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Agoraphobia matters because the fear is about being trapped without easy escape or help, not about the specific place itself. It is diagnosed as marked fear or avoidance of situations such as crowds, open spaces, public transport, or being outside the home alone, where escape might be difficult or help unavailable if symptoms occur. For example, imagine a woman who avoids the supermarket, not because of the shop itself, but because she fears being unable to leave quickly if she panics in the middle of a long queue. In practice, that fear of being trapped, rather than the setting alone, is the defining feature.

Agoraphobia commonly develops after panic disorder, as the person begins avoiding situations linked to previous panic attacks, though it can also occur without a panic disorder history. Typical avoided situations include using public transport, being in open spaces, being in enclosed spaces such as shops or cinemas, standing in a queue or crowd, and being outside the home alone. Severe cases can progress to the person becoming entirely housebound. Picture a patient who once had a panic attack on a train and now travels only by car with a trusted companion, avoiding trains and buses entirely. In practice, mapping exactly which situations are avoided, and why, guides a graded exposure treatment plan.

• Which fear best captures the core of agoraphobia in ICD-11, rather than the popular idea of a fear of open spaces?
• A woman with agoraphobia can only shop when her husband comes with her. How does this arrangement affect her condition?
• At which stage of life does agoraphobia most commonly begin?

• Social anxiety disorder, fear of scrutiny or humiliation by others, unlike agoraphobia's fear of being trapped without escape or help.
• Specific phobia, fear confined to one clearly defined trigger, rather than agoraphobia's broader range of escape-related situations.
• Panic disorder, recurrent unexpected attacks that can precede and drive agoraphobic avoidance, unlike agoraphobia's situational avoidance pattern itself.
• Agoraphobia, can progress to the person being entirely housebound, whereas specific phobia rarely restricts daily life this broadly.

• Safety behaviours actively perpetuate avoidance rather than being neutral.
• The diagnosis is unchanged, since a companion does not narrow the fear to a single object.
• Contamination fear points to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• Fear of scrutiny and negative evaluation defines social anxiety disorder.
• A circumscribed animal fear defines specific phobia.

• Extract the defining phenomenology, duration, severity and functional-impact clues.
• Match the pattern to the most specific diagnostic or assessment construct.
• Actively test the closest look-alike against the missing or contradictory clue.
• Choose the precise term rather than a broader category that is merely compatible.