What is it?
Claustrophobia is usually defined as the irrational fear of confined spaces. It can be rational to fear being trapped when circumstances carry genuine threat. However, in claustrophobia, people experience fear even when there is no obvious or realistic danger in a particular situation. People who experience claustrophobia generally go out of their way to avoid a long list of confined spaces, including lifts, tunnels, tube trains, revolving doors, public toilets, MRI scanners, and even don’t like to wear crash helmets. Unfortunately, avoidance may reinforce the fear. Claustrophobia may arise from a one-off trauma at any age, developed when the person was a child (for example growing up with one or more claustrophobic parents) or emerge as someone gets older. Around 10% of the population may experience claustrophobia during their lifetime.
DIY self diagnosis
If you can answer YES to most of the questions it is likely that you are affected by claustrophobia.
During the past 6 months:-
Did any of the following make you feel anxious:
- Being in a confined space such as being in a tunnel, on the underground etc.?
- Being in crowded places?
- Did you avoid being in any of the above situations?
How we can help
Anxiety UK is a user-led charity with more than forty years experience in supporting those living with anxiety. By becoming a member of Anxiety UK, you will have access to a range of benefits, including:
- Access to reduced cost therapy within two weeks of submitting your therapy request
- Access to our helpline (available Monday-Friday, 9:30 am – 5:30 pm) staffed by volunteers with personal experience of anxiety
- Receipt of four issues of Anxious Times, our quarterly members” magazine
- Access to the members only section of our website, featuring regular support surgeries facilitated by anxiety experts
- Access to specialist helplines, including the psychiatric pharmacy helpline and the psychology information helpline
And many, many other benefits that will help you manage your anxiety long term. To become a member of Anxiety UK click here or ring 08444 775 774 today.
Want to know more
The Anxiety UK site has information on a range of resources to provide more detailed information and help.
Recommended reading
“Claustrophobia: Finding Your Way” out is a self help book written by an individual who has lived with claustrophobia. It is available to purchase in the Anxiety UK online shop, you can access it by clicking here.
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Oasis Open MRI
Have you been referred for an MRI scan by your doctor? Is the thought of lying in a narrow, restricted scanning tunnel in a traditional MRI system causing you to feel intense anxiety and panic?
A significant milestone in the development of patient friendly MRI is the Oasis – the UK”s first High Field and Open MRI.
- “Open” means it provides a 270° angle of vision offering an unrestricted outlook and a more spacious environment.
- “High Field” means superior technology, ensuring first class image quality with fast scanning times keeping the study times shorter.
- Highly trained, sympathetic staff will gently guide you through the scan, taking time to explain the procedure helping to allay any concerns whilst ensuring that audio and visual contact is maintained for reassurance.
If you would like further information on Oasis High Field and Open MRI from Hitachi and how it can help the claustrophobic patient please email d.spencer@hitachi-medical-systems.com or telephone 0844 800 4294 or read an advertorial from the winter 2010 edition of Anxious Times.
This page has been sponsored by Hitachi.
Personal experiences
Do you suffer from claustrophobia and want to share your experience with other people? Post your personal experience in the comments box below where it will be sent to our moderator for approval. Many people find this part of the site very useful when trying to understand their disorder so your comments really do make a difference. Please note, all comments submitted to the Anxiety UK website may be used by Anxiety UK for (but not limited to) publicity and promotional material.
Over the last several years I have developed an intense fear of lifts and avoid them at all cost. In my life I have been briefly stuck two times, once in school when a load of us crammed an lift on a school trip and got stuck for about 5 minutes and the other at a hotel with two of my sons. Neither lasted very long but I am sure it helped develop my fear. I get very tense when even thinking about having to ride one and always look for the stairs option no matter where we go. Recently, my mother was hospitalized and I knew I had to go see her. Embarassing as it is, my anxiety was not over my mother’s heart condition but rather the fact that I might have to ride an elevator to see her. When we got there I found some stairs that got me to her 4th floor room but when I went to leave the stairwell was locked and alarmed. My wife actually had to go to a desk and have them call security to open up the stariwell and walk me down. Needless to say, it was totallly humiliated and envisioned the staff talking about me as I descended. I have to get over this and want so badly to be carefree when I ride. I hate feeling the way I do and could envision a panic attack if I am forced to ride one in the future.
