Agorafabulous!

by Sara Benincasa

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  Credits

  Cover design by Mary Schuck

  Cover photograph by Jan Cobb

  Sara’s dress by pinupgirlclothing.com

  Copyright

  AGORAFABULOUS! Copyright © 2012 by Sara Benincasa Donnelly. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Benincasa, Sara.

  Agorafabulous! : dispatches from my bedroom / Sara Benincasa. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-06-202441-1

  1. Benincasa, Sara—Health. 2. Agoraphobia—Patients—United States—Biography. I. Title. II. Title: Dispatches from my bedroom.

  RC552.A44B46 2012

  616.85'225—dc23

  2011033172

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  EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2012 ISBN: 9780062099075

  12 13 14 15 16 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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  1 Unless you count oral sex. Which, being Catholic, I did not.

  2 Italian-Americans argue over the origin of the term agita (AH-jih-da). The most common explanation is that it comes from the verb agitare, “to agitate.” Some folks say it is a Southern Italian mispronunciation of the noun acido (AH-chee-do), or acid. It means that you’re really nervous, your stomach hurts, or you’ve got the shits. Mr. D’Angelo assumed my malady was of the more scatological variety.