Researcher finds hidden illness is widespread

About 200,000 New Zealanders are agoraphobic, a university researcher has found.

And she says such anxiety disorders should be treated as serious mental illnesses.

The research by Otago University's Canterbury suicide project principal investigator, Annette Beautrais, also revealed that 23 per cent of all suicides in New Zealand can be attributed to anxiety disorders.

And more than a third of sufferers use alcohol or other substances to deal with their symptoms.

Phobic Trust chief executive Marcia Read said anxiety disorders were "distressing and disabling" for sufferers and their families, but were "eminently treatable".

She told the Mental Health Commission magazine Mental Notes that the trust's 24-hour helpline received more than 50,000 calls a year.

The trust treated, among other disorders, social phobia, agoraphobia, kleptomania (compulsive stealing), trichotillomania (pulling out hair) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

"Many New Zealanders have no idea how silent and overwhelming OCD is," Ms Read said.

Many people using trust services were seriously ill, but after 21 years she was still having difficulty raising money for its centres and having anxiety disorders recognised as a major mental illness.

Ms Read has been invited to Alabama to help establish a similar trust and to direct the building of a therapy village.

"It's a great honour to be asked. The people I will be working with in Alabama are the very underprivileged. It will be an exciting challenge."

The Phobic Trust relied on voluntary help, mainly from psychology students.

A recent Lions Foundation grant enabled it to employ a business manager, and it is now raising money for a 26-bed respite unit at St Lukes in Auckland.

Its other centre is in Newtown, Wellington.

Some disorders

Agoraphobia: Fear of open spaces or public places

Kleptomania: Compulsive stealing

Trichotillomania: Pulling out hair

- NZPA