Complete Idiot's Guide to Conquering Fear and Anxiety

Page 214. A secretary trembles as she types and makes the same mistakes three times because she fears her co­workers are secretly staring at her.5. A middle­aged divorcé, fearful of being alone, stays out all night partying to avoid going home to her empty apartment.6. A young mother doesn't allow her four­year­old to play in another child's house because she worries that he might get hit by his playmate, or fall down the stairs atthe other child's house.7. A man with advanced symptoms of pneumonia delays going to the hospital and almost dies because of his lifelong fear of doctors.If you recognize yourself or anyone you might know in any of these examples, don't be surprised. One in nine adults in this country suffer from phobias, to the point ofseeking psychiatric help. Often these fears begin in early childhood and we rarely outgrow them. Or we develop a fear after a single experience, like a dentist hitting araw nerve, or a trauma, like getting knocked about by an Atlantic coastal hurricane, a Texas twister, or a West coast earthquake. But occasionally they pop up out ofnowhere: one day you get on an airplane for an otherwise routine trip and wham!­you have a panic attack.Don't you love it when people tell you that your fears are unreasonable: "Just keep a stiff upper lip." You'd like to give them a fat lip. You know your fears areridiculous, but just knowing that doesn't stop the immediate and compelling "run for your life" gut response you get when they come upon you. This is especially so inagoraphobia, when phobias multiply to the point where you fear so many things and situations that you become housebound, and where your fear broadens to "fear offear.''Locked Up in Fear: AgoraphobiaImagine standing in line at the bank, riding up an elevator, or driving over a bridge and suddenly experiencing mortal terror, as if the sky were about to fall and collapseon you. Soon, your panic spreads so that any situation in which you feel escape is difficult or where there's no one there to protect you elicits terror.Fearing the shaking, the thumping heart, the knot in the gut, and the dread that overcomes you, you live in chronic anxiety, waiting for the next attack. The only timeyou seem to feel safe is when accompanied by someone close to you, who can guard you, or when near to or inside your home. The more the terror escalates inpublic places and the more helpless you feel to control it, the more you cope by locking yourself inside the safe four walls of home. Such is the fate of theagoraphobic.