate patterns of behavior and the thought processes that fuel them.
Many sufferers mistake their anxiety symptoms for symptoms of agoraphobia directly. Agoraphobia is a symptom of anxiety disorder and not a stand alone physical response; it is simply an unfortunate by-product of underlying anxiety and as such, does not cause symptoms per se. The symptoms experienced by agoraphobia sufferers are a direct response to the physical stimulation caused by adrenalin and the flight or fight response.
But how do sufferers eliminate the symptoms of agoraphobia and the core, inappropriate anxiety level that causes them?
It is vital that an agoraphobia cure doesn’t only address symptoms of agoraphobia and high anxiety, but addresses the core condition – the elevated anxiety level stored in the anxiety control center of the subconscious mind. Drugs and psychotherapy aren’t targeted enough to select the exact position of the neural pathways that cause the agoraphobia and render them obsolete.
