Tells the Captivating Story of an Individual

¶ … tells the captivating story of an individual plagued with a psychological disorder that has prevented him from leading a normal life. This article compels one to think that it would be difficult to live in the shoes of a person with agoraphobia. I found this article to be of extreme interest since it depicts the life of someone living with a social phobia in a way that really allows one to possibly understand what it would be like to live that way. The author writes about his disorder beautifully, giving us, the readers, a unique perspective on the issue. His fear is evident throughout this writing. It is not difficult to analyze the sadness that he feels when he tells his story.

The disappointment in his writing is evident and apparent as he depicts every step that he is taking in order to avoid feeling plagued by the feelings of inadequacy and fear. His actual fear is felt throughout the entire piece of writing. The intensity of his feelings is portrayed in his style of writing. I could sense the discontent with this way of life. He recognizes that his fears are irrational and that they are of no merit, but his realization does not prevent him from feeling out of touch with reality. The description of his breath sounds, how much it physically hurts him to be out in public although nothing is physically wrong with him, allows the readers, like myself, to be aware of his pain.

Being told that an individual has a particular illness is one thing, however, being able to experience what the other person is feeling makes the illness that much more real and a lot more vivid to experience. Physical ailments are able to be explained more quickly than are psychological afflictions. If someone has diabetes and is going through a bad episode, people can see that something is wrong with the person. We can see the person going through a hypo- or hyper- glycemic state, and the paleness, chills, sweats, and rapid increase in fatigue is an obvious sign that something is clearly wrong with the individual. However, when it comes to a psychiatric disorder, it is such an internal occurrence. It is a battle fought by oneself because it is difficult to be able to speak about feelings that the individual may not even be able to understand on their own. So to be able to write about the feelings of loneliness and anxiety felt with having agoraphobia, is a very brave thing to do. Agoraphobia is a social disorder, one that prevents individuals from functioning correctly, the way that they are supposed to. This illness is very rarely understood because it deals with social situations. However, describing this illness and the feelings associated with it require the individuals affected by this disease to speak to the public about it, putting them in a social situation to being with.