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http://www.bestpsychologyschoolsonline.c...oraphobia/

"Agoraphobia (literally: “fear of the marketplace”) is an anxiety disorder associated with a fear of open spaces. But really it’s more complicated than that. In particular, sufferers may be afraid of public spaces like shopping malls, airports and, in extreme cases, even simply leaving the house. Any place where escape might be difficult or help is not easily at hand if things go wrong could be a problem environment.

Caught up in such stressful situations, agoraphobes often start hyperventilating, their hearts start racing, and they feel sweaty and nauseous. Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? We think it’s bad enough having a phobia of heights, spiders, or water. But at least then you can avoid the things you’re afraid of. Severe agoraphobes, on the other hand, can feel anxious anywhere outside of their comfort zone – and that space may be as small as a house, or even a room.

Celebrities are constantly hounded by photographers and fans and are surrounded by stress, so it’s perhaps not surprising that a fair number of them have developed agoraphobia over the years. What’s more, hyper-creative minds do seem especially prone to anxiety disorders such as this. Read on for the 10 most famous people with extreme cases of agoraphobia...."
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It occurs to me that the internet is uniquely suited to the needs of an agoraphobic lifestyle. The satiation of the social urge thru faceless spaceless communication. The luxury of presenting oneself as such and such a person thru the time delay of the posted response. Is the internet turning us all into agoraphobics?

(Aug 27, 2018 07:25 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]It occurs to me that the internet is uniquely suited to the needs of an agoraphobic lifestyle. The satiation of the social urge thru faceless spaceless communication. The luxury of presenting oneself as such and such a person thru the time delay of the posted response. Is the internet turning us all into agoraphobics?

I never quite imagined the postal system in the 19th-century to be as speedy as the one of the 20th, as a satisfying means to provide the cloistered with discourse. But there it is time and time again. But the correspondents weren't always a continent or ocean away, either. Without a boob-tube, radio, movies, etc... Reading and writing were more of a centerpiece.

Emily Dickinson Was Less Reclusive Than We Think
https://hyperallergic.com/372801/emily-d...-we-think/

Her sister Lavinia never married, either. Only the brother, Austin, had children. The whole bunch lived in the same lawyer / public servant homestead. They weren't affluent but didn't lack for goods, and there was frequently somebody ill to take care of or somebody dead to feel melancholy about at a funeral. No motivation for the girls to seek and risk unhappy marriages when they had plenty of the same cooking, gardening, sewing, nursing, etc already available in a cozy and familiar home. When not engaged in that, Emily as a spinster had spare time to reflect on that education of "literature, Latin, botany, geology, history, music, philosophy and arithmetic" she received. Unfortunately, Lavinia kept a good part of her promise to burn Dickinson's letters. But at least the material in the chest didn't get tossed into the fire.

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