-DOCTOR CLAIRE WEEKES spent thirty years in a practice - first as a general practitioner, then as a physician, and finally as a consultant physician with special interest in the anxiety state. Dr. Claire Weekes spent 18 years completely involved in the treatment of Agoraphobia, in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. The best selling author of four books and in 1981 she wrote her fifth book. She believes agoraphobia has wider implications than just open spaces. The incapacitating fear away from safety of home, particularly isolated or crowded places or anywhere where the sufferer can not make a quick escape or get help should their fears, as thought, grow beyond them. It includes the fear of travelling, especially a vehicle that cannot stop at will.
Agoraphobia is one of the worst phobias, in view of all this, it's notorious intractability; the success Dr. Weekes has had, by remote direction through her books and recordings, is truly remarkable. Dr. Claire Weekes graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney, Australia in 1945. She became a member of the Royal Australian College of Physicians in 1955 and was elected Fellow of the College in 1973. Dr. Weekes graduated in science with first class honours from the University of Sydney. She was granted a government research scholarship and the following year was elected as a MacLeay Fellow of the Linneon Society of N.S.W. She became the first woman to obtain the degree of Doctor of Science at the Sydney University.
After five years research work as a MacLeay Fellow, she left Sydney to work at the University College, London, England, having been granted a travelling fellowship by the Rockerfeller Foundation, New York. Having graduated in medicine in 1945, Dr. Weekes is best known for her pioneering work in Agoraphobia. In addition she has lectured at hospitals in Britain and has spoken often on radio and television through Britain and the United States of America.

The following letters were written and sent to agoraphobics
by Dr Claire Weekes M.B.E. M.B. D.Sc. M.R.A.C.P.
SWAG (Aust) Inc are reproducing them for your interest.
1-14

15-25

1-Dear Readers, As you know my patients are afraid of going hysterical in the street; a fear, that they have never done. The last thing you want to do is to draw attention to yourself, this is why you fear you might. Your very fear of agoraphobia is your defence. It acts as a powerful brake for your compulsive power behind the thought. But action is different from thought. It you shrink from the very thought of being hysterical in public, while you are home, you would certainly shrink from doing so when out in the street. At this stage, thought now is bluffing you, so, take heart; when it comes, practice regular breathing and let the thought slip by, release it. This thought of going hysterical is keeping fear alive. Once you realise it is now a habit, you will gradually build up confidence within yourself, which you can actually feel as an inner strength. This will begin to support you. You are not going mad! There is nothing peculiar about you because you feel this way! I wish to stress that even a fear like yours should include fear of harming others, it is still not madness, has nothing to do with madness. It is the thought kept alive by fear and habit. Perhaps one of my tapes would give you further practical help. Once more, to those who have recovered-bravo! to those who are still striving- good luck, to those who find it difficult to get started- practice loosening those tummy muscles and be off this minute.
My best wishes to you all. Claire Weekes

2 -Dear Readers, I will discuss a letter from a woman who has written to me. " I wish I could drive for a hundred miles instead of twenty". The writer of that letter wished that she could drive alone fro one hundred miles instead of twenty! Very few peope like driving alone for a hundred miles. It can be lonely, even boring. If I had to drive a hundred miles alone, the first thing I would do would be to find out if any friends or relatives were going my way. It's nice to turn lonliness into pleasure and that's not agoraphobia. People who have suffered from agoraphobia, when they can drive short distances alone, make the mistake of expecting to take a along drive in their stride, or, at least of wishing they could. But who wants to drive a hundred miles without a pretty good incentive ? I am sure that if this woman were needed urgently a hundred miles away (if a sick child was crying for her) she'd make the journey. She'd be drawn forward by motivation strong enough to release her from giving too much importance to her special reactions to the journey. She would practise my teaching with zeal. I suggest that she waits for some strong motivation to demand a hundred mile drive before she judges her capacity. How does she know she couldn't do it? She only thinks she couldn't because she is trying to do it now, only in her thoughts, now, and we all know what an old devil imagination can be! If ever such a journey was necessary, I suggest she divide the hundred miles into five parcels of twenty miles is her accomplished number ) and drive each packet separately, one twenty mile packet after another. She'd manage. In the mean time, she should not place so much importance on driving a hundred miles........Patience, give yourself time.
My best wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

3-Dear Readers, A reader, aged 63 years, lives alone. In spite of having no one at home to spur her on to greater efforts, she travelled alone by bus into the town centre and even stayed there a couple of hours. She hasn't yet managed a cafe, when she sent in her report. Perhaps she has managed by now!!! When she wrote to me she had just returned from a ten day visit to her daughter, travelled 200 miles by car with a neighbour and without panic. She says she read the journals again and again to help her get out and about. She has taken three small domestic and one clerical job, and she says that this has helped to take her mind off loneliness. Good luck to you in your great effort! It may not seem much to some, but readers of this journal will appreciate what you are doing. Many will envy you having children to visit, even though it means travelling 200 miles.
"Being alone does not help". It certainly does not. Of all those who read these journals, who carry their battle alone, most deserve our appreciation. And by "those who live alone" I include those who live with an unsympathetic family or struggle to look after a large family with exhaustion as their daily companion. I also include those who live in isolated villages with few transport facilities to encourage them to venture far from home. Reports from such people, even of the little they have managed to do, make specially welcomed reading.

