The much anticipated caving disasters episode.

  • Eris235 [undecided]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Kind of, though agoraphobia usually implies more fear of crowds or social spaces. Which, like, I don't like crowds, but I feel like the normal amount. High ceilinged large rooms literally give me vertigo and deep uncomfort though. I've seen it listed as Altocelarophobia, though I don't know ' how 'real' that is. Also, I don't know if its quite a full 'phobia' for me, as I can certainly bear it, though I absolutely choose to avoid it if possible.

    But like, with caving and stuff, I quite like the feeling of being in small confined spaces. There's a cave nearish to me that's private, but allows small groups in sometimes, that has a slide whose entrance is 20 inches wide and 10 inches tall. You have to take your helmet off, and have arms fully forward, pushing the helmet in from of you for light, to get through the pass. And I find it super fun and enjoyable, was surprised when the rest of the group found it extremely nerve wracking. But it seems like that's generally a normal response.

    • KollontaiWasRight [she/her,they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Kind of, though agoraphobia usually implies more fear of crowds or social spaces

      While the literal meaning of agoraphobia is "fear of public spaces" (with reference to the Ancient Greek 'agora'), that's a misunderstanding of its actual nature. NephewAlphaBravo is correct that agoraphobia is related to a fear of things that you associate with panic/anxiety attacks. At its worst, it can become a crippling fear of leaving safe spaces, resulting in the refusal to 'go outdoors' - insofar as there is an implicit relationship with going outdoors and experiencing panic. Most people with agoraphobia are not total shut-ins (or at least we weren't until reality started enabling our worst tendencies in 2020), but they will tend to avoid specific potential scenarios they associate with panic.

      When I was initially diagnosed, I had no problem walking to and from work (with big-ol fuck off headphones on so that no one could interact with me), going to public places with a friend I could depend on to serve as a screen between me and the world, or performing on stage. I just had a crippling fear of being trapped alone in a crowd or being stuck on an airplane or being forced to interact with someone I found scary (generally for bad reasons) in a situation where it would be rude to not interact. Eventually, the workplace itself became a challenge for me because I came to associate it with social anxiety and mistreatment, but that came far after I'd already been diagnosed as fairly severely agoraphobic.

    • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Agoraphobia is actually an anxiety/panic disorder, you associate attacks with the places they happened and it slowly narrows down the number of places you feel safe. Naturally crowded or unsheltered spaces get written off first because of the heightened sense of exposure/vulnerability there.