If I had to be home alone, I would go through great lengths to make sure that did not happen.

Like really creative life engineering to make sure that I was never left alone.

Because what happens if I panic or I snap, I have severe anxiety if I'm alone, who's going to save me?

Monophobia is the belief that you cannot cope on your own.

I was so afraid to be alone that I literally deluded myself into thinking that my dog could dial 911.

I'd be like looking out for signs of potential rescue.

Or maybe there's a farmer over there who would dial for help if needed.

So it's not a different fear. It's not its own fear.

It's not, oh, I have this new thing I have to overcome. It does confuse people. Sometimes they get

down on themselves and think, oh, I've developed yet another fear. Well, no, it's really kind of the same

fear. Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 29 of the podcast. Today we're going to talk about the fear of being alone, otherwise known as monophobia.

I am Drew Linzalata, one of the co-host of Disordered. I am a graduate student in clinical mental health counseling, getting ever closer to being a licensed therapist in the state of New York here in the U.S.

And I am joined by my co-host in the UK.

I'm Joshua Fletcher, also known as Anxiety Josh, on social media.

I'm a qualified psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.

There's previous experience of going through an anxiety disorder too.

How you doing, Drew?

I'm good, man. What's happening?

Now I'm afraid to be alone. Well, it's great because we can talk to each other, so we're not alone.

Monophobia often goes hand in hand with agoraphobia and panic disorder. What's your experience of it?

I had it. I had monophobia for sure. I didn't know it was called that. That was a term I learned later on. And that's not an official diagnosis,

by the way. People think that that's not like a DSM-5 thing. But that it was, I was terrified

...