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Comment by abarkasxa | Hacker News Reader

have agoraphobia pretty bad. I've spent so much time trying to work on exposure, but then I'll have a huge panic attack, I don't have access to my frontal cortex to reason through it, during this time I'm feeling the immensity of the universe, I feel electricity running through my body, at the end of it all when I get somewhere "safe" I'm not able to think straight or sleep well for months. So yeah the impulse to avoid those feelings is pretty strong. I'll push myself once again in the future but the risk reward ratio is pretty bad. Thanks brain wiring!

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Extreme agoraphobia probably requires more than just simple exposure to improve. I'd recommend working with a therapist. But one thing I am curious about: during exposure, you don't have access to your frontal cortex, that makes sense. But after exposure, do you spend any time reflecting, and reminding yourself that nothing bad actually happened to you? It might be that exercising your frontal cortex afterward could help you learn to cope with the situation in the future. At least, that's what I've done with social anxiety and it seems to help.

find someone who prescribe propranolol, it makes exposure therapy a lot easier and the result are more durable.

here's some reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4820039/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4818733/ ...

Not a psychologist, but you might need to build exposure more slowly, and maybe check for other issues (such as generalized anxiety disorder, avoidant personality disorder, hypochondria) because a panic attack should not take months to recover from.

The Claire Weekes stuff is pretty old but very very good, worth looking up

> Agoraphobia involves fearing and avoiding places or situations that might cause panic and feelings of being trapped, helpless or embarrassed. You may fear an actual or upcoming situation. For example, you may fear using public transportation, being in open or enclosed spaces, standing in line, or being in a crowd.

Wait, do I have agoraphobia now?

I thought we were still supposed to be avoiding indoor spaces and crowds on account of the highly infectious disease propagating the globe.

We're supposed to be comfortable sharing air with others again?

I wouldn't say avoiding others during a pandemic is agoraphobia, it's a rational response. But after a society has largely resumed dense public activities, it's only possibly a phobia if you've formed a personal preference to partake based on your own risk/reward tolerance yet find yourself anxious to do so.

> We're supposed to be comfortable sharing air with others again?

No, I think we need to go all the way and ban cars from inner city areas and replace them with zorbs.

https://www.zorbs.us/

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