Hi there may I use some of the information here in this post if I provide a link back to your site?
Hello Luigi. You can use whatever information you like on our website, so long as you properly credit Anxiety UK. Best of luck! Terri-Anxiety UK
Best of luck.let me know if you find a cure.I’m sure theres one or more out there.I keep looking.
I wish luck to all people suffering from different kind of phobias…you will be fine, don’t loose hope…
I have suffered from claustrophobia for as long as I can remember. I avoid lifts at all costs. I have been known to walk up 20 flights of stairs. I have cried on strangers shoulders in lifts when it’s been unavoidable to get in one. I have called security to walk me up or down when the stairwell is locked. I have had strangers barge in in public toilets, when the cubicle is too cramped or I have deemed the lock to unsafe for me to be able to bring myself to lock the door. The list goes on and on. I now have to take a business trip to NY. And stay on the 40th floor. I feel physically sick at the thought of it, and I have no idea how to cope. I can’t take the tube in London, I have been stuck in tunnels too may times. This is really starting to ruin my life, and I need to try and do something about it. Oddly, flying is not a problem. Yet..
Hi Nettan,
Have you thought about trying clinical hypnotherapy? It can be helpful and fast acting for some specific phobias.
Best wishes
Cat (Anxiety UK)
I have now had therapy, and it HELPED!!! I went to NYC. Stayed on the 40th floor, and managed really well I took plenty of lifts, and I’d be telling a lie if I didn’t say I was a little uncomfortable, but that compared with blind panic is bearable. It’s possible, this can be beaten, and I am living proof. It’s still feeling really fragile, and I am worried about pushing myself into a situation where I panic, but so far so good. Go on people, get help, it does really help. You can beat this, I am living proof. One of these days I will try the tube too. Not quite yet, but soon-ish. I can’t believe i didn’t do this years ago. I really hope my message helps some of you, as I know how hard it is.
HI Netten,
What did you do to overcome your fear? My husband has had claustrophobia similiar to yours since I’ve known him. Now we have to move apartments in London, which is a nightmare, due to the fact that the stairwell is meant for fire exit only and my husband has to get the porters to let him in the stairs so he doesn’t have to take the lift. Everyone had suggested hypnotherapy, but he doesn’t believe it works. There had to be hope for change. His phobias can be quite debilitating, and “expensive” in a big city, where lifts, tubes and trains are commonplace.
Please advise what treatment worked for you so we can book an appointment!
Many thanks,
AMC
Hi AMC,
I went for cognitive behavioural therapy, and it really helped. I really wanted the help though, and wanted it to work really badly. And it did. With a lot of effort on my part, it’s not a quick fix, you have to participate and work at it – and most importantly, want to get better. I never wanted to before, didn’t want to think about it. But then something changed, and I wanted the fear to go away. I think that’s why it worked for me. A lot of it is in your own mindset. But it’s doable, and I hope your husband will be open to it. I know how impractical it is in a big city!
Good luck!
I avoid tube trains completely. I can fly but I get slight panic when it kind of slows down.
I hate travelling in trains and force myself to go on them. I start getting panicky after 5 mins on a train, it seems to be getting worse. I take sudoku, my computer, books and knitting on a train. Anything to distract me. Sometimes I get my friend to call me on my mobile. It is worse when it is dark outside. I am very scared that a train guard won’t open the door if I need help.
I went on the London Eye and got rescued by 3 first aiders. It went too slowly and I had strangers comforting me which was embarrassing.
I cannot have jobs where I have to use trains.
I never use the work’s lift.
I am concerned that when I get older I have to use hospital or train station lifts.
I have even spoken to a lift engineer and he said he got stuck too and nearly died. Some lift engineers never use lifts
I would say that I am getting extremely restricted and my friends, though good, find it a bit of a nuisance.
I had to have a cataract operation on one eye. I panicked .. I think it was the dark as much as the \helmet\ which they said was a \sheet\ over my head, and not knowing what was going on.
