This autumn, two books and a new film shine a spotlight on agoraphobia, while the charity Mind confirms it’s one of the most underdiagnosed problems facing young women today. Grazia investigates the alarming rise of the anxiety disorder that’s stopping us from leaving the house...
We’re all too familiar with FOMO (fear of missing out). Often fuelled by social media envy, we judge our lives against a slew of filtered Facebook and Instagram feeds. But could digital technology also now be causing FOGO (fear of going out)? New statistics reveal that growing numbers of young women with anxiety are struggling to leave the security blanket of home.
Mental health charity Mind says agoraphobia is on the rise, and one of the most underdiagnosed problems affecting Millennials today. It’s not helped by the fact technology is making it increasingly easy for us to conduct our lives behind closed doors – whether it’s ordering clothes from Net-A-Porter or ASOS to remove changing-room stress, ditching our supermarket trawl for a delivery, or streaming something from Netflix instead of popping to the cinema.
‘I’ve suffered from anxiety at different times in my life and had periods of low confidence, and this has inhibited my ability to go out into the world,’ says psychotherapist Rachel Elliott, who explores anxiety disorders in her debut novel,* Whispers Through A Megaphone*. It’s a subject that clearly resonates right now – the book Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon and film Big Sky, starring Bella Thorne, also deal with agoraphobia.
And, last week, a groundbreaking new survey revealed nearly half (46%) of 17-to 21-year-old women have personally experienced mental health issues, while the charity YouthNet claims a third of young women suffer from panic attacks.
Elliott explains, ‘People are becoming increasingly isolated, in a physical sense, because a lot of socialising takes place online, so perhaps we are becoming more predisposed to agoraphobia when anxiety takes hold of us. Social media can give us the impression that other people know how to navigate the world more smoothly – and this creates a sense of inferiority, which feeds their anxiety.’
Many of us experience anxious feelings to varying degrees, and symptoms can include difficulty concentrating, tiredness, muscular aches, insomnia and, at an extreme, full-blown panic attacks. ‘But if those feelings are intense or very frequent, they can be really distressing and have a big impact on our lives,’ explains Rachel Boyd from Mind. ‘Agoraphobia is a specific way of experiencing those feelings, where the anxiety and worry is really focused on an environment feeling unsafe.’ It’s a spectrum disorder, and can vary from feeling panicked in social environments to – in extreme cases – confining oneself in the ‘safe parameters’ of a home for months at a time, unable to leave.
‘I’m convinced that strangers are staring at me and judging me. I have an inner voice telling me I’m too ugly, too crazy, too useless’
Nia* is 27, a web developer, pretty and popular – and hasn’t left her house in eight months. ‘Every day, I tell myself tomorrow will be different,’ she says. ‘But every day, my anxiety wins.’ For Nia, it was a visit to a shopping centre that triggered her first panic attack. ‘I was on my way to the cinema with my boyfriend Jason, and I suddenly felt horror at being surrounded by so many people. I couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying, but a girl’s laugh across the room made me flinch. I began to hyperventilate, and then shake my head, before screaming at everyone to go away. I knew I was behaving like a crazy person, but I had no control. It was humiliating,’ she says. Nia collapsed and Jason called an ambulance. At the hospital, she was told it was a panic attack. Through counselling, Nia has come to recognise that her agoraphobia stemmed from a crippling self-consciousness. ‘I’m convinced that strangers are staring at me and judging me,’ she says. ‘I have an inner voice telling me I’m too ugly, too crazy, too useless to inflict on the outside world.’
Agoraphobia is difficult to diagnose and treat because the condition makes it difficult to visit a GP’s surgery, and it’s increasingly easy to conceal from family and friends. ‘Digital access makes it easier to mask,’ explains Boyd. ‘People can use online shopping to avoid stressful situations, like going to a supermarket, and keep up with friends on social media. Some people have a specific fear of having to talk to people unexpectedly, and that’s easier to manage if you’re communicating only in writing.’
But while technology might be making us more prone to agoraphobia, it might also hold the key to our recovery. ‘People use online peer support communities (Mind has a community called Elefriends) to build social connections and find coping techniques,’ says Boyd. ‘It might even be that making online relationships can help you to face anxieties. It’s not true that the ease of access to things online is only negative.’
Earlier this year, Zoe Sugg, aka vlogger Zoella, opened up about experiencing panic attacks. ‘My initial symptoms would happen whenever I was in a situation where I felt I couldn’t leave,’ says the 25-year-old. ‘My heart would race; I’d feel sick; my breath was short and quick; I felt like the room was closing in on me. When it’s really bad I can’t leave my bed.’
‘One of the biggest misconceptions about agoraphobia is that it’s a fear of wide open spaces,’ says Boyd. ‘But the linguistic roots literally mean a fear of markets or gathering places – this reflects that it’s often a fear of busy, new and overwhelming environments rather than being about outside, open space. Many sufferers have found ways to navigate day-to-day life in a safe or manageable way – so they’re able to attend school or work, but find it very distressing and difficult to do so.’
Jo*describes herself as a ‘functioning agoraphobic’: she gets herself to and from her job in advertising. ‘But every day is a struggle – I regularly have panic attacks on the Tube and always arrive in a state of high anxiety.’ Jo aims to get to work 45 minutes early, so she can calm herself down before she meets other people, and she always has an excuse prepared to avoid social situations. ‘The scary thing is how quickly I’ve gone from just being “a bit shy” to letting this rule my life,’ she says.
‘Agoraphobia has a self-perpetuating power to it,’ says Elliott. ‘The longer someone withdraws, the more confidence they lose. Self-consciousness increases, and people can fear making a mistake and feeling ashamed. Physiologically, it’s a potent mix: anxiety combined with the effects of isolation and that cabin-feverish sensation of under-stimulation – it makes us shut down and sends us to the back of ourselves.’
However, Boyd says agoraphobia is not a lifelong sentence. ‘Any anxiety disorder can be tackled and overcome, and there are numerous ways, from CBT to breathing exercises, to reduce it. It’s just about getting the right support.’
Visit mind.org.uk for more information
Words by Anna Hart