Lots of gyns Rx a/ds for hot flashes. I believe the agoraphobia is meno-related. I had it. And it went away with estrogen supplementation.

As cliche as this sounds -- try meditation. I do it and it's really helped in many areas. It takes time, but you'll feel the relief it brings even for a little while daily. Build on that. I promise, just the act of sincerely trying to do it will help.

I wish my agoraphobia was only meno related, I've had it since I was about 26.
I've learned to have a pretty darn good life but the last few years have been really bad agoraphobia wise.

I take Paxil and am STILL having hot flashes. And like Spaceship said, the meno DOES make the whole anxiety thing worse. I know! xx

sobe, alas meno does emphasis your negative emotions. So if you had agoraphobia, it's magnified now. Hormones do so many weird things to us. Do you think you got agoraphobia at 26 as an aspect of PMS?

My PMS made me sad, rather than angry. So I got hit with that at meno time.

I really don't know where my own meno-related agoraphobia came from since I never, ever had it before. But my gyn mentioned that she had other patients with that symptoms right down to "having melt downs in the supermarket".

Anyway, do try the meditation. At the dentist today I picked up the new Oprah mag and there is a very good article about meditation in it. (Aug or Sept issue -- it's got a brown-bronze cover IIRC. )

mine has been a combo of hereditary as well as a traumatic event at age 26

I do meditate and at times it does work. I have a wonderful meditation tape that I play
thanks for suggesting that, you are so right that it's a good tool

What is the tape, Sobe? I have borrowed different ones from the library and bought a couple. But I like this one the best: Om Bilateral Alignment by Frank Natale. There are 3 tracks: Mother Om, Flyng Om and Mega Om.

Here's a site where you can download one track for 19 cents:

http://www.legalsounds.com/download-mp3/frank-natalie/om-%28bilateral-alignment%29/album_29784

It's unlike the rest of Natale's work, which I cannot get into. Some people love it, though - trance dance music.

Just browsing through old threads and picked up on this. I was suffering severely from anxiety and day time hot flashes-partly through stress but reckon also perimenopausal for years and finally went to GP. Went up to 40 gram max dose of citalopram and last 5 months have been best for years hot flash wise. I would seriously recommend it and persevere with the initial side effects and gradually increase the dose. Took me about 4 months before I was convinced of the difference.