Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder
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We have suffered from agoraphobia and panic attacks since 1987. It's not fun to deal with and we wanted to include a page that would provide support to you. When we were first diagnosed with panic disorder, we were having about 4 panic attacks a day. They lasted for roughly one hour at a time (no joke here, even though some therapists will tell you that this isn't possible). At that time, there was no information on the subject. Now, the information is everywhere and we are so grateful for that because we don't have to live in shame anymore. Please refer to the grounding techniques page for help and ask your doctor to recommend medication if you feel you need it. It's better to rely on medication to control the attacks and the agoraphobia than to suffer through them, which is what we did for the longest time because we were afraid of medication and addiction. At one point the agoraphobia interferred in our lives to the extent to where we couldn't drive, work, or leave the house. In fact, we were housebound for 4-5 years and could only leave with the support of our ex-husband and then our ex-boyfriend. Luckily, we found a doctor who put us on Xanax to control it. After about 3 days, we noticed the difference instantly. After being on Xanax for 6 years, they have changed our prescription over to Valium, which for us, is slightly less effective, but still works for the most part.
If we had to define agoraphobia, we wouldn't say that it was the fear of open places like the description reads in a dictionary. To us, it was the fear of EVERYTHING. It was the fear of fear and the fear of existing. There are not adequate words to describe it. We have included many links at the bottom of this page for you to check out as these articles come from people more experienced than us. We do want you to know, however, that you are not alone. We still are recovering agoraphobics. This means that there are still days when it's hard to leave the house or eat in public. These bad days pass, but they do return and we have learned to baby ourselves and give ourselves permission to stay home and stay safe. Give this permission to yourself. Be kind to yourself while you follow this path to healing. It's so easy to be so self-critical when you see how everyone else is performing throughtout life normally and think that you are over-emotional. One day we were fine, the next we suddenly, out of the blue, had agoraphobia and panic attacks. This is very common to most of us who suffer from them. There usually isn't a warning or event that leads up to having this disease. It just happens and acceptence is your first baby step in conquering your fears and starting recovery.
The panic attacks seem to come out of nowhere and we have tried to link them to events or triggers but there just don't seem to be any for us, which does happend to some people. A panic attack will hit you out of the blue giving you that fight or flight response. Being extremists, we do both. We fight the attack by screaming and yelling while pulling our hair and running! It feels like we are about to have a heart attack, we get chills and hot flashes at the same time and become afraid of everything. We can't breathe and our lips become numb while we get increasingly dizzy. We have more symptoms, but this is just basic information on us. You will find much more from the links below.
We were lucky enough to have a very special cat named Cuddles, who was with us when we first developed panic disorder. When my then husband would fall asleep and I was still feeling my heart beating very loudly and was afraid to fall asleep, Cuddles would cuddle up to me and start purring. If I awoke during the night, afraid to death that I would have a heart attack, that cat just knew the moment I opened my eyes and would resume his purring to help us fall asleep once again. If not for that cat, we would not have survived the first few years of agoraphobia with panic disorder. Pets can be wonderful animals during these times and the disabilites act is now recognizing service dogs for people with agoraphobia and/or panic disorder.
LINKS: 
There are many more resources out there for panic attacks and agoraphobia. Use the search engine below and just enter panic attacks or agoraphobia. You will be surprised at the results you come up with. This used to be a hush-hush disease, but is now very much out in the open.
