Does your family understand agoraphobia ?

[Gatsby]

Sadly agoraphobia is one of those things you can't explain (like the flavour of dr.pepper). Agree with comment on the little rules. My family can't grasp how i became the way i am, i was never at home, then all of a sudden i never leave. It confuses me, so how can i expect anyone who isn't going through it to truly understand.

[PJriverside]

I totally understand. When I was still married to my ex husband, all I used to get was, don't be stupid, just go out!! (Yeah 'cause the solution is so simple I should have done it years ago!)
Luckily my current partner of eight years is really supportive. He doesn't really understand as he's never suffered but he supports me 100% and we have, over the years taken little steps to push the boundries. I now feel confident with him to expose myself to situations that terrify me. He says he would love to take me to the seaside one day and I really hope that will happen. At the moment I am sort of struggling with roughly an 8 mile distance from my home which is brilliant for me, seeing as many years ago I could't get the the local shop which is just two streets away.
There is certainly not nearly enough awareness.
Sending you (((hugs))) Mistymoo. x x

[G.Samsa]

I'm not housebound, but I find travelling and using public transport very difficult. It's something I've hidden from everyone, unless I've been really forced to confide it to someone (my brother just walked in and I had to change the tab on my browser!). I've hidden it I suppose because I'm really frightened of the kind of responses that a lot of the people here have experienced, and I'm frightened that I'm not going to be properly understood. So it was actually really heartening to read that people can be told those things and be misunderstood and still carry on.

It's true that no one can understand how it is. A friend of mine has been hospitalised recently for severe depression and although I have my own experiences of mental illness I really struggled to fully relate to him. I've found myself thinking "He can go anywhere he likes, he's even travelled abroad alone, so how can he be so unhappy?".

I suppose the point is that it's important to accept that your family and friends cannot truly understand how things are for you, but that doesn't mean that they can't help support you.

PJriverside: your partner sounds fantastic, I think it would really help if I had someone who I trusted enough to take trips with.