By MONIQUE DEVEREUX and NZPA
Joyce Riley's fear of the outside world was so great it prevented her seeking help when her son became ill and died, and eventually killed her.
The elderly Christchurch woman's agoraphobia, which kept her from going outside, using the telephone and keeping in contact with family and
neighbours, was extreme but not uncommon.
Neighbours say that in the last year of her life she would not even make the trip to the letterbox, would rarely answer the door and would watch her son weed the garden from behind her curtains.
The Phobic Trust says up to a quarter of the population suffers from some form of anxiety disorder.
The partially decomposed bodies of 75-year-old Mrs Riley and her 43-year-old son Tim were discovered in their home last September. Mr Riley, who was unemployed, had been dead for almost two months, his widowed mother for a matter of weeks.
In court this week Christchurch coroner Richard McElrea heard how Mrs Riley suffered from debilitating agoraphobia. She relied on her son Tim to organise food for them, shunning other offers of help.
Mrs Riley was found with half a biscuit stuck in her teeth and weighed just 41kg. The cause of death was primarily starvation.
Tim Riley was found to have died after suffering broncho-pneumonia and heart failure in late July.
Phobic Trust founder Marcia Read said there were many avenues for sufferers and their family to seek help, and treatment could be very successful.
