Agoraphobia

[Rob Northall]

Agoraphobia (World Health Organisation Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10), F40.0).
    
It includes fears not only open spaces but also of related aspects such as:

The presence of crowds and the difficulty of immediate easy escape to a safe place usually home.

The term therefore refers to an interrelated and often overlapping cluster of phobias embracing fears of leaving home fears of entering shops crowd in public places all travelling alone in trains buses or planes.

Although the severity of the anxiety and the extent of avoidance behaviour of variable, this is
the most incapacitating of the phobic disorders and some sufferers are completely housebound. Many are terrified by the thought of collapsing and being left helpless in public.

The lack of an immediately available exit is one of the key features of many of these agoraphobia situations.

Most sufferers are women and the onset is usually in adult life depression and obsessional symptoms and social phobias may also be present but do not dominate the clinical picture.
 
In the absence of effective treatment, agoraphobia often becomes chronic, though usually fluctuating.

Diagnostic guidelines

All of the following criteria should be fulfilled for a definite diagnosis:

a) the psychological autonomic symptoms must be primarily manifestations of anxiety and not secondary to other symptoms, such as delusions or obsessional thoughts

b) the anxiety must be restricted to or occur mainly in at least two of the following situations: crowds, public places, travelling with company from home, and travelling alone

c) avoidance of the phobic situation must be, or have been a prominent feature

[Rob Northall]

As with the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Reading this helped me to understand my wifes behaviour!

If you find yourself trapped on State Benefits a “Professional Diagnosis” might increase your entitlement?
In the U.K. Benefits awarded prior to Retirement Age, continue after Retirement; but cannot be applied for 1 Day after you reach that Age!

I hope that Members find this useful?

[jack colleton]

PEOPLE CAN SUFFER SUCH SYMPTOMS SINCE FOREVER (CHILDHOOD) AND THINK THEY  ARE JUST "LIFE" AND THAT NOTHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT THEM AND INDEED CERTAIN PEOPLE MIGHT WELL WISH THEY WOULD STAY THAT WAY!  ALOT OF DEPRESSED PEOPLE WERE ABUSED AS CHILDREN.

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