Another reader wrote, "I'm like Bruce's spider, I fall, but get up and start climbing again!" Congratulations, Spider, I wonder if you have managed to spin a whole web by now, if you haven't you will !
My best wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

4-Dear Readers, I have received a letter from "heart-broken, dejected and depressed and too old". I send assurance that she is not too old to recover ! In my opinion fifty seven is young! To those who cannot get enough courage to attempt to go out alone. Several readers of the journals are pleased that I have made a short tape recording, "Moving to Freedom". That is, I give first encouragement to go out and then the direction how to cope with all panic and other nervous feelings; on the reverse side of the tape I include a short talk - "Going on holiday" - It is especially encouraging to hear a voice helping you while you are trying to forge ahead. While a journal gives you a long range help, a cassette tape gives you an extra lift when you need it most, from a small portable tape -recorder, light to carry or for the car. If this woman who is 'heartbroken' has not already ventured out alone, I want her to take inspiration from the message I sent earlier to the woman who did not understand from the message I sent earlier to the woman who did not understand 'floating' through panic at a special function. She should go expecting the dreaded feelings to come; the same objective once more: to let the body go as loose as she can manage and to try and understand yourself - take what comes as well as the courage to understand. Take what comes, without adding the second fear or rather without adding too much fear. Understand yourself and loosen up !
My best wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

5 Dear Readers, Another patient wrote," I would like to know a little more about how to practise quietly in public. I still can't grasp the meaning of floating. If I went queer and panicky at a social meeting, how would I cope? I couldn't really relax and 'flop' while I had to keep up appearances, could I ? When I say,"Let your body flop when you feel panicy", I don't mean that you do it so well that you slide off your seat with a loud thud. I mean to flop inside yourself, let your body slump a little in your seat. Just loosen that tight hold you are keeping on your abdomen muscles. It is these muscles, your so-called "tummy muscles" that you squeeze with a vice like grip. Sit in your chair and practise now. Think of being in the front row of a social gathering without easy escape, and notice how your abdominal muscles almost immediately stiffen as you get that sinking feeling. Take a breath and let it out slowly, and as you do so, practise releasing your abdominal muscles. It helps if you feel as if your chest is sinking down into your abdomen and whole body, sinking through the chair. It is as if you let your abdomen breathe out at the same time as you deflate your lungs. It's quite a trick ! See if you can do it. This is the way you float during a meeting if you feel a panic coming. Remember, you get the feeling of relief best at the end of a deep breath. It is a feeling of "inside flopping" when you breathe out, and it is this "inside flopping" that take the edges of a panic. As far as appearances, the most anyone might notice would be a slight drooping of your shoulders. If you practise "inside flopping" while you panic, the panic won't seem to soar. Loosen that tight "nerve string"; slack strings cannot be twanged as forcefully as loose strings, so loosen yours. This is a psychological fact, remember it ! It cannot fail, if you follow it correctly, so practise, practise, practise.
My best wishes to you all, CLAIRE WEEKES

6-Dear Readers, I wonder how many of you still need help? Probably what is needed most is encouragement and to know that you are one group interested in each other's progress. Now when a person says that for many years she has felt guilty and can't rid herself of this feeling, she should understand that others who have suffered as she has, have rid themselves of feelings of guilt. A person who has not yet done so, it is as though they are trying to find a switch to stop the guilty feeling from coming. We can't easily switch off a feeling we have had for a long time, especially one that has been drilled into us who simply do not understand. There has been so much silly talk about nerves and guilt feelings are encouraged. Agoraphobia should not make the sufferer feel guilty, but I know how difficult it is for him to be convinced of this. However there is a way to gradually loose the feeling of undeserved guilt. The sufferer puts behind the feeling of guilt; another different feeling will form, which will, in time, replace the guilty feeling. Let me explain in this way. A young girl went through a very tough gruelling time. She had recovered and began to study to become a social worker. She has just written, "How glad I am that I know what it is all about ! I can go up to a patient now, and from my own experience speak his language and what is more, he would know that I understand. My suffering was a privilege !! So, beside any feeling of guilt, not one of you need worry about being "a weakling, etc." because many now know you are no weakling but have a lot of courage and in time, even the guilt will be pushed aside, to pride in knowing that you understand a condition that so few understand correctly.
My best wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

