More tha one phobia..?

[ladybird64]

Hi.

I'm just having a look around the forum and getting a feel for it, there are just so many of us going through the same thing.

I have read the above post on Batophobia and it sounds all too familiar..I have had this problem for ages!
I hate shopping centres with high ceilings, churches, theatres etc, if they have a glass ceiling it's even worse. One local hospital has just had renovation work done and when I walked into the entranceway I just froze..glass ceiling, wall panels, you name it!
Anyway, the point of all this waffle is that I just connected these feelings with my agoraphobia. Is it actually possible to suffer from more than one phobia at a time?
I'm not looking for new things to strike me down but it would be a help to know if this is a separate issue from agoraphobia. I'm inclined to think that it IS connected with the agoraphobia as I not only hate looking up at high places, I also hate looking down..amongst other stuff.

any information/advice gratefully received.

[Bill]

It's all to do with our insecurity and our need to feel safe and secure. Whether we're in a building with a high ceiling or on a mountain top looking down, it affects our feeling of insecurity. We like to feel "safe" in the environment we're in.

Some people don't like open spaces because they feel vulnerable but also they might not like crowded spaces such as in shops or on transport because they feel hemmed in with no escape. Either way, they don't feel "safe".

I've often wondered why it is that a baby cries when it is born. I'd be interested in what the professionals think but personally I feel it's because in the womb a baby feels "safe" but when it's born it's out in the big wide world and that security it felt has gone.

Also they say that when we sleep we curl up in the foetus position because I think in our beds it's like being in the womb where we felt "safe".

We're all born with different natures but in our case being sensitive, we feel more insecure and more vulnerable. As we grow older, we experience "life" but our sensitivity lays us more open to stress and hurt so we struggle to deal with life in the way a confident person does.

However, when bad events impact on us too much, we can still learn how to cope better by building our confidence which is how CBT works, and working out ways to ease the pressures in our lives we're suffering from.

[ladybird64]

Thanks you two, now it makes perfect sense. Sometimes I just can't see the wood for the trees..