Intentional Agoraphobia, Sub-Clinical Panic Disorder and psychologically induced and maintained reflexive political Responses
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Intentional Agoraphobia, Sub-Clinical Panic Disorder and psychologically induced and maintained reflexive political Responses
People with the panic disorder known as Agoraphobia basically suffer from the fear of losing control. This fear can become overwhelming. The roots of the word come from agora-- greek for marketplace and phobia fear-- fear of the marketplace. In practical terms, agoraphobics are usually afraid of a range of situations-- the further from the place where they feel in-control, the worse. Some fear leaving their house, some going into big open spaces, some being in lines that they can't get out of. Some won't drive more than a few blocks. Some only drive by one route. If there's a detour, they turn around and go home. You won't find many agoraphobics in a line at Disneyworld. Many don't like any lines, even in the supermarket. Even ordering a meal at a restaurant, or sitting towards the front of a movie theater can be anxiety producing, since the agoraphobic worries about losing control while in front of other people.
In their minds, agoraphobics magnify the anticipation of a situation in which they panic, when their anxiety reaches a boiling point and they literally go crazy-- heart palpitating, screaming, passing out, having a heart attack, losing bowel or bladder control.
These moments of absolute loss of control rarely, if ever happen. The agoraphobics suffer more from anticipation than the actual experience. Yes, they feel anxiety. Yes their hearts race. But just thinking about going somewhere can set off those feelings and cause the victim to avoid, to stay at home.
I spent a few years, back in the 80's as a co-leader of agoraphobia groups, over that time, working with several hundred agoraphobics. It was gratifying work, especially compared to working with other psychological diagnoses. We helped heal a lot of people so they could lead more normal lives.
When I got an email from a reader recently, his response to the threat of terrorism reminded me of the folks I used to work with.
He wrote, in response to my article suggesting that Bush supporting men use their support of Bush and the war as a form of Viagra:
Who are you kidding? Do you realize in this situation, it is a cliche', "Kill or be Killed." If we don't protect ourselves, we will be under attack untill we are no longer the people of America, but the people of a fallen nation.
You talk as if you want us to look the other way while we are attacked. If Bill Clinton spent any of the money he wasted on trying to chase down Bill gates on defending our country, we woudl not need to protect our selves against an attack that started over a decade ago.
Ignoring the obvious evidence that this reader has digested and assimilated right wing anti-democrat talking points, it's clear that he is in a semi-panic state of mind. A lot of people talk about fear. But it just hit me, when I read his letter to the editor, that this is a LOT like the thinking of a panic disorder person.
People with panic disorder, a slightly broader term that includes agoraphobia, settle for less in life-- a lot less. They don't leave their house, or they avoid shopping malls, supermarkets, lines, movie theaters, long drives-- all because they are afraid of a reaction they don't even want to think about happening-- that they will have this massive panic attack, lose control, go crazy,soil their pants... So they don't do the things they fear. The live these narrow, avoidant, protected lives. I used to chide them that they might as well not walk out the door because an airplane could crash on their front step as they were walking out.
Any time they have a close call, when they feel their hearts pound, their thoughts race, their hands sweaty, their phobia is reinforced.
The treatment is remarkably simple, and effective. There are four primary components:
-group support: talk about the experience, learn and understand how anticipatory anxiety, how anticipation is the primary problem, how you are not alone, how other people learn to face the anxiety and persevere.
-self regulation/ relaxation training: building basic skills in learning to be relaxed, through biofeedback, meditation, yoga, guided imagery, different specific relaxation techniques that give the person more confidence in his or her ability to stay in control
-self talk skills: Cognitive training in how to talk oneself through anticipatory anxiety, rather than talking oneself into building anxiety. George Lakoff calls his approach to re-framing cognitive science.
-systematic desensitization: slowly you take the phobics out of their safety zone, gradually getting them to expose themselves, in small increments to situations they fear. A housebound phobic might walk out the front door ten feet, then turn around and go back inside. Knowing that he is only going ten feet makes it easier to expand his "safe" range. The next time, he may stay out at ten feet for ten minutes, or walk out 20 feet. This systematic stretching of boundaries builds confidence and weakens anticipatory anxiety. Eventually, using these approaches, agoraphobics can build lives that are much more normal.
