Anxiety leaving the house
Agoraphobia - Better Health Channel
Summary
Read the full fact sheet- Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder.
- A person with agoraphobia is afraid to leave environments they know and consider to be safe for fear of having anxiety or a panic attack.
- Agoraphobia responds well to treatment.
About agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder. A person with agoraphobia is afraid to leave environments they know or consider to be safe. In severe cases, a person with agoraphobia considers their home to be the only safe environment. They may avoid leaving their home for days, months or even years.
Translated, agoraphobia means ‘fear of the marketplace’. Generally, busy public places (such as supermarkets, shopping centres, trams, trains, planes and airports) are feared the most. However, any public place – even a quiet church or an empty park – may seem threatening to a person suffering from agoraphobia.
Typically, agoraphobia often starts off as a mild anxiety about a particular event, place or situation that escalates over time into a generalised fear of being in public. Mental health experts believe that the root of agoraphobia is fear of the physical and mental sensations of anxiety and, often, of panic or of losing control or embarrassing oneself. A person with agoraphobia is unwilling to visit ‘unsafe’ places because they’re afraid that doing so will trigger anxiety or a panic attack.
Symptoms of agoraphobia
The symptoms and signs of agoraphobia may include:
- anxiety in response to being away from an environment that feels ‘safe’
- panic attack including symptoms such as breathlessness, sweating, dizziness, fast heart rate, choking sensations, nausea, and feelings of extreme fear or dread
- anticipation of anxiety if the person is required to leave their safe environment
- low self-esteem and loss of self-confidence
- reluctance to leave the house or venture beyond familiar surrounds
- depression, which can sometimes accompany the condition.
Agoraphobia develops over time
Agoraphobia usually begins with a stressful event – for example, a person loses a job or a relationship ends. They feel distressed and limit their contact with the outside world (this is called ‘avoidance behaviour’). As time passes, they may consider more and more public places as ‘out of bounds’ until they are eventually confined to their home.
In other cases, a stressful life event triggers a panic attack. Since panic attacks are so unpleasant, the person may avoid any situation or place that they think might trigger another attack until many situations and places are eventually feared and avoided.
Complications of agoraphobia
Untreated, agoraphobia can severely reduce a person’s quality of life. For example:
- Activities outside of the home such as work, school, socialising, hobbies and many forms of exercise are out of reach.
- Financial hardship, isolation, loneliness and boredom may lead to greater feelings of distress and increase the risk of depression.
- The person may recognise that their fear is irrational, but feel powerless to do anything about it.
- They may feel angry and frustrated with themselves.
- These negative feelings damage self-esteem and contribute to depression, and other anxieties and fears.
- The person may try to cope using unhealthy methods (such as comfort eating, drugs or alcohol), which in turn can cause or contribute to further health problems.
Diagnosis of agoraphobia
Diagnosis is usually based on the person’s reported symptoms. However, the doctor may run a series of medical tests to make sure the symptoms are not caused by an underlying physical illness. The doctor may suggest referral to a psychologist or psychiatrist for further evaluation and treatment.
Treatment for agoraphobia
Agoraphobia responds well to treatment. The treatment options suggested by your doctor or therapist will depend on your circumstances and preferences, but may include:
- a course of medications, such as antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications
- cognitive behaviour therapy and exposure therapy
- counselling and talk therapy
- relaxation training
- support groups
- instruction in self-help methods.
Self-help methods to manage agoraphobia
The key to conquering agoraphobia is learning to control anxiety symptoms and progressively going into the situations that you fear.
Be guided by your doctor or therapist, but general self-help suggestions include:
- Breathe slowly – hyperventilation (breathing too fast and too shallow) will make the symptoms of a panic attack worse. Consciously slow your breathing. Concentrate on expanding your abdomen, not your chest, with every inhalation.
- Use relaxation techniques – learning to relax may include methods such as meditation, deep muscle relaxation or regular exercise. You may need to experiment to find the relaxation method or methods that work best for you.
- Find out about your condition – overcoming agoraphobia involves understanding how anxiety affects the mind and body.
- Change your lifestyle – it may help to limit or avoid caffeine, alcohol and certain medications.
Regular exercise burns off stress chemicals and is known to reduce anxiety levels. See your doctor for further information and advice. - Gradually increase exposure – this involves facing the feared environment in a controlled way. This will help you to see that nothing bad is going to happen. Typically, you choose the least threatening environment first, take along a trusted friend or your therapist as support, and use slow breathing and the other coping methods you’ve learned to control your anxiety. With regular practise, the fear of the place or situation will ease. This technique is also known as systematic desensitisation. It’s important to have the guidance of a mental health professional.
