These anxiety attacks can range from mild discomfort to debilitating agoraphobia and this is a condition that can strike anyone. Your life is going along in its normal day to day fashion when suddenly without any warning terror has you in its grip. You feel weak and helpless. Your hearts pounding and you have trouble breathing. You may even wonder if you're having a heart attack or if youre about to die. When you finally go to see a doctor, you might even be told theres nothing physically wrong with you.



At first you are stunned by the attack asking yourself what just happened to me. You are frightened by the experience but now you realize that the fear feeling is still there. About this time you may begin to conclude that you had an anxiety or panic attack. You find yourself feeling very uncomfortable in certain social situations or physical surroundings. The worst part is that you cannot control these feelings.

You say to yourself what in the world is going on with me. What you have is the beginnings of a serious mental disorder called agoraphobia. As it develops you will find that you find more and more situations that you feel uncomfortable in and begin to avoid them. Agoraphobia has been around for a long time and its very name is rooted back to ancient history. It literally means fear of the crowded public market place.

Agoraphobia is a condition that develops gradually. In general it occurs after a panic attack. After the first attack you may subconsciously be preparing for another attack and fearing the symptoms that will leave you feeling helpless. This cycle of panic attack and impending panic attack can cause you to change your entire lifestyle just to avoid those feelings of terror. As panic attacks can occur anywhere at anytime, we generally associate the first place that we felt helpless as perhaps the reason for our anxiety attack. A routine of fear and subsequent panic attack dominates your life. People, who have suffered from PTSD associated with a traumatic event, relate this event to everyday life situations. Most of the time agoraphobia starts slow and then grows as you wait for the next attack to commence.

Anyone suffering from this condition will find that their world is closing in on them. In extreme cases the individual will confine themselves to their house or even to a single room within a home. Just discussing a trip to a public place with people will trigger a racing heart. Frequently the person begins to sweat and experience chest pains similar to a heart attack. It is not uncommon for a person suffering from agoraphobia and panic attacks to stop taking care of their physical needs. They cannot go to a public place to buy clothes or get a haircut and sometimes cannot seek medical attention because of the fear of a crowded doctors office.

It is critical for the patient to see a medical specialist that treats this disorder prior to it becoming serious. Failure to do so may prevent the individual from getting needed assistance outside of a medical inpatient facility. This is very serious and debilitating disease that affects many people. Seeking treatment early allows for more treatment options. New effective medications are available that will assist in recovery. Anxiety attacks are a serious mental condition that we all need to be aware of.