Agoraphobia

(considered to be the most common phobia)

An overwhelming fear of being in public places

The agoraphobic syndrome is a complex phobic disorder that usually occurs in adults. The major features are a variable combination of characteristic fears and the avoidance of public places, such as streets, stores, public transportation, crowds, and tunnels.

Agoraphobia is derived from the Greek element agora which means an "assembly" or "marked place"; not "open spaces", as is commonly stated by some people. The term agoraphobia refers to the fears of streets and crowded places, not to "open spaces".

The central feature of this phobia is a fear of being in embarrassing situations or in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or in which help may not be available in case of experiencing a panic attack.

Typically, in the late teens or early twenties, the subject develops fears of leaving the security of the home following a series of unexpected panic attacks.

Next appears the anticipatory dread that panic and a feeling of helplessness or humiliation (catagelophobia) will return in certain settings or situations; such as, crowds, stores, elevators, buses, subways, airplanes, theaters, tunnels; that is, any place from which there is no easy escape or access to help.

Often the uncontrollable fears spread in time; as from the initial fear of being in a crowded department store, to a fear of taking the bus or crossing the bridge that would get one there, to going into the street in front of one's building, to entering the elevator in the building.

The sufferer may finally become completely homebound, afraid even to leave the bedroom to go into other rooms of her house or apartment. (Between 65% and 95% of reported sufferers are women).

The agora unit of words.

See agoraphobia in the phobia-word list.