Where to get help
- Your GP (doctor)
- Clinical psychologist
- Psychiatrist
- Your local community health centre
- Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria) Tel. (03) 9427 0406
- Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria Tel.
(03) 9830 0533 or 1300 ANXIETY (269 438)
- Panic disorder and agoraphobia: Australian treatment guide for consumers and carers, 2005, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.
This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by:
Overview - Agoraphobia - NHS
Agoraphobia is a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult or that help wouldn't be available if things go wrong.
Many people assume agoraphobia is simply a fear of open spaces, but it's actually a more complex condition. Someone with agoraphobia may be scared of:
- travelling on public transport
- visiting a shopping centre
- leaving home
If someone with agoraphobia finds themselves in a stressful situation, they'll usually experience the symptoms of a panic attack, such as:
- rapid heartbeat
- rapid breathing (hyperventilating)
- feeling hot and sweaty
- feeling sick
They'll avoid situations that cause anxiety and may only leave the house with a friend or partner.
They'll order groceries online rather than going to the supermarket. This change in behaviour is known as avoidance.
Read more about the symptoms of agoraphobia.
What causes agoraphobia?
Agoraphobia usually develops as a complication of panic disorder, an anxiety disorder involving panic attacks and moments of intense fear. It can arise by associating panic attacks with the places or situations where they occurred and then avoiding them.
A minority of people with agoraphobia have no history of panic attacks. In these cases, their fear may be related to issues like a fear of crime, terrorism, illness, or being in an accident.
Traumatic events, such as bereavement, may contribute towards agoraphobia, as well as certain genes inherited from your parents.
Read more about the possible causes of agoraphobia.
Diagnosing agoraphobia
Speak to your GP if you think you may be affected by agoraphobia.
It should be possible to arrange a telephone consultation if you don't feel ready to visit your GP in person.
Your GP will ask you to describe your symptoms, how often they occur, and in what situations. It's very important you tell them how you've been feeling and how your symptoms are affecting you.
Your GP may ask you the following questions:
- Do you find leaving the house stressful?
- Are there certain places or situations you have to avoid?
- Do you have any avoidance strategies to help you cope with your symptoms, such as relying on others to shop for you?
It can sometimes be difficult to talk about your feelings, emotions, and personal life, but try not to feel anxious or embarrassed. Your GP needs to know as much as possible about your symptoms to make the correct diagnosis and recommend the most appropriate treatment.
Read more about diagnosing agoraphobia.
Treating agoraphobia
Lifestyle changes may help, including taking regular exercise, eating more healthily, and avoiding alcohol, drugs and drinks that contain caffeine, such as tea, coffee and cola.
Self-help techniques that can help during a panic attack include staying where you are, focusing on something that's non-threatening and visible, and slow, deep breathing.
If your agoraphobia fails to respond to these treatment methods see your GP.
You can also refer yourself directly for psychological therapies, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), without seeing your GP.
Read more about psychological therapies on the NHS.
Medication may be recommended if self-help techniques and lifestyle changes aren't effective in controlling your symptoms. You'll usually be prescribed a course of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are also used to treat anxiety and depression.
In severe cases of agoraphobia, medication can be used in combination with other types of treatment, such as CBT and relaxation therapy.
Read more about treating agoraphobia.
Outlook
Around a third of people with agoraphobia eventually achieve a complete cure and remain free from symptoms.
Around half experience an improvement in symptoms, but they may have periods when their symptoms become more troublesome – for example, if they feel stressed.
Despite treatment, about 1 in 5 people with agoraphobia continue to experience troublesome symptoms.
How common is agoraphobia?
In the UK, up to 2 people in 100 have panic disorder. It's thought around a third will go on to develop agoraphobia.
Agoraphobia is twice as common in women as men. It usually starts between the ages of 18 and 35.
Page last reviewed: 18 December 2018
Next review due: 18 December 2021
treatment, how to get rid of anxiety, how to deal with anxiety for no reason
Anxiety is a negatively colored mood with feelings of worry, tension, and fear. In moderation, such emotions are useful: they help to mobilize forces and find a way out of extreme situations. But there must be grounds for concern, and normally it lasts a limited period of time.
If a person constantly experiences a feeling of anxiety and anxiety for no reason, this may indicate the presence of a mental disorder. In the absence of help, constant tension wears out the nervous system and the body as a whole, which leads to a breakdown in adaptation mechanisms and the development of chronic diseases.
