# Agoraphobia



## steve30 (21 Oct 2012)

Just wondering if anyone has a cure for agoraphobia?

I had this problem for ages but it has got worse recently and has a tendency to affect the amount of walking and cycling that I do.

Much as I like exercise, I'm one of those people for whom it doesn't improve mood/anxiety. In fact, sometimes it makes it worse.

Got some new anxiety medications from the Doctor the other week so maybe that will help a bit.


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## Darren Jeffrey (21 Oct 2012)

What meds did they give you? I've struggled with anxiety and depression for years and at the start of this year was starting to have agoraphobic tendencies as I was constantly worried about being in a situation where I could potentially have a panic attack and not have an escape route. In my mind the safest place was my house. I'd even get anxious crossing the front door in the morning to go to work. It was horrible. 

I tried everything from counseling, CBT, hypnotherapy but eventually succumbed to medicating for it. That was 6 months ago and I've got to say my life has improved beyond my wildest dreams. 6 months ago I would never have considered cycling the 8 miles to work but I do now. I sleep Bette, more happier and just back to my old self. 

Just give the meds some time (I'm fluoxetine by the way) and I'm sure it will get better

Good luck


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## ColinJ (21 Oct 2012)

I suffered very badly from agoraphobia in my early 20s after dropping out of university. I was unemployed for a long time after that and it was only when my dad finally snapped and told me to get a job or get out that I forced myself out of the house.

I got a job as a factory labourer and did a lot of overtime. It was hard physical graft and I found that the harder I worked, the less anxious I was. I also started running in my lunch breaks and swimming after work so I got really fit.

I am not a doctor, so don't just drop your medication without discussing it with her/him, but ... I think that discovering and sorting out the reasons for your anxiety is the way forward rather than just masking the problem with drugs. I basically self-medicated with alcohol for several years which definitely relaxed me, but to the extent that I wasn't interested in doing anything else. Not the answer ...

I am surprised that cycling isn't helping you. It might be that you are not riding in the right places? I certainly wouldn't recommend riding on busy roads to anybody suffering from an anxiety problem like agoraphobia.

I still do not like crowds and can get anxious in certain situations, but I am a lot better now than I was 30 years ago. These problems can be sorted out - you just need help to find what works for you. Good luck, Steve!


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## steve30 (21 Oct 2012)

> What meds did they give you? I've struggled with anxiety and depression for years and at the start of this year was starting to have agoraphobic tendencies as I was constantly worried about being in a situation where I could potentially have a panic attack and not have an escape route. In my mind the safest place was my house. I'd even get anxious crossing the front door in the morning to go to work. It was horrible.


 
I had Escitalopram for about 18 months and recently changed to Sertraline. I found the escitalopram helped a lot with mood, and helped the anxiety a bit, but it got a lot worse over the last few months.




> I am not a doctor, so don't just drop your medication without discussing it with her/him, but ... I think that discovering and sorting out the reasons for your anxiety is the way forward rather than just masking the problem with drugs. I basically self-medicated with alcohol for several years which definitely relaxed me, but to the extent that I wasn't interested in doing anything else. Not the answer ...


 
Hehe. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a cause of the anxiety. I think I am just very prone to it for some reason. I always have been the anxious and easily upset type. 

My chemist jokingly recommended alcohol as a cure . I suppose a little may help, but I stay away from it as a general rule.



> I am surprised that cycling isn't helping you. It might be that you are not riding in the right places? I certainly wouldn't recommend riding on busy roads to anybody suffering from an anxiety problem like agoraphobia.


 
I've never really found exercise to help with anxiety unfortunately. Sometimes I feel better, sometimes I feel worse. Seems to be pot luck really. I do tend to prefer quiet roads and use them more often than the busy ones.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (21 Oct 2012)

Cbt or more precisely ccbt......computerised cognitive behaviour therapy. Your gp will give you "voucher" which is essentially password for online access. It' a well proven and evidence based therapy approach. Also there is the flood approach and graded exposure, if You google those terms you'll get plenty of websites that'll explain them.

This website is very useful but more aimed at us pro's


http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/


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## Darren Jeffrey (21 Oct 2012)

bromptonfb said:


> Cbt or more precisely ccbt......computerised cognitive behaviour therapy. Your gp will give you "voucher" which is essentially password for online access. It' a well proven and evidence based therapy approach. Also there is the flood approach and graded exposure, if You google those terms you'll get plenty of websites that'll explain them.
> 
> This website is very useful but more aimed at us pro's
> 
> ...



I'd heard good things about CBT but found in my experience that I couldn't follow through with all the exercises etc as I was in such a negative place. The meds have given me a clearer mind which in turn helps me to focus on things like CBT


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## steve30 (22 Oct 2012)

CBT never really appealed to me. Same with other self help stuff.

