In most cases, the panic starts quite unexpectedly. A person may be driving home, shopping, in the middle of a crowd, alone while recovering from post operation or childbirth and the panic starts.

The feeling is usually described as wave after wave of panics that bound on terror and come upon a person by surprise. This could result to combinations of trembling, perspiring, stomach cramps, difficulty in breathing, and feeling a lump in the throat. The pounding in the chest is very pronounced that it could often be interpreted as a heart attack. Pains will start shooting down the legs and into the body's extremities, which is often very traumatic for a person that they will fear the attack itself.

The suddenness of the attack makes it even more fearsome when people and are diagnosed not to have a heart attack or other physical illness. The conclusion would normally be: "if the person is found to have no physical illness then the cause is unknown and therefore the worrying is even greater". There is the fear of dying and the fear of losing the mind and there is also the fear that the attack may happen again. The resurgence of the panic will even be more severe next time because of the anxiety that has been caused.

Agoraphobia is a fear not only of open spaces as is normally believed. That definition is true but is very limiting. The fact is agoraphobia is being afraid of situations that the person has no control of. It is also being terrorized that the panic will strike again and as agoraphobia starts to set in, it does. Fearing fear itself could characterize people that have agoraphobia.

Agoraphobics associate places and events with their feelings as causes of panic attacks. The person then becomes recluse; avoiding places and events that he can have no control and where help and escape will be difficult for them. Agoraphobics then will be housebound sometimes limiting themselves to one or two rooms that they feel safe at.

Agoraphobia could be triggered by environmental and cultural factors coupled with the person's personal experiences. Too much stress where the person feels that the demands and expectations are much greater than those that it could handle could be prone to agoraphobia.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder commonly known as PSTD, is a reaction of the body to life threatening experiences (rape, accidents, war, disasters and other traumatic life experiences) could also lead to agoraphobia.

Today, about 5% of the total American population experience panic attacks. This figure (more than 4,000,000) according to research is a very low estimate, as many Americans who are suffering from panic attacks are not reported due to improper diagnosis.

With the right diagnosis, agoraphobia is treatable. The sad part though is that many people do not seek help in spite of the debilitating terror attacks and tries to endure it. What is even tragic is that with the modern psychological techniques, most cases of agoraphobia are treated immediately with long lasting effects. The most effective method commonly applied today known as energy psychology will require very few sessions where the patient may even initiate a self-cure that are not expensive.