If you notice that you cannot relax for a long time, then you should think about visiting a specialist.
In pathological cases, a state of anxiety and restlessness without a cause manifests itself both mentally and physically.
Mental symptoms:
- constant feeling of fear and excitement for no reason,
- poor concentration and attention,
- sleep disorders,
- emotional lability, irritability, tearfulness,
- inability to relax and fully engage in daily activities or communication,
- the need to reassure others that everything is okay. At the same time, words of support do not bring relief.
Physical symptoms:
- rapid breathing and heartbeat,
- headaches, pain in the abdomen and in the region of the heart,
- excessive sweating,
- eating disorders: increased or loss of appetite,
- weakness,
- shivering, chills,
- stool disorders: frequent urge, constipation,
- feeling short of breath,
- nausea,
- muscle spasms and pain.
Unreasonable anxiety and anxiety increase or smooth out from time to time. Exacerbations often accompany stress: conflicts, important events, illness. Normally, a person recovers quickly after the situation is resolved, but when upset, negative emotions do not go away.
The intensity of anxiety varies from mild to severe. The extreme is panic. If you ignore an anxiety state for a long time for no reason, then panic attacks can join it. They overtake unexpectedly and sometimes without a good enough reason, but after this episode, a person begins to avoid situations similar to the one in which it happened: public transport, an elevator, or just a crowd of people.
This greatly reduces the quality of life and can lead to social isolation.
Causes of causeless anxiety and anxiety
The occurrence of anxiety disorder is influenced by heredity. It has been found that certain brain structures and features of biological processes play an important role in the emergence of fear and anxiety. Personal characteristics, somatic health problems, lifestyle and various types of addictions also matter. Sometimes there is no cause for causeless anxiety and worry. Negative feelings usually have a trigger - an event or thought that causes an anxious response. However, most people are not aware of their triggers and believe that their emotions are groundless. In this case, only a specialist will help to understand why excitement arises for no reason.
There are a number of diseases, the symptoms of which are constant anxiety. With causeless fear and anxiety, the reasons may be as follows:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Persistent nervousness and worry over small things that are usually visible to others and last 6 or more months.
It starts in adolescence and intensifies with age. - Obsessive-compulsive disorder: obsessive thoughts and fears that are accompanied by obsessive actions that do not bring relief. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is distinguished - a person is indomitably haunted by memories that reproduce a traumatic situation.
- Phobias: irrational fear of any, even mundane, things. Accompanied by uncontrolled panic and physical manifestations.
- Panic attack - an excruciating and sudden attack of panic, which is accompanied by a fear of death and vivid somatic symptoms. The regular occurrence of panic attacks means the development of a panic disorder.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder: occurs after a severe traumatic situation and is accompanied by high levels of anxiety, avoidance and flashbacks.
These are the most common examples, but pathological anxiety can be a symptom of other disorders or the result of a failed stress management. If you want to understand why there is a feeling of anxiety for no reason, you should consult a doctor.
Without clarifying the main factor and working on it, it is impossible to restore health and peace of mind.
What to do with causeless anxiety and anxiety
It is difficult to live in constant stress. If you experience causeless anxiety and fear of what to do, the following list will tell you:
- Talk to someone you trust. This could be a relative, a close friend, a therapist, or a helpline employee. People are social creatures, so communication is a good way to relieve internal tension.
- Find a way to calm down quickly. There is not always a person with whom you can share. Therefore, it is important to find a suitable method that will help you relax: breathing techniques, soothing music, aromatherapy, self-massage, and more. If you cannot independently choose a technique that quickly helps with anxiety for no reason, a specialist will tell you what to do.
- Add physical activity to your life. It is a natural and effective remedy for anxiety.
Moderate sport relieves stress, lowers stress hormones, and strengthens the nervous system. Get at least 30 minutes of physical exercise a day. - Normalization of lifestyle. Get enough sleep, eat well, give up bad habits. This stabilizes physical performance and neurotransmitter levels, which helps maintain emotional balance.
- Start keeping a diary. Notes help identify patterns of anxiety flare-ups, understand the causes, and notice early signs of their occurrence. Also, thanks to this, you will begin to focus more on positive events that you might not have noticed before.
With excitement for no reason, everyone who regularly encounters this wants to know what to do. There is no universal method, however, the 5 steps listed above are recommended for every person with increased anxiety. This may be enough to alleviate symptoms. But if self-help techniques do not give the desired effect, then with a regularly occurring feeling of anxiety for no reason, you need to find out from a specialist what to do.