I have always avoided lifts etc, knowing that I panick, even in a public toilet, as others have mentioned here. but never experienced this as I have avoided.
I am dreading having to have my other eye done, in fact I suspect that I willl not.
When i was little about 6 i was playing hide and seek and hid under my bed what had a sliding door and i hid in there, my cousins all got found but when i tried to get out the sliding door would not open it was all dark inside and under the bed where i was hid was a picture of freddie crugar which my mum had hid and i started to panic, i evntually got out and since then i hate small spaces. I panic if anyone lays on top of me and i struggle to get up. I once got stuck in a glass lift in my hotel in benidorm with my brother he wasnt really botherd but i paniced and then i never got in a lift for about 3 years after. i then got over the fear of lifts and when i started college i used them everyday untill i went on a trip which ment us travelling on a ferry, i got in the lift not really giving it much thought and we pressed the 1st floor but the lift opened at white door which i thought was a water door but never let it bother me at first, it then opened at a brick wall and i started to panic all the feelings of fear i felt before come flooding back and i started to panic and got upset i pressed the alarm button sevral times but nothing happend the lift then opened at the car deck and i ran out distraught my two friends then talked me back into it and i started getting really upset and crying, my other friend was comforting me and another but the rest where laughing and it didnt bother them, evetually the lift door opened where we first got in and i ran out to my room and got my inhaler i struggled to breathe and was shaking i just wanted to go home or get onto land, now i tottally aviod small spaces and panic the bus is over croweded etc. i am going to new york soon and am dreading getting on the plane and the lift for the empire state building
I’ve had Claustrophobia from being a very small child. I remember getting stuck in a lift with my Mum I must have been around 2 -3 and her panic when the door opened. I only vaguely recall the detail I just remember the panic. It’s developed over the years, I now won’t sit in the back of a car that has no back doors. I don’t go in lifts, lock the doors in public toilets, shut the car door until the engine is running (I hate central locking). I’ve travelled extensively, however for the last 10 years I’ve been unable to fly the fear being too great – the fear of not being able to get off! I won’t use the underground, buses, coaches anything basically where I’m not in control. I also occasionally suffer from sleep paralysis, OMG it’s horrendous (I get the form whereby I can’t move but I’m awake) I used to think it was a dream but I now at least know what it is. I manage to break out of it but it is intensely frightening. I’ve had cognitive therapy via a psychologist for over a year for the Claustrophobia. That was about 5 years ago. Unfortunately for me it hasn’t worked, I hate saying ‘worked’ but I suppose like most sufferers I dream of finding the ‘fix’ and then behaving ‘normally’ and not having to feel/think of the ‘fear’ anymore. However, reading the comments on this website makes me determined to continue to fight the ‘fear’. In the New Year I’ll be looking into the hypnotherapy option.
Hi Jayne
That’s must be very distressing for you. Definitely give clinical hypnotherapy a go which teachs you relaxation techniques so you can manage the anxiety and panic. May I also suggest the Claustrophobia: finding your way out by Andrea Perry to you? You can find it on our Shop here http://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/products/claustrophobia/
Best wishes
Thanks for the response :-). I’ve just purchased the booked off the Anxiety website and I’m actively looking into the hypnotherapy route. I’ll come back soon and let you know how I’m getting on and hopefully spur others on to keep trying to overcome this phobia.
i have been suffering from claustriphobia now for about 6 month now i find it difficult to sit around people and to even go out to do my shopping because i think people are staring at me i aint even got to the doctors yet because it just having to sit their around people what do i do¿? im only 19 and this is taking over my life
Hi Gemma
Thank you very much for sharing, this experience must be distressing. However, your issue is manageable. Try not to bottle up your feelings and talk about them to someone that you trust. I also recommend you to read the book “Claustrophobia” by Andrea Perry. It can help you to understand more about your issue and learn some self help techniques to overcome your anxiety.
Best wishes
Shirley
Gemma19 I had an “episode” similar to yours , many years ago… I found that I had to fight it
before it got too much of a hold on me…. I know it is not easy.. but don`t let it take over your life
get to the doctors, a round of medication could just be the answer….
