ONE day 10 years ago, David Burt left his parents' house in Plymouth Road for a short walk around the corner to post a letter, writes Julian Seva.

It turned out to be a life-changing walk which would finally open his eyes to a serious problem which had been building inside him for months and would dog him for years to come.

Half-way to the post box he began to sweat as an overwhelming sense of panic took hold and he realised he couldn't go on. He never posted the letter.

Agoraphobia is commonly known to be a dread of wide-open spaces but it also encompasses an array of other irrational fears, such as travelling, using stairs, being in crowds and unfamiliar places.

Of all the phobias, it is the most common and affects women more than men.

Looking back, David, 38, now feels his agoraphobia was sparked by the loss of both his job as a supervisor in an Edinburgh supermarket and his girlfriend at the same time.

David said: "I was in a good job and when it ended along with the relationship, I lost a lot of trust in people which I had always placed a lot of importance on.

"So I was looking to move back to Redditch and came down for the weekend and when I returned to Edinburgh I found my friends had sold some of my stuff.

"After that I started believing that if you can't even trust your friends then who can you trust? It just snowballed from there.

"The fear just built up out of an accumulation of everything that had happened from childhood onwards.

"I would be outside and suddenly think I was dying of a heart attack. I'd sweat, have palpitations, pins and needles and just feel faint. Going out just brought out this sheer panic."

David began to spend longer periods indoors and find excuses not to leave the house. If he did go out, somebody would have to drive him.

Sundays presented a particular stumbling block because most places would not be busy.

"If you're walking around and you feel you are going to faint, you panic even more because there's nobody around to help you.

"So all the time you're trying to escape this situation and get back to where you feel safe," said David.

"But then you might see somebody and your stress levels drop a bit."

At his lowest point in 1991, he did not leave the house in six months.

Frustration set in, quickly followed by depression.

Years of self-doubt and watching others succeed, including his siblings, had come home to roost.

Having reached this low point, the only way left was up and so the long battle to recovery began.

Checking into Orchard Place in Smallwood, a scheme which provides support for people with depression and other psychological problems, helped supply important doses of confidence.

"I felt very relaxed there. There were people there with worse problems than me and I found myself going nearly every day.

"Someone still had to drop me off and pick me up in the car though."

After this, and through a slow but sure process of willpower, David began to re-integrate himself back into society.

"With agoraphobia it's very easy to fall into a lazy routine and stay indoors when what you really need is a good kick up the backside," said David.

"You need to confront your fears and force yourself out of the house."

But it took the death of his mother in 1999 to bring about a real and permanent change in his life.

"I really wanted to prove that I could do things for myself and I think my mother's death was a turning point. It inspired me."

So after a decade of near incapacity, broken relationships and a string of lost jobs (reliability not being one of the sufferer's strong points), David could finally claim he was 90 per cent cured.

He can use buses again, recently overcame a fear of escalators and now helps people with dyslexia and learning difficulties at NEW College.

It's a far cry from the day he hid under a table to avoid being taken to a football match.

But, he says, he is still aware of how easy it could be to slide back into old ways again.

He said: "The trick is not to get too comfortable. There are books and breathing techniques that can help but there's nothing like good old willpower."

He added: "When you finally get through agoraphobia there's a real high and I feel brilliant now.

"But I know that if I had gone about it in the right way I could have beaten it in two years instead of 10."

David Burt is willing to offer others with agoraphobia advice and can be contacted on 0776 1356408 or via Marion on 0778 7308430.