Treatment of causeless feelings of anxiety and restlessness
Regardless of the cause of pathological anxiety, professional help is the only complete method to eliminate the problem. If you have constant excitement and anxiety for no reason, you can quickly and effectively learn from a psychiatrist or psychotherapist how to get rid of this condition.
Due to the diversity of anxiety disorders, their therapy must be adapted to the individual clinical picture and diagnosis. Therefore, only a highly qualified specialist who has experience working with different types of anxiety conditions can tell you how to get rid of an anxiety state for no reason. For example, the therapy algorithm for a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is different from the help for panic attacks.
For a state of anxiety and anxiety without a cause, treatment includes the following approaches:
- Psychotherapy. The most promising direction, which not only eliminates the symptom, but identifies the cause and fights it.
Therapy teaches when feeling anxiety for no reason, how to get rid of acute attacks of anxiety, relax, look at life situations differently. The doctor will help to uncover the main causes of your fears and work them out. The patient receives the tools to overcome anxiety and uses them successfully. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is usually used: in the course of treatment, the patient encounters an object of concern and gradually gains confidence that he can control the situation. -
Medical therapy. Depending on the type of anxiety and the presence of associated mental or physical health problems, antidepressants, sedatives, sleeping pills, and other drugs may be prescribed. When anxiety is felt without a cause, drug treatment will alleviate the symptoms and improve the quality of life of the patient during his psychotherapeutic work on the underlying cause. Uncontrolled medication leads to dangerous side effects and withdrawal syndrome, so they can only be used according to the individual course prescribed by the doctor.
It is recommended to use a combination of psychotherapeutic and drug treatment, but sometimes only the first one is enough.
You should not put off visiting a doctor if you feel that experiences are preventing you from living. Over time, the symptoms worsen and other severe mental illnesses join: depression, neurotic disorders, and more. If the normalization of lifestyle does not help, it means that you will understand how to get rid of unreasonable anxiety only from a psychotherapist. With a timely appeal to a competent specialist, only a few sessions of psychotherapy may be enough for recovery.
Thanks to modern psychotherapeutic approaches, hundreds of people are making great strides every day in the fight against anxiety disorders. There is no need to endure the painful burden of fear and anxiety, because timely assistance allows you to achieve excellent results: the patient will fully recover and return to a full life, and the improvement will be noticeable after the first session.
How to cope with anxiety: 7 ways to help ‹ GO Blog
Anxiety is an emotional state caused by the expectation of danger or threat. While fear is a basic human emotion associated with the instinct of self-preservation, and appears directly at the moment of danger.
The terms "fear" and "anxiety" are not synonymous, but they can be used interchangeably when it comes to situational anxiety (state at a given moment in time).
In the normal state, the self-preservation function encourages action, but there are also moments of apathy when anxiety intensifies.
We will tell you how to cope with anxiety on your own and determine its level in yourself.
Read more: "9 Proven Ways to Beat Procrastination"
How to Measure Anxiety
American psychologist Charles Spielberger studied more than 117 signs of human anxiety and created a scale to determine its level. His "assessment of the level of anxiety" is divided into situational and personal.
Situational is responsible for the state at a given moment in time and the influence of external circumstances - for example, self-isolation. Personal - character of a person.
To determine "your level" of anxiety, you can take a test of 40 short questions.
What causes anxiety
The main factors that provoke increased anxiety in us are loneliness, problems at work, problems in relationships, health, environment and all sorts of conflicts.
Our way of life also has a great influence. For example, we are more likely to experience anxiety states if we are constantly on the phone or watching the news on TV. Digital progress has certainly made our life faster and better, but we pay for this comfort with an additional level of stress, new fears and complexes due to the large flow of news.
Try to minimize the number of hours spent on the Internet. Go outdoors, read, do yoga, cook, cross-stitch, build LEGOs – there are so many more options than you might think.
Stages of anxiety
– Waiting alarm. People who foresee the most unfavorable of all possible situations suffer. Such anxiety can appear at certain moments or haunt a person constantly.
- Anxiety in the form of phobias is associated with certain situations and objects. For example, fear of loneliness, spiders or darkness. May be a clinical case if expressed in the form of panic attacks.
- Neurotic anxiety. This form of anxiety is the most serious and is found in many psychological diseases: hysterical, schizoid. There is a pathological level of fear here that destroys the mental health of a person.
