Agoraphobia is very common.. its an adaptive disorder.. you spend so much time indoors, that you develope an attachment to one place. A sense of security that becomes an axiety disorder. Like all anxieties, there is a trigger, and a barrier where the anxiety becomes intolerable. the trigger in this case would be the need to go to the mailbox.. the barrier being the front door. This manifests in a physiological reaction.. blood pressure and heart rate goes up, breathing shortens and shallows, muscles cramp and twich. It is not a true phobia as it isnt a fear by definition. There are quite a few medications that can treat Agoraphobia.. Xanax or Colonopin work, they are short term anti anxiety medications..they can get you out the door. The problem with true agoraphobia is that the next secure location you are in when the drugs wear off becomes your prison... the cycle repeats. It is not social anxiety disorder at all. Paxil is used to treat Social Anxiety disorder, which is defined as, duh.. Anxiety caused by the trigger of a social or busy setting.. the response being the same flight mechanism that keeps Agoraphobics inside, but in reverse. Often misdiagnosed and treated wrongly, Agoraphobia has genetic links, can be tied to drug use, especially stimulants, or other drugs which consistantly cause a severe paranoid reaction.
anyway.. i digress
your severe depression was probably caused by yanking yourself off of an SSRI that had already ramped up to the plateud dosage levels. its a sudden reuptake of Seratonin that can floor you. in other words you crash hard.