Hi Mary-Ellen.
You describe the way I feel sometimes. I think it is more depression than a phobia. I will often try to find an excuse not to go out if I can. I hate going to the grocery store, for example, and will often put it off until hunger becomes the motivating force. It's not that I'm scared of being out in public but rather because when I'm depressed the littlest things are too hard to deal with. The simple acts of driving to the store, finding a parking place, deciding what to put in my cart, and standing in line, all seem like a list of overwhelmingly difficult chores. It doesn't seem to make sense. I tell myself they are really fairly simple tasks, but when I'm depressed it's just so much easier to stay home and read a book or watch TV than to deal with even the slightest inconvenience. Depression can make everything seem so hard sometimes. 