“Fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment.
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder that often develops after one or more panic attacks.
Symptoms include fear and avoidance of places and situations that might cause feelings of panic, entrapment, helplessness, or embarrassment.
Treatments include talk therapy and medication.”
turns out, the poison (talking) is the cure (talking).
Agree with your point. Old man will now yell at cloud:
Whoever came up with the modern definition of "agoraphobia" has failed to define the term. "Fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment." Is there any other kind of fear? The word is so broadly inclusive as to have little meaning.
ἀγορά (agora) – assembly, especially an assembly of the people; the place of assembly; speech; market, marketplace [1]
Agoraphobia seems straightforwardly to mean "fear of public spaces and interactions." A person might say that etymology is not definition, but if you look at the most common examples of agoraphobia, this is exactly what's being described. [3]
We need to stop being so "inclusive" in our definitions! The purpose of a definition is to make something finite, i.e., to circumscribe its boundaries in order to enable clear thinking about that specific term. Broad definitions harm critical thinking.
Thank you for this. I feel like a lot of the arguments I get into are because someone is taking a measurement that’s more precise then the tool their using allows for. Their too busy trying to win the argument to see I’m trying to work with them to build a tool precise enough to take measurement we both want.
More true than you might think: rat poison (coumadin) saves lives as an anticoagulant. Conversely, Tylenol can kill you. Very few non-smoking alcoholics have serious atherosclerosis on autopsy, but lots of people die of alcoholism. Life finds a way. Or sometimes not.
“Fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment. Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder that often develops after one or more panic attacks.
Symptoms include fear and avoidance of places and situations that might cause feelings of panic, entrapment, helplessness, or embarrassment.
Treatments include talk therapy and medication.”
turns out, the poison (talking) is the cure (talking).