I find so called self help either suggests doing things that I do anyway, or suggests things that I know will either not help or will make it worse.


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## gary in derby (22 Oct 2012)

CBT made things worse. had to up my dose.


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## The Jogger (26 Oct 2012)

I use to get bad panic attacks for years at 23 after the loss of a parent. I medicated with alcohol but this magnified the attacks so I gave that up, eventually. I still had the attacks but a bit more manageable the along came my daughter and I focussed my fears on her, worrying about cot death and all that stuff which was having a high media profile at the time. My self centered fears seemed to leave me along with the panic attacks.


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## Mad Doug Biker (29 Oct 2012)

I'm not a sufferer, but because I am not doing anything much at the moment, I never have to leave the house much, so I can go for days on end, weeks even without ever going through the front door.
When I do, wow, what a novelty!! (And invariably something has changed).

It is a strange existence and I wouldn't recommend you do it for too long, getting out and about is still the best cure 'fraid.


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## Oldspice (29 Oct 2012)

Start by going for a walk at night when the streets are empty.


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## Accy cyclist (1 Nov 2012)

Oldspice said:


> Start by going for a walk at night when the streets are empty.


Or going for a ride on the bike. I find the roads and streets in my town are almost deserted after about 9 o clock. To me that means a peaceful ride which is hard to find these days.


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## Andrew_P (1 Nov 2012)

You need to keep exposing yourself in a small doses and then when comfortable with that level move it out again. You have not mentioned what the fear is (if you know it) or if it is genralized anxiety?

Medication will take a while to kick in. Relaxaion is the difficult thing to learn as you sound like you may well be anxious and it keeps going round.

CBT is helpful, as is learning basic relaxation techniques.

With all the NHS mental health support and or private you have to have an open mind, I was blown away when I first went to one, just the relaxation technique was a revelation that first 15-30 minutes of feeling normal again gave me the hope to come out of it, so do not write anything off because "you know" it wont work. Although I had to get pretty desparate to have given it a try to be fair.


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## Lee_M (1 Nov 2012)

> I am not a doctor, so don't just drop your medication without discussing it with her/him, but ... I think that discovering and sorting out the reasons for your anxiety is the way forward rather than just masking the problem with drugs. I basically self-medicated with alcohol for several years which definitely relaxed me, but to the extent that I wasn't interested in doing anything else. Not the answer ...​Hehe. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a cause of the anxiety. I think I am just very prone to it for some reason. I always have been the anxious and easily upset type.
> 
> My chemist jokingly recommended alcohol as a cure . I suppose a little may help, but I stay away from it as a general rule.


 
ive never found any sort of theray to help my in my anxiety/depression, and even my GP thinks its just something I'm prone to.

However I have found relaxation meditation helps massively.

I have used a website called http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/. Its free to try, and I never found the need to pay for anything further - you can also use it on an iphone - give it a try - its nothing clever or psycho it just helps you relax and forget about your troubles

good luck


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## steve30 (1 Nov 2012)

Accy cyclist said:


> Or going for a ride on the bike. I find the roads and streets in my town are almost deserted after about 9 o clock. To me that means a peaceful ride which is hard to find these days.


 
I'd say they are still fairly busy here around that time. Best time to go out I find is about 1am .


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## Accy cyclist (8 Nov 2012)

steve30 said:


> I'd say they are still fairly busy here around that time. Best time to go out I find is about 1am .


 
The latest i've been out is from about 10.30 to 12.30am. I'll see about 95% fewer cars in that time than i would if it was pm! Cars are easier to see, hear and anticipate when it's dark and quiet and even the taxis that pass seem to give you more passing space than in the daytime,they even indicate when passing or at roundabouts etc!!


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## the_mikey (8 Nov 2012)

When I get the chance a short ride often helps, it doesn't have to be far, I often get quick 7km ride in on some evenings down a local cycle path, and it's enough to change my perspective a bit. I suffer with OCD and social phobia! So even when I avoid doing something, I'm still plagued with horrible thoughts.


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## steve30 (8 Nov 2012)

Pleased to say I went to college and back again on the bike today. First time I've been out any reasonable distance as I had a few weeks away from the bike due to having surgery as well as other things. It took ages and I'm absolutely knackered. I feel good for moving around though. Being confined to one space really sucks.


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## BigonaBianchi (9 Nov 2012)

I wont go into th ereasons why on here but I had serious anxiety attacks...and i mean serious. I understand what it feels like to be paralyzed by fear, to have that fear stop you doing anything...literally anything. The docs will happily get you addicted to diazepan just to get rid of you, DONT TAKE it, it is a horrible drug to get off of when you are up on high doses.

