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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
agoraphobia
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ For example, Rose Greenacre's agoraphobia was a useful container for Bob Greenacre.
▪ I'd began to think I'd got this agoraphobia whatever it is, I never wanted to go out.
▪ It could well be that you have agoraphobia or some kind of depression.
▪ It is estimated that approximately 500,000 adults in Great Britain suffer from agoraphobia to some extent.
▪ It was agoraphobia but felt like claustrophobia.
▪ So half the time I felt like killing him, and I got agoraphobia, because I was so depressed.
▪ When some one can't cope with panic attacks, agoraphobia is often the consequence and treating this condition requires specialist help.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
agoraphobia

"fear of open spaces," 1873, from German Agorophobie, coined 1871 by Berlin psychiatrist Carl Westphal (1833-1890) from Greek agora "open space" (see agora) + -phobia "fear." Related: Agoraphobe; agoraphobic.

Wiktionary
agoraphobia

n. The fear of wide open spaces, crowds, or uncontrolled social conditions.

WordNet
agoraphobia

n. a morbid fear of open spaces (as fear of being caught alone in some public place)

Wikipedia
Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives the environment to be unsafe with no easy way to get away. These situations can include open spaces, public transit, shopping malls, or simply being outside the home. Being in these situations may result in a panic attack. The symptoms occur nearly every time the situation is encountered and lasts for more than six months. Those affected will go to great lengths to avoid these situations. In severe cases people may become unable to leave their homes.

The cause of agoraphobia is a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The condition often runs in families and stressful events such as the death of a parent or being attacked may be a trigger. In the DSM-5 agoraphobia is classified as a phobia along with specific phobias and social phobia. Other conditions that can produce similar symptoms include separation anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and major depressive disorder. Those affected are at higher risk of depression and substance use disorder.

Without treatment it is uncommon for agoraphobia to resolve. Treatment is typically with a type of counselling called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT results in resolution for about half of people. Agoraphobia affects about 1.7% of adults. Women are affected about twice as often as men. The condition often begins in early adulthood and becomes less common in old age. It is rare in children. The term "agoraphobia" is from Greek ἀγορά, meaning a " public square" and -φοβία, -phobia, meaning "fear".

Usage examples of "agoraphobia".

Andrew knew, of course, that she suffered from agoraphobia and that she never went anywhere.

Within a few years we hope to find cures for your light sensitivity, and the agoraphobia that plagues others of our kind.

As I explained to Mr Du Pont at our first game, I suffer from an obscure complaint - agoraphobia -the fear of open spaces.

Jenny knew traumatic personal relationships could wreak havoc with her goal to take her company public and conquer the agoraphobia once and for all.

Jenny had told him she thought sexual distraction might be her ticket out of agoraphobia, but Devon had never suspected it could obliterate some of his problems, too.

But somehow her agoraphobia intensified when she was not only in a new place, but a new place in the dark.

And hard on the heels of that thought, she had to wonder if she could have possibly allowed her agoraphobia to become a convenient excuse to justify her career choices and a lifestyle some would consider eccentric.

Making the trip down ten flights would be the ultimate way to flip off her agoraphobia, a fitting cap to her week of desensitization and self-improvement.

An allergy to flags or eagles would have reduced her to shut-in status: a species of semiotic agoraphobia.

Phelps and Phelps, The Cults of the Unwavering I: A Field Guide to Cults of Currency Speculation, Melanin, Fitness, Bioflavinoids, Spectation, Assassination, Stasis, Property, Agoraphobia, Repute, Celebrity, Acraphobia, Performance, Amway, Fame, Infamy, Deformity, Scopophobia, Syntax, Consumer Technology, Scopophilia, Presleyism, Hunterism, Inner Children, Eros, Xenophobia, Surgical Enhancement, Motivational Rhetoric, Chronic Pain, Solipsism, Survivalism, Preterition, Anti-Abortionism, Kevorkianism, Allergy, Albinism, Sport, Chiliasm, and Telentertainment in pre-O.

Making the trip down ten flights would be the ultimate way to flip off her agoraphobia, a fitting cap to her week of desensitization and self-improvement.

Le Jeu du Prochain Train was itself substantially simpler than 5 in Phelps and Phelps, The Cults of the Unwavering I: A Field Guide to Cults of Currency Speculation, Melanin, Fitness, Bioflavinoids, Spectation, Assassination, Stasis, Property, Agoraphobia, Repute, Celebrity, Acraphobia, Performance, Amway, Fame, Infamy, Deformity, Scopophobia, Syntax, Consumer Technology, Scopophilia, Presleyism, Hunterism, Inner Children, Eros, Xenophobia, Surgical Enhancement, Motivational Rhetoric, Chronic Pain, Solipsism, Survivalism, Preterition, Anti-Abortionism, Kevorkianism, Allergy, Albinism, Sport, Chiliasm, and Telentertainment in pre-O.

Not merely the hard work of building the colony's headquarters and family homes, of enduring the unfamiliar discomforts of a long hard cold winter, but the psychological upheavals of adjusting to something as fundamental as open sky, broad fields -- everyone had experienced some agoraphobia -- organic foods which, no sweat, had had to be killed by men who had never before ended the life of an ant.

Well, even her lifelong best friend might wonder if the agoraphobia, while not itself a form of madness, was a precursor to genuine mental illness.

Instead of the fear of being shut in that people normally experience in caves I was suddenly hit by the other fear, the fear of open spaces, agoraphobia.