While I am not versed in the terminology, it is basically when you perceive your environment as unreasonably unsafe. This is more than just a gut feeling in a bad neighborhood, but instead crippling fear. In my case, almost everyone is a threat. This puts me on guard constantly waiting for that first attack that never comes. As with any phobia, it is an unreasonable fear, and I try to remind myself of such, but it does not really work out.
In addition, my mind convinces myself that someone is trying to break into my residence. This will be apparent, and I have even been on guard when opening my door with thoughts that someone was in the apartment waiting for me. And yes, I have checked every room of my apartment in the past.
Some people might say I just have an extreme case of social anxiety. I hope this page can display how significant, and serious agoraphobia is, and it is not just social anxiety. If I had to wish one of the two on someone, it would definitely be social anxiety. I wouldn’t want anyone to have to face the fear of agoraphobia.
30 minutes before leaving, I will take a sedative. The sedative will kick in about 30 minutes which is why for the wait. If things gets really bad, I can take another pill that is ½ the strength of the initial pill. This will give me a maximum of 75mg of the sedative to help make things a little tolerable. And there have been times I had to take both pills. I also have music playing in my ears, and noise cancellation turned on. Hearing all of the commotion of the outside world is literally too much for me to handle for any extended period of time. To also help, I always look straight in relation to my body.
As one might guess, this is a mentally exhausting experience, and there have been a number of times that even going out for a short period of time has forced me in bed when I got home. There is more to say as for agoraphobia in my case, but I am not comfortable with going into those details.