Beating the fear requires undertanding what it is and what it isnt. It is a chemical reaction to a thought, often triggered by a past event. It isnt necessarily a reaction to a real a nd immediate danger.

I found myself shaking in fear on rides, especially as I got further away from my 'safe place'. It restricted all aspects of my life until I decided I was no longer going to tolerate it anymore.

I decided to distract my mind 100% of the time, get involved in activities that made my mind think outside of it's usual parameters. For example I would stop riding regular loops I knew well and go get deliberatly lost and make myself find a way back. That took incredible willpower to fight against the fear, but when I had to concentrate on getting back while my mind was occupied the fear was gone..totally gone. It returned when my mind became idle again.

The only thing that changed in that time was what I was thinking about. The external factors (traffic, weather etc ) remained tha same. This told me I was allowing my thoughts to convince me there was areal danger out there when there wasnt. The fear wasnt real.
I learned that the brain has an amigdala (sp?) that controls the fear response. Trouble is God messed up when he designed it in so much that it cannot re set itself to a normal fear level after it has been set at a higher fear level. So for example after a real shock, the event that caused that shock is long gone, but the amigdala doesnt reset itself so the fear level is maintained artificially high. Hence we sense fear when no real danger exisits.

So How to re set this amigdala?

Ans:
BEHAVE like a fear free person. Face the things you percieve to cause you fear and do so in a calm way.
Conciously force yourself to stop shaking, to breath normally instead of fast etc. Once I changed my physical behaviour from that of a panic stricken animal to that of a calm rational man and kept my mind diverted 100% ofthe time, the fear subsided and went away.

The amigdala only responds to behaviour, not thoughts. You cannot just tell yourself to be calm, you have to behave and act in a calm way...act out the role of a calm person if you like.

One other thing, anti depressant meds. Some of these can have the side effect of increased anxiety, citalopram being one of them. I think GPs often do not differentiate between anxiety and depression and treating one can affect the other adversly.

Even now however the fear returns occassionally. Often on the bike when I am day dreaming and my mind allows the traumas back in. I have my own way of forcing it back out.

I visualize fear as a big playground bully, you know th eone that preys on weakness? In my mind he is a big devil looking creature. When he arrives, I front up to him and tell him to 'f*** off in a very strong way. Then I immediatly distract my mind and think other things. Telling myself that the only thing that changed was my thoughts. There is no more danger around me than there was yesterday or the week before, so the fear isnt a reasonable reaction to my situation, which is in fact ..safe.

Another thing that helps me is not constantly talking about fear/anxiety with people (this thread being an exception right now). That is why I feel counselling isnt a helpful thing for extreme anxiety/panic attacks. It jus tkeeps your mind revisiting whatever it is that fgreaked you out so bad in the first place.

I now have a zero tolerance appoach to unreasonable fear. Dont get me wrong, a reasonable level of fear is acceptable...it is designed to keep us safe...but recurring panic attacks are not reasonable...or proportionate.

JMHO.


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## WilliamsMcLaren (10 Nov 2012)

LOCO said:


> You need to keep exposing yourself in a small doses and then when comfortable with that level move it out again. You have not mentioned what the fear is (if you know it) or if it is genralized anxiety?
> 
> Medication will take a while to kick in. Relaxaion is the difficult thing to learn as you sound like you may well be anxious and it keeps going round.
> 
> ...


 
I've got pretty desperate with anxiety too and I'll be having my first CBT session in a few weeks. I've found that cycling does help with anxiety, if I've been for a ride then my anxiety will disappear for 24 hours or so. I won't go into too much detail about my anxiety issue but it's related to eating (or not being able to) so I can't cycle as often as I'd like or I'd lose too much weight.


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## Andrew_P (10 Nov 2012)

WilliamsMcLaren said:


> I've got pretty desperate with anxiety too and I'll be having my first CBT session in a few weeks. I've found that cycling does help with anxiety, if I've been for a ride then my anxiety will disappear for 24 hours or so. I won't go into too much detail about my anxiety issue but it's related to eating (or not being able to) so I can't cycle as often as I'd like or I'd lose too much weight.


Honestly, look around on Audible or Amazon MP3 downloads for relaxaion or hypnothearpy MP3's It you might be that you need to try more than one but if you find one that works it will really help.

Why not make the rides short sweet and often? Calories are around 30-40 per mile so three miles morning and late afternoon?

Anyway try everything, different strokes for different folks, it is really tough as there is no magic arrow, and no outward signs of an illness.

It it helps at all I was in a real state, and came out the other end pretty normal and a better person than I went in. (well thats what I think lol)


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## BigonaBianchi (10 Nov 2012)

Distract distract distract.


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