Claustrophobia

Claustrophobia is a fear or anxiety of confined spaces. It is triggered by many situations or stimuli, including elevators, especially when crowded to capacity, windowless rooms, and hotel rooms with closed doors and sealed windows. Even bedrooms with a lock on the outside, small cars, and tight-necked clothing can induce a response in those with claustrophobia. It is typically classified as an anxiety disorder, which often results in panic attacks. The onset of claustrophobia has been attributed to many factors, including a reduction in the size of the amygdala, classical conditioning, or a genetic predisposition to fear small spaces.

One study indicates that anywhere from five to ten percent of the world population is affected by severe claustrophobia, but only a small percentage of these people receive some kind of treatment for the disorder.

The term claustrophobia comes from Latin claustrum "a shut in place" and Greek φόβος, phóbos, "fear".

Claustrophobia is classified, as an anxiety disorder. Symptoms generally develop during childhood or adolescence. Claustrophobia is typically thought to have one key symptom: fear of suffocation. In at least one, if not several, of the following areas: small rooms, MRI or CAT scan apparatus, cars, buses, airplanes, trains, tunnels, underwater caves, cellars, elevators and caves.

Being enclosed or thinking about being enclosed in a confined space can trigger fears of not being able to breathe properly and running out of oxygen. It is not always the small space that triggers these emotions, but it's more the fear of the possibilities of what could happen while confined to that area. When anxiety levels start to reach a certain level, the person may start to experience:

Symptoms depend on how severe one's phobia is.

The fear of enclosed spaces is an irrational fear. Most claustrophobic people who find themselves in a room without windows consciously know that they aren't in danger, yet these same people will be afraid, possibly terrified to the point of incapacitation, and many do not know why. However, claustrophobia may not always be the case, and may be the result of another mental disorder such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The amygdala is one of the smallest structures in the brain, but also one of the most powerful. The amygdala is needed for the conditioning of fear, or the creation of a fight-or-flight response. A fight-or-flight response is created when a stimulus is associated with a grievous situation. Cheng believes that a phobia's roots are in this fight-or-flight response.