The Agoraphobia Personality

People with agoraphobia (and other anxiety disorders) are likely to exhibit the following high-anxious personality traits:

Oversensitvity to emotional stimuli.
It takes less to stimulate the emotions of an agoraphobic. People with agoraphobia are much quicker than the average person to feel sadness, anger, hurt, rejection, or loneliness. They are also more prone to feeling excited, joyful, elated, passionate, or affectionate.

Besides feeling emotions more readily, people with agoraphobia are more likely to feel emotions throughout their entire bodies (which is why they have panic attacks). In addition to being overly sensitive to their own emotions, they are also highly sensitive to the emotional states of others.

High levels of imagination and creativity.
Most agoraphobics have powerful minds that are highly imaginative and creative. This can be a blessing or a curse. Imagination and creativity are both great virtues, but with an anxiety disorder like agoraphobia the ability to create powerful visual images of dreadful possibilities can really work against you.

Most people with agoraphobia can come up with an infinite number of negative possibilities to worry about in a given situation. They can also imagine a catastrophic event (like having a panic attack) in a feared setting so vividly that they can start to hyperventilate because the imaginary experience feels so real.

Rigid thinking.
Agoraphobics tend to perceive most everything in extremes and absolutes. They tend to classify everything (people, circumstances, events, etc.) as right or wrong, black or white, good or bad, fair or unfair.

Agoraphobics also have a strong tendency to think in terms of what "should" or "must" be according to their own pre-conceived, often unrealistic and rigid expectations. Many psychologists and authors refer to this as “should/must thinking.” When people with agoraphobia experience something to be different from how they think it "should" be, they are highly prone to becoming anxious or upset.

High need for approval
Agoraphobics are usually people pleasers. Because they usually have a low sense of self-worth, agoraphobics often rely on the approval of others to feel valuable or significant.

Sensitivity to criticism/ fear of rejection
This excessive need for validation by others makes agoraphobics extra-sensitive to criticism and can lead to an extreme fear of rejection.

Feelings of overresponsibility for others
In most cases, agoraphobics also have trouble saying no and will do anything to avoid conflict or confrontation for fear of losing others’ approval. Their high need for approval combined with high levels of sensitivity often results in undue feelings of responsibility for other people’s problems and feelings.

Perfectionism.
Agoraphobics commonly set unrealistic expectations for themselves and then fear not living up to them. Because they are people pleasers, agoraphobics also worry about meeting the expectations they perceive others have set for them. Since they consider anything less than perfect a failure and they have an extreme fear of failure, their constant striving for perfection causes them a lot of extra worry, stress, and anxiety.

Need for control.
Agoraphobics often have a high need for events to be predictable and to be able to exert large amounts of control over their environment or circumstances. In many cases, they even feel the need to control the feelings and behaviors of others. They live in fear of losing control and after the onset of agoraphobia, feel a lot of anxiety over hiding their condition to appear as if they are in control to others.

Inhibition of feelings.
Agoraphobics usually feel a lot of anxiety over trying to hide or supress negative feelings. This may be because they fear losing the approval of others, fear losing control, or feel like they "shouldn't" be feeling a certain feeling. Whatever the case, holding in feelings over a long period of time causes a well of emotion to fill up inside the person. Then when the person gets under stress, he or she is likely to feel all of the bottled up feelings at once, resulting in panic and anxiety.

Victim mentality
Agoraphobics are more likely than the average person to perceive themselves as victims of circumstances or other people. They feel powerless to make choices or affect the outcomes of their own life. The victim mentality is holding the belief that the forces that govern your life circumstances lie completely beyond our control. This is a way of not taking responsibility for your decisions and behavior. People who hold the “victim mentality” seek to blame others for their behavior or situation in life.

Neglecting physical needs.
Agoraphobics exhibit a tendency to ignore their bodies needs for rest or proper care. This may be because they are constantly striving towards unrealistic expectations. They are usually only aware that they are tired and need to rest only when they become completely exhausted.

Article Source: http://www.agoraphobia.net

Stephen Price is a recovered agoraphobic with a master’s degree in psychology. His informational website on agoraphobia featuring a free newsletter can be found at: www.agoraphobia.ws

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