Agoraphpobia Documentary

[aleximaging]

Hi all, I'm a photographer studying my last year of university and am majoring in journalism. I suffer from a slight case of anxiety and have always been interested in psychology and phobias and decided it would be interesting to do a photodocumentary on somebody who has agoraphobia, as I have never heard of such a documentary being done before. I'd be interested to know a lot about the causes, symptoms, limitations and feelings that agoraphobia causes to a sufferer and try to convey this through a series of photographs. Ideally, I would like to meet with somebody who has agoraphobia and interview and photograph them and their surroundings. If you feel comfortable with being interviewed and photographed I would greatly appreciate anyone to send me an email to my hotmail ([email protected]). Thanks in advance, Alex

 

[agoraphobickatie]

hi, i'm agoraphobic ha..
you're welcome to message me or ask any questions and all.. but the 'meeting' part would be difficult, lol... anyway, i'd be happy to help!

 

[aleximaging]

Hi Katie thanks for the quick reply... haha I'm very grateful for any help I get! I guess I want to develop a real understanding of agoraphobia and how it affects everyday life and how someone goes about adapting their lifestyle to fit around it or trying to overcome it. From what I can gather there are varying degrees of agoraphobia... how much do you feel like your life is affected by it, and what sort of things do you do to adapt your lifestyle to it? Thanks again, Alex

 

[agoraphobickatie]

currently, it affects every aspect of my life, lol.. there's not much that i can adapt to it.. my only option is to overcome it or learn to 'cope' with it...

for me, i'm intensely afraid of being alone anywhere outside of my house (safe zone).. for some reason, i'm afraid something will happen to me (get sick, car wreck, faint, random stuff, lol) and i won't have either of my parents or my best friend with me.. it's basically an illogical fear, since that kind of thing could happen to anyone, but most of our fears are illogical, lol.. agoraphobia didn't strike me until may of 2009.. up until then, i lived normally, i didn't worry about being alone, i loved driving my car, going to the mall, hanging with friends, all those things i wish i could do carefree now...

anyway, when this started, i was afraid of going into public even with either of my parents, but through work and lots of 'exposure therapy', i've handled that.. i'm pretty much okay going anywhere with either of my parents or my two best friends.. it's just the "alone" part that i have to work on now so that i can continue life.. get a job, go back to college, etc..

 

[aleximaging]

It's good that you're making progress I think it's fantastic that there are communities like this where people can give each other advice and support! Do you remember if there was an event or some trigger that set it off in the beginning, or was it a completely random unexpected thing?