If I wanted to worsen the lives of agoraphobics, or people who are even at risk of agoraphobia, I'd imitate George Bush. I'd talk about the terrible, dangerous world we live in. I'd intensify the panic by setting up a danger alert system. I'd raise alarms that the danger alert system was in red-alert mode, or orange alert.
Some people would respond to these "stimuli" at a clinical level. Some would respond at a non-clinical level. The non-clinical responders might not stay at home, but they might see the world differently. They might look for ways to frame the world, ways offerred on TV, like from FOX news, that would, at a subclinical level, turn them into fearful, angry people.
Now, a new study, replicating earlier research, has found:
...whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity
. This rigidity and discomfort with ambiguity predisposes people to the kinds of thinking and physiological reactions that panic attack sufferers manifest. It makes sense that these are the same people who would suffer most from fear, from anticipatory anxiety, as a reaction to the trauma of the 9/11 WTC attack, and that their initial, real trauma would be aggravated and intensified by the constant drumbeat of fear-inducing threats, warnings and bluster of Bush, Cheney and their surrogates.
The man who responded to my email is not using his head. He is reacting to paleo-neuronal responses-- reflex reactions that evolved in the brains of dinosaurs that still exist in the subcortical part of the human brain. When the subcortical paleolithic brain is activated, it often overpowers the higher intellectual functions. Thoughts race, the mind clouds, adrenaline, racing heart and sweaty palms overwhelm the rational mind. We run, even if just metaphorically, back to what is home, secure and safe. Or we strike out, with the fight or flight syndrome. My guess is men reflexively respond with the urge to fight. This manifests as a "go get 'em George. Kick some Ayrab ass." response. "Drop some bombs, Nuke em now and worry later" mentality. All the while, they want things to stay the same-- no changes.
This national syndrome-- Bush-induced terrorism panic / fear disorder-- may not be as easy to treat or heal as even severe cases of agoraphobia. With agoraphobia, you can gradually expose the "patient" to reality. Our national media are so pathologically impaired, perpetuating the myth of terrorism danger that Bush and his allies promulgate, that it may not be possible to get the afflicted to actually see what is real. Bush, Cheney and the right wingers in congress do all they can to keep the drums of fear beating, the smoke and mirrors obstructing concrete views of reality. But like sunlight breaking through clouds, even the most aggressive media spin, echo chamber and propaganda campaigns can't hold back the truth.
Gradually, the terrorism war lie, the lies that questioning Bush, questioning the war is unpatriotic and endangering the US are false are becoming more apparent. The polls show it.
The treatment for more refractory cases of agoraphobia is to build skills that give patients confidence that they can handle the things they fear, and to get them to face their fears, very gradually going out, into the world, exposing themselves to that which they fear.
The treatment for the 30 some percent of the population who still believe Saddam was involved in 9/11, that we are at great danger of terrorist attack, is to get them to open their eyes and see that the solution is not to blindly support a war that was a paleolithic brain reaction to anger, fear and a lot of bad information. We have to pound away at shedding more light. We have to make the liars, like Ken Mehlman, who tells his mailing list,
Democrat leaders' talk of censure and impeachment isn't about the law or the President doing anything wrong. It's about the fact that Democrat leaders don't want America to fight the War on Terror with every tool in our arsenal.
Mehlman wants to keep the fear going, keep the idea of a war going. There is no war. There never was a war. But, just as agoraphobics anticipate that they will go totally out of control, the right wing tries to produce the same kind of fear of a horrible situation. This is the sickest form of marketing. Imagine if a pizza delivery company advertised, "It's dangerous out there. Stay home and we'll deliver." That would be reprehensible. The right wing's use of fear to push the buttons of the vulnerable and susceptible brittle brains of the grown-ups who used to whine as kids is equally reprehensible. They won't stop. But we can work to make their strategies less effective.
Authors Bio:
Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.
To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.