Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder in which an individual fears and avoids places or situations that might cause them to panic and feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed. They fear an actual or anticipated situation. These situations can include open spaces, public transit, shopping centers, being in a crowd, or simply being outside their home. The anxiety is caused by fear that there's no easy way to escape or get help if the anxiety intensifies. Most people who have agoraphobia develop it after having one or more panic attacks, causing them to worry about having another attack and avoid the places where it may happen again. People with agoraphobia often have a hard time feeling safe in any public place, especially where crowds gather. They may feel that they need a companion, such as a relative or friend, to go with them to public places. The fear can be so overwhelming that they may feel unable to even leave their home.
I would characterize agoraphobia as fear of having another panic attack. Entering a state of “tonic immobility” can be very traumatic for an individual. They experience a frozen state where their body physically shuts down; they even lose their ability to speak. It is a state of total and utter helplessness and it is extremely scary. The ghost of this event lingers within them and a repeat of this event must be avoided at all cost.
An Aspie was confronted by an aggressive co-worker and describes his panic attack as follows:
...the person talking starts to get aggressive and pushy and I end up shutting down completely. To them I look like I have a learning disability or attention issue, but in reality, time slows down and I try to process the bright red of their turtleneck, the numbers on their tag, the smell of their aroma, characteristic details of their face, flies that are about to land on someone's meal, the weird canyon-shape in the lamp shade, the wood grainy texture of the chair I'm sitting on, that weird piece of hair sticking up, that really ugly shape on the wall paper, how the location of the microwave has moved a foot from last week, where it was last under the portrait of my boss and to the right of a filing cabinet which is no longer there, why tiles are white and black on the floor, etc. etc. I end up memorizing lots of that information like a photograph
In a sense, his mind is searching for all patterns related to triggering the shutdown and storing these away in memory so that they can be avoided at all cost in the future.
...later when I come back I remember everything that happened before like I'm reliving it. I also get negative feelings associated with places where I'm stuck and can't leave while being overwhelmed.
Essentially that location is no longer safe. Agoraphobia is the mind trying to protect itself by avoiding the locations, persons or patterns associated with prior episodes of “tonic immobility”.
21 Aug 2020, 6:03 pm