7- Dear Readers, This is taken from a letter that has been written to me. "I wish I could travel on an aeroplane. I'm just too much of a coward to try. The thought of being enclosed miles up in the air in enough to give me a panic." There are so many people who think about travelling in a plane - "miles up in the air". The woman said "the thought of it is enough to start a panic". If she had been on a plane and panicked, what would happen? The hostess wouldn't let her rush up and down the aisle panicking. She'd calm her down and look after her, bring her a cup of tea etc.. Most of the people who fear travelling in a plane are surprised to find how familiar and strangely safe it feels once the start has been made. There is so much bustle, meals being served, people walking about, drinks being served, the captain talking over the loudspeaker, perhaps a movie to see. I suspect that this woman imagines that she would panic to such an extent that the panic will be uncontrollable. It never is. She has the magic word, "loosen and accept" to draw upon. Also the plane isn't sailing into eternity. It always lands eventually. THE END OF THE JOURNEY IS ALWAYS THERE. She is not shut in the plane forever, and the switch to calm her fear is in her hand! She would never go berserk as she fears. "Going berserk" only means getting hysterical, and one has to have much effort to push oneself into hysteria. More effort than to 'loosen and accept', that is all she needs to do, LOOSEN AND ACCEPT.
My best wishes once again, CLAIRE WEEKES

8-Dear Readers, So many who have been afraid of flying have now completed long journeys successfully. Listen to this; "I feel I must write to you and tell of the progress I made last year. For 20 years I have been an agoraphobic - after my first attack of panic. During all these years, at the sight or mere mention of a 'bus' my stomach would turn over, and the idea of getting on one- impossible ! As you know I got your holiday cassette last year (your records are worn thin with playing). To cut a long story short as a result of constant listening to your tape, I booked a cruise for myself and the family. So, it was on with the cassette again. The first four days were not so good on account of rough weather. I had made up my mind to do everything I had been unable to do for so long. I went six times into a coach and into a restaurant alone. I went up the mountains at Tenerife, Madeira, 4,000 feet, with a sheer drop on one side. I even crossed to the shore by launch. I felt 10 feet tall ! Only at one time did I feel uneasy and that was one night when at the dining room I felt a bit self-conscious and could not eat the first part of my meal, but as time went on I told myself to LOOSEN and accept ! LOOSEN and accept! I was fine and was able to continue the meal. I've always had a fear of flying so I have decided to have a week in Jersey and have booked to fly! Surprise ! I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll be O.K." I have made a cassette recording called "A Good night Talk" about resting at night and going to sleep, and "A Goodmorning Talk" about rising in the morning and facing the day.
My Best Wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

9-Dear Readers, I will discuss this letter a reader has sent to me. " I became overwhelmed by certain situations at home, for instance, friends coming for the weekend, a dinner party. I am always able to cope, but I feel agitated when it's all over, and I can be snappy with the family. However, you will see from my survey form, that I have come a long way. The agoraphobia is pretty well a thing of the past!" So many patients (not necessarily agoraphobics) have said to me, "Doctor, does anyone really enjoy entertaining, giving dinner parties? My husband and I both say that the best part of the evening is when we say goodnight to the last guest and close the door." It is so normal to become agitated at the thought of entertaining, particularly dinner parties. Giving a dinner party can be very strenuous, especially if we choose that incentive to mend the couch, the curtain, have the bathroom basin fixed and so on. It's so often an exhausted hostess who greets her friends - far too tired to enjoy the perfect dinner, or even care if the strawberry soufflé is too sweet. It would be very interesting to know how many people really do enjoy giving a dinner ? How many do it without becoming agitated, apprehensive and then exhausted when it's over? She did add that "agoraphobia is a thing of the past", so should she not settle for that achievement and realise that she shares the strain of entertaining with the rest of us?
My Best Wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

10-Dear Readers, One patient asked, " What is the best way to go out alone, first. Is it better to go a few steps, do what I feel is comfortable and easy, or is it better to go the 'whole hog' and get to the shops?" At this stage for this woman, I would say let's go the 'whole hog'! She should practise all the way to the shops, what she has been practising doing her few steps. The journey to the shops is only an extension of the short journey, and her treatment of it, the same. She adds that she can go out alone if she knows someone is at the other end to meet her. For true recovery, she should set herself a more difficult goal. She has had two "gorgeous holidays camping " well, now the gorgeous shops! Another reader wrote, in answer to the question of setbacks. " I feel I'm at the beginning again and it's a never ending effort to regain confidence in myself. I find it hard to float through panic! " If she is still able to release tension and pass through panic and other upsetting sensations, she must be withdrawing from them slightly, and when she does this it will be impossible to regain confidence in herself. Withdrawal is always the culprit. But look at the words "float through panic". It is impossible to float through panic without feeling panic and I think that this is maybe what this woman is trying to do. At her stage of recovery she should be trying to accept the feelings that come with panic and think of the word "float" as only a way to approach panic, as meaning "even breath", let it out slowly, let the body flop and accept the wave of panic. The wave will pass, what it does is to gradually teach her how to cope with panic until she care no longer whether it comes or not! I can hear the gasp of incredulity, but it really does happen, this way! After all panic is only an electrical discharge. Loosen and accept the electrical discharge and it will gradually lose its power to frighten you, and when it does this, the power decreases.
My Best Wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

11- Dear Readers, I have found that many think they will pick up new symptoms if they talk to others. It may comfort you to know that the action of adrenalin is always restricted to the same organs and so must always follow the same pattern. There are no more surprises in store for you. This thought comforts most people because apprehension of what can happen next. If you had only some of the symptoms mentioned, do not immediately think you must experience all the others. It is unusual to have all the symptoms. Each of us has some parts of his/her body more sensitive than the rest, and which therefore react more readily to stimulation by adrenalin. If you had not been nauseated or have not vomited, it is because your stomach is strong enough to withstand tension. It should continue to do so. We all know that certain people have a tendency to "heave" when upset, others run to the toilet, while others just churn inwardly. Few do all three. Your particular pattern has probably declared itself by now, so you can be comforted by the thought that you have experienced the worst. My Best Wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

12 -Dear Readers, From a general practitioner to a reader of my journal, "You'll always need a prop. It's too late for you to take a grip on yourself! " I could hardly believe my eyes when I read that. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE. What could make it too late? Only the way this woman could think about her illness and what a sentence of doom her doctor gave her to think about !! Since it's thinking that is so important, let her think, "I'll do what Dr. Weekes says, and she doesn't think it's too late to recover!" If she thinks this way, her body will respond hopefully and positively just as it will respond despairingly to the sentence of doom, and she will get good results, instead of bad results. Let her cling to my encouragement and certainly, helped by the knowledge that I have had an unusually great amount of experience treating sufferers from nervous illness. I tell her that if she has the courage to believe she can do without a prop, she will do without one, even if she is ninety. AND I MEAN NINETY. There is a woman who is a reader of my journals in Canada who is ninety-two and who keeps one of my books and my journals beside her bed. With their help she stays interested and cheerful and less afraid. She admitted at the age of ninety-two she felt " a little afraid ". She told me recently that she had had an accident, she had burnt herself with her electric hair curlers! If this woman at ninety-two has the courage and interest to curl her few remaining hairs, what is there that sixty, seventy and eighty couldn't do? Certainly, it's never too late for them "to take a grip" on themselves.
My Best Wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

13-Dear Readers, A patient wrote, "I know it is wrong to pity myself so much. Buy it seems to me that most people have a family of one's own. They belong to someone. I have friends, but this is different from having a family of one's own." Hundreds and thousands of people have no family. Many more have a family and yet many of these still don't feel that they especially 'belong'. Most of us paint a rosy picture of what we haven't got. Distant fields are still the greenest. True - belonging is the most wonderful thing in the world, but let's face it, it is also the rarest. Those with no family are not so much on the outskirts of life as they imagine. In the ultimate most of us stand alone, but if we regard each other as our family, and I am sad that I can't meet you all. But you are always with me in thought, and when I think of you all working away with hope and despair, I get real spasms of anxiety for you - perhaps anxiety is not the right word. If there is a word meaning compassion mixed with affection, then that's the right word. So, please try not to worry about having no immediate family of your own. Try to make us all your family. Mix with people. Incidentally you have a good friend who took the trouble to give you a copy of one of my books. Some people with a family can't persuade one member to even open my book. Another report, " I feel Dr. Weekes has done her utmost to help us. I feel it's up to us to carry out her teachings". If only you would. The reward would be all yours.
My Best Wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

14 -Dear Readers, Blood pressure still worries some of you. The treatment of blood pressure is so good today, you should not be upset if you are told you have high blood pressure. However, it is sometimes difficult to regulate the dosage of tablets and the patient's pressure may sometimes fall too low ,so that he/she may feel weak, giddy, have pains down the arms, in the legs, even in the jaws. I mention this because sometimes nervously ill people being treated for high blood pressure sometimes mistake these symptoms for 'nervous' and fail to mention them to their doctor. In answer to a question given in a survey in England "If you are pleased with your progress under Dr. Weekes's treatment, what can you do now that you could not do before?". "I was stuck to a chair. Now I am working, can do all the housework, go to all the shops and last year I visited Australia." Another remark, " I don't think Dr. Weekes can emphasise too much that one can be cured, but in the end one must do it one-self. Her's is the D.I.Y. kit, if only one can learn to trust and use it." The D .I.Y. kit is all YOURS. My Best Wishes, CLAIRE WEEKES

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