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Some panic disorders go hand-in-hand with another
disorder, called
agoraphobia
. In ancient Greece, the
agora
was
a large, open area where people gathered. So, agoraphobia is
the fear of open or public places.
Because people with panic disorder fear having an attack,
they sometimes stay inside more and more. About a third
of the people with panic disorder develop agoraphobia and
become afraid to leave their homes.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
So far, we’ve talked about anxieties people have when there is
nothing to be afraid of. But our last kind of anxiety disorder is
quite different. The fears of people with post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) are very real.
During World War I (1914–1918), doctors noticed that
some soldiers suffered from what they called “shell shock.” It
Veterans of World
War I, like these
wounded Belgian
soldiers, were
found to have an
illness called “battle
fatigue.” We now call
this PTSD.