The whole planet is now in fear of waiting due to the incessant flow of news and uncertainty. "Fear of waiting" or "free fear" is formed due to the information flow in which we are constantly immersed. The tools that help to cope with situational anxiety, which has no connection with clinical cases, will be described below.
False alarm
Feelings of fear are easily confused, so before we talk about how to get rid of anxiety, we will learn how to identify it.
There are situations when we do not distinguish between emotions, so the so-called "false alarm" is formed. In this case, the first thing psychologists can advise is to learn how to isolate anxiety from a large stream of other emotions. Observe for yourself - in what situations you are overcome by anxiety. Divide these situations into those in which anxiety is justified and those where it is not.
For example, you are on a bus and as you approach the bus stop, you are overtaken by a feeling of anxiety. On the one hand, this may be due to fear that you will miss your stop, or a sense of shame, as it is embarrassing to ask the driver to stop the car.
Another example is when you want to ask the teacher in class, but you are afraid to raise your hand. This fear may arise from self-doubt and the expectation that classmates will laugh at you.
Sometimes anxiety is born from some other feelings, such as shame or insecurity. Realizing this and overcoming it, you no longer have a reason for concern, and with it the state of anxiety disappears.
Read more: “How to stop being shy and get rid of the language barrier”
How to cope with anxiety
Details detailed anxiety often due to uncertainty in the actions and feelings. First, try to find out what causes anxiety. For example, you are worried about being fired from your job. Before you panic, look at the facts: look at the state of the market and the area in which your company operates, evaluate the workload at work now and predict the task plan for the next month. And this applies not only to work, but to any area in which you feel anxiety.
Usually such an exercise helps to see the true picture. If you understand that while everything is under control, you can exhale, if not, proceed to your detailing.
Write out a detailed plan of action that will help you avoid uncertainty and tell you how to act in any situation:
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Write down what skills you have and where they can be useful. For example, being an illustrator or photoshop, having a driver's license and owning a car, copywriting skills, etc.
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Edit your resume and prepare some cover letters to the employer about yourself.
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Form your own range of services, from the most preferred activities to the least interesting.
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Leave a list of potential employers to whom you can offer your services. The bigger, the better.
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Write to them!
The work done will help you feel more confident and have a plan for coping with a crisis.
Sometimes anxiety arises from the belief that we will not cope with this or that action. A visual picture of your skills will always help to believe in yourself. When you read your list, you will realize that you can achieve a lot, despite the circumstances.
Read more: “4 things on your resume that will help the employer to choose you”
Use exposure therapy
A complex combination of words with a simple meaning is a face-to-face meeting with your problem. It is important to understand that this is NOT a fight against a problem. The point is to acknowledge the existence of anxiety, not to get rid of it completely.
Don't ignore things that make you feel anxious. For example, to move up the career ladder, you need to learn English, but you haven’t opened your textbook for three days and you constantly scold yourself for it. This lowers your self-esteem and increases your anxiety about your success at work and in life.
Give yourself a full day of rest without worries or self-criticism. Imagine that this is an official vacation or vacation. And then gradually get down to business: you can start with one page of English text per day or a five-minute video.
Gradually, you will accustom your body to the load and develop a habit.
Keep a sleep schedule
It is during sleep that growth hormone is produced, which is responsible for the restoration of our body, including the nervous system. Especially if we go to bed before 12 o'clock at night.
The BBC TV show Trust Me I'm a Doctor, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, did a little experiment on how sleep affects our psychological state. The study involved people who are distinguished by "strong sleep". During the experiment, the participants were given conditions: in the first three nights they had to sleep for 8 hours, which is the norm, and the next three nights - for 4 hours. Every day, the subjects answered questions that helped determine changes in their psychological state, behavior and emotions. The results showed that after two nights of sleep deprivation, negative emotions began to predominate in the subjects, as well as an increase in distrust of others and aggression.
The study also shows that insomnia is not always the result of mental disorders, sometimes it is lack of sleep that provokes the appearance of psychological problems.
Switch
It is important to periodically switch from one activity to another - for example, from physical activity to mental activity. So, when you go in for sports, there is a restoration of brain functions due to the supply of oxygen. And with mental stress, the muscular system is restored by improving blood flow in the muscles.
A simple alternation of work and study with a little physical activity will improve the functioning of the body's metabolic processes, and at the same time speed up the restoration of the nervous system, contributing to its strengthening.
Meditate and breathe
Meditation and breathing are sure helpers in overcoming psychological instability. A Johns Hopkins University study found a relationship between meditation practice and reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety.
