As an engineer and scientist, I experienced a massive worsening of my latent claustrophobia disorder at just over 34 years of age. I had - as far as I can remember - never had a friendly relationship with confined spaces and elevators since I was about 14 years old, but bus and train rides as well as tight disco rooms (from 18 on, of course) or confinement in stadiums, cinemas and theaters did not bother me. My claustrophobia was not particularly on my radar. If possible, I avoided sometimes an elevator when it was not very trustworthy.

I became a father for the first time when I was just over 31 and by 34 I had started 2 companies and was employed by my second company. Starting around 34, I experienced a steady worsening of my panic attacks and the rate at which they worsened quickly made the situation unbearable. I began to worry with every potential trip not about the destination, or what I would be doing there, or anything like that, but what mode of transportation would I be taking. Will I be stuck in traffic, does it have a tunnel, will the train be full, does it have a gondola, etc.?
The climax was so bad that standing in a car line outside a tunnel was unbearable and scary, and I left a crowded streetcar immediately when more passengers got on. The exciting thing was, I actually didn't know what exactly I was afraid of. It wasn't a fear that I would be left without oxygen and suffocate, or that I would be compressed. Rather, it was a diffuse fear of being crammed so tightly with other people and having no way to escape from that situation. Actually, I was afraid of not being in control of the situation myself.
I am writing this book 15 years after I first went to the anxiety disorder practice at my hometown university hospital. Of course, after the treatment I was not immediately cured as if nothing had happened and did not and never thought about claustrophobia again, but I learned to deal with the symptoms and to calm down and avoid the overreaction. My quality of life was already much higher after the treatment ended and a few months later it was almost at its peak. The only unpleasant situation was still flying. Today I can ride a crowded streetcar, ride an elevator, ride a train, stand in line at tunnels, ride through tunnels in traffic jams, and fly in an airplane without any problems. I even drove in Antwerp traffic jam through a tunnel below the Scheldt without any problems. My quality of life is different. I am free again.

As a former severe sufferer of claustrophobia and panic attacks, I am eager to write a book about it to share my experiences and the way I learned to live without claustrophobia. I think it is an interesting and informative read for people who struggle with this phobia or want to learn more about it. This book includes both thorough research with books and articles from experts and almost the state of the science together. It also shows my personal experience with claustrophobia and the road to recovery. This book is meant to be a support for people in a similar situation as mine.
I can now live a normal life again, fly, take train rides, ride buses and elevators. Something I was unable to do before my therapy and which had massively restricted my quality of life.
This book serves as a companion with excerpts from the life of a sufferer. It is meant to serve as a prop to simply help people in the same situation. It might replaces professional therapy in some cases, but certainly acts supportively or as a catalyst so that people in a similar situation have easy access and know what might be coming their way. In mild cases, however, it can also serve to help people get a handle on claustrophobia themselves.