My boyfriend is Agoraphobic. Anyone had any experience or advice for me to help him through it?

Give him your love and trust to help him realise and slowly overcome his fear but be careful he does not become dependent on you for his fear.

Anxiety and fear are similar, but not the same.

There are many natural ways to lower anxiety which can contribute in fearful situations.

These include exercise, a naturally high protein diet as well as orange juice.

(Because of levels of cortisol, and endorphins, dopamine, serotonin etc.)

If you look at the levels of anxiety in fearful situations, you will see that it steadily climbs before rapidly getting higher and peaking before coming back down.

So the idea is, to get the mind used to the fact that nothing will happen in those fearful situations.

If you run away when you start to feel anxious, you are keeping the fear there and proving those fearful thoughts to be correct. So when the situation arises again, you are more likely to do the same action (run away) again.

He probably feels safe in his home and going too far away, or for so much time may bring back on these feelings of fear again which makes him want to run/go back home.

So if he really wants to beat it, he's going to have to take it slowly and face the fear.

No one would want to go through "flooding".

The best way to do this, depends on him and your relationship.

You could go for walks, getting longer and further.

Meeting you half a mile away from the house and walking back (If you live close).

Walking into smaller shops, and step it up slowly until he feels safe in a mall. etc.

(As an example)

Help him to understand that his fear, although very serious to him, is silly.

So that when the situation does arise, he's calmer because he knows.

More than likely he will not want to do it but take it slowly and he'll be ok. (Not too slowly)

Also, staying away from the news may be helpful because they focus on the bad things people do in the world more so than the good, unless famous or "rare" instances.

Rewarding him when he does cope through the anxiety is a very good idea as well.

Might sound strange, but in a similar way that video games and cigarettes work, rewarding him when he properly copes through it would establish an appropriate association correctly.

I am Agoraphobic myself. It's not something you really ever get over in my experience. It's good that he is getting better. For me, I get very anxious and the symptoms affect me only in certain places. It's rather odd, however I am able to cope a decent amount of the time. Though this is a reason I sit around at home quite a lot and don't do much.

its just the culture that guys are growing up in, back in the days they used to respect women rather than just using and abusing. He's feeling the pressure from friends probably, plus there is no such thing as meaningless sex.

1. patience.

2. xanax.

3. "Surviving Panic Disorder, what you need to know," Stuart Shipko.

Agoraphobia is part of panic disorder.