Agoraphobia is a form of anxiety disorder. Even though agoraphobia is often defined as a fear of open spaces, the anxiety from agoraphobia is not necessarily restricted to the fear of open spaces themselves, but is rather the fear of public spaces or of situations often associated with these spaces. Some of those who suffer from agoraphobia fear social situations where emergency assistance may not be readily available. Other sufferers, however, are perfectly comfortable accepting visitors, but only in a defined space they feel in control of. This may cause a person to not leave his house for years, while gladly accepting visitors and working, as long as the visitors remain outside of the agoraphobic?s safety zone. Feeling trapped, insecure, or being too distant from his comfort zone may trigger sever panic attacks for the agoraphobic. During severe bouts of anxiety, the agoraphobic is confined not only to their home, but to one or two rooms and they may even become bedbound until their over-stimulated nervous system can quiet down, and their adrenaline levels return to a more normal level. High adrenaline levels, triggered by severs bouts of anxiety, cause the agoraphobic to be confined not only to his house, but to only a couple of rooms. He may even be bedridden until his nerves are calmed, and his adrenaline levels normalize.

Agoraphobia can be successfully treated in many cases through a very gradual process of graduated exposure therapy combined with cognitive therapy and sometimes anti-anxiety or antidepressant medications.