Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy this response about hyperphoria.
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in response to jaanderson2112:
(Serious discussion) Despite having the disorder for 11 years, what I am discovering about agoraphobia is that people who have it want others to understand and sympathize with their condition. I understand it, but I don’t sympathize. I empathize. I know exactly what kind of fear an agoraphobic has about going outside or being around […]
It’s been suspected for many years that agoraphobia has a physical basis of one sort or another, and it’s interesting that research has uncovered the fact that many sufferers have a weak vestibular function which means they rely more on visual clues that other people. This can lead to them feeling disorientated when in crowded places where visual clues are too many, or in open spaces where visual clues are too few. All agoraphobic people know the feeling of dizziness and loss of balance that can occur in these places, so it’s hardly surprising they avoid them. I read more than 20 years ago how research had shown a link between agoraphobia and clumsiness, motion sickness and bad balance, and how special exercises were being developed to help address the problems. I didn’t follow up the research so don’t know whether success was achieved or not.
The vision theory that Yolanda talks about is very interesting, and seems perhaps to tie in with the other physical theories of this so-called phobia. It follows that if your eyes don’t work properly, if you have to struggle to see properly, that your balance will inevitably suffer, that you’ll feel dizzy and disorientated, especially in crowded places where people are moving all around you. In fact, the theory that I read about all those years ago mentioned how people with agoraphobia seem to be extra aware of movement that’s happening around them, their eyes seem to work in a different way from those of other people, and the result is dizziness. Again, this ties in very neatly with the weak vestibular function theory which makes mention of the agoraphobic person’s reliance on visual clues and how overwhelming this can be in crowded places.
One thing is certain – the vast majority of people with agoraphobia aren’t causing their own illness, they have a weakness somewhere in their physical makeup that makes being surrounded by movement very difficult for them. Their physical problem(s) cause the dizziness and subsequent feelings of disorientation and fear, and it’s easy to understand their reluctance to put themselves back into a situation where they know these feelings will occur again. A few people may not have a physical problem, or perhaps have a minor one that they can compensate for in other ways, but this won’t work for most sufferers which is most likely why agoraphobia is so difficult to cure. I’m pleased that research into the physical cause(a) of agoraphobia is going ahead, though obviously not at a fast enough speed for those who suffer from the illness. It’s good to know that finally this horrible condition is being taken seriously, rather than being dismissed as ‘all in the head’
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