Hi, I suffer from Claustrophobia and feel this is getting worse. I couldn’t sleep last night because I know on Wednesday I have to get in a lift. My palms are sweaty just thinking about it now.
I have suffered from it for most of my life and had Hypnotherapy about 3 years ago. This worked a bit but I only had two sessions and to be honest I couldn’t afford it after that. It is strange for me because I think I could get in lifts and cope with the anxiety if I knew for certain it wouldn’t break down. for me it’s not being in a confined space I.E crowds, small rooms etc. It’s the though of not being able to get out.
this is now affecting almost every aspect of my life, work is a nightmare because I try and avoid every possible situation involving lifts, small spaces etc, I can’t take my kids out to certain places and I must look like a fool when I am trying to walk up 20 flights of stairs when everyone else is quite happy getting in a lift. I actually look at people who get in them on their own and think “you must be crazy, what if it breaks down”
I do almost feel resigned to the fact that this isn’t going to go away.
@ Carl – you’re sentance about ‘You must be crazy, what if it breaks down’ made me laugh! That’s exactly what I think when I see the majority of people just hopping in lifts, planes etc, like it’s the easiest thing in the world, which I guess it is but not when you’re Claustraphobic.
I have a flight on Weds, only a short duration but the very thought of it is bringing on panic attacks. The actual flying does not bother me – its the start and end of the flight when everyone is waiting to get on or off and the you are reliant on someone else opening the door and at their say so. Plus the thought that you just cant go and break a window if something did go wrong. I know it sounds ridiculos but I just cant apply any logic to my feeelings. I’ve been reading up on the technicalities of aircraft doors, which has just made things ten times worse! My partner doesnt understand and I dont blame him. I hear myself and just think for goodness sake, get a grip!! I am biting the bullet and going to the doctors to see if they can prescribe something – even that is making me panic because I really dont want to take tablets in case I have a bad reaction which will make things worse.
I also panic when my partner goes out for the evening for drinks etc and I am waiting for him to ring late in the evening so I can pick him up! Which is nothing related to claustraphobia but I think it’s more a fear of having no control. No idea what has made me like this.
I have tried Paul McKenna downloads for claustraphobia but so far it hasnt helped. It all seems to be getting worse as I get older. I use to take the lift and fly all the time without even thinking about it. Would do anything to be like that again.
Hi, i have been reading this thread and can identify with everything. I have recently developed quite severe anxieties over various things. I am a submariner and,as you can imagine, this is leading to a work related issue. It has got to the stage where i am dreading going back to sea, and that is over a year away.I was always able to put my irrational fear out of my mind, and i have coped well so far. When i fly, i am fine as soon as the plane moves, but as the doors are closed and the plane sits there stationary i am very agitated. Travelling on a train, if i go through a long tunnel, i worry…once a train i was on had to stop, due to a signal being red, and my carriage was still in the tunnel, that was not too pleasant. I do not go in lifts any more, if i can help it. So far, i have managed to keep control in all these situations, i may be able to continue, but my fear is that one day i will break down and embarrass myself. I know i am being totally irrational, but i cant help it. Many thanks for the forum, i hope everyone is able to overcome their fears.
Hi Gerry
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I feel proud of you that you are trying very hard to manage your anxiety. I would like to suggest you to look for some self help books which can help you to understand your anxiety and learn ways to manage it. Please take a look into this: http://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/products/claustrophobia/claustrophobia-finding-your-way-out-by-andrea-perry/. This book is written by Andrea Perry, a therapist and consultant who has experience of Claustrophobia, and inside it gives you an excellent explanation of how it works and affects your behaviours and thoughts. It also provides some suggestions on anxiety management. Alternative, you can consider accessing therapy service like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Counselling, Clinical Hypnotherapy and Neuro-linguistic programming. Our charity can offer these therapies to our members at a reduced cost and they are very effective in helping people to overcome anxiety. If you would like to know more about the therapy service, please feel free to contact us on 08444 775 774 and speak to one of our volunteers for more details.
Best wishes
Shirley