What is agoraphobia? It is one of the anxiety disorders that is characterized by experiencing an irrational fear of being in open places or situations in which you cannot easily run away. This type of condition is quite limiting for the person who suffers from it since the more he avoids the places that generate fear and anxiety, the more serious the disorder increases. The most frequent fears that agoraphobic people face are related to being alone outside the home, being in a place where there are many people, queuing, traveling by bus, car or any closed means of transportation, going through a tunnel, etc.
Usually you start by avoiding a situation but over time the number of situations increases. Some people may even not want to leave their home, making this the only place where they feel really safe. In this article from Psychology-Online: agoraphobia: what is it, causes, symptoms and treatment, we are going to provide you with detailed information about this type of mental disorder that is increasingly common and limiting.
To do one correct definition of agoraphobiaWe have to look at the symptoms that individuals with this problem present. People with agoraphobia develop a series of quite characteristic signs. Among the most common symptoms are the following:
- Fear of being in places where it may be difficult to get out
- Fear of being or being alone
- Fear of losing control and / or having a panic episode in public places.
- Increased dependence on other people
- Difficulty breathing
- Abdominal pain
- Not wanting to leave home for a long period of time
- Mood and behavior changes
- Believe that she lacks control over herself
- Symptoms similar to anxiety crisis
The exact origin that causes the development of agoraphobia is unknown and it depends on each particular situation. In general, agoraphobia is usually triggered when a person has experienced an episode of anxiety crisis and begins to fear that it will happen again. This fear that you experience of having another panic attack is what makes you decide to start avoiding those types of situations where you think you could present yourself and could not receive help and / or could do the ridiculous. It is worth mentioning that for a person to choose to avoid feared situations, they usually have one of the following characteristics:
- It generates a lot of shame the fact of having an anxiety problem and / or any psychological disorder. They are often very afraid of being judged by others and therefore give great importance to what others think of them.
- If they have experienced any situation where they have experienced situations that have caused them discomfort, such as the anxiety caused by having entered a new job, instead of continuing in it to adapt and reduce their anxiety, they choose to leave so as not to feel that discomfort again.
- They feel that there is really nothing they can do to reduce their sensations. They have the belief that the reactions they have to situations that generate fear and stress will never be taken away from them. Unlike people who are aware that they can do something to reduce and alleviate the symptoms associated with agoraphobia and therefore are more likely to be cured.
- They prefer the known and they are very afraid of the unknown. They have a great need for control.
- It has been found that introverts they tend to develop agoraphobia more than extroverts.
The most effective treatment for agoraphobia is cognitive behavioral therapy so that will be the one we are going to focus on. The duration of it will depend on the individual case of each person and the time they have been suffering from this disorder since it is not the same to treat a person who is 5 months old with agoraphobia than another who is 5 years old for example. Therefore it is advisable to receive help as soon as possible since gravity increases exponentially as more time is allowed to pass.
Therapy to treat agoraphobia
The goal of treatment is to the person stop avoiding and gradually begin to expose yourself to the places or situations that generate anxiety, to change the negative and inappropriate perspective you have about what is happening to you and how you can move on with your life normal. For this, it is necessary to work through psychoeducation, where you will be informed in a clear and detailed way about everything related to your condition.
It will also help the person to modify their negative and irrational thoughts for other more objective and positive ones, for example some of the thoughts may be the following:
- "I will never be able to get over this and lead a normal life"
- "I can't leave the house because I'm sure I have a panic attack"
in this case they would be modified by others such as:
- "I am able to get ahead and lead a normal life since I have control over myself"
- “With therapy and relaxation techniques to manage panic episodes I will have more confidence to leave home "
On the other hand, the person is also trained in breathing and relaxation exercises that allow them to better manage their emotions and also reduce their anxiety levels.
After the person begins to improve his perspective towards himself and what happens to him and has been trained with relationship exercises, he also begins to work on the sessions with exposure exercises in the