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Bazaar & Rummage by Sue Townsend
6 women can be doubling
Author of: Groping For words; The Great Celestial Cow; The Queen and I: A Play With Songs; The Adrian Mole series of books.
Agoraphobia forces you to act in the most ridiculous fashion. I once suffered from it for three weeks and during that time I would hang my washing out in the garden at midnight. I was lucky in that I analysed the cause of my agoraphobia: I hated where I lived. So there was a simple solution. Move. I did move and as soon as the decision was made the agoraphobia went.
Some agoraphobics haven't left their houses for twenty years, others can only move within a very small territory. All of them suffer great anxiety at the thought of going out. It is very sad but most of the sufferers can and will laugh about their experiences.
Bazaar & Rummage is also about the nature of ‘caring' and the sometimes parasitic stranglehold that carers have on those they are supposed to be caring for. Who needs whom?
I think that agoraphobia is only an outward symptom of other deeper problems. And, something more sinister perhaps, it often suits husbands and children to have their wives and mothers at home all day every day and if the sufferer talks about seeking a cure this will be seen almost as an act of betrayal.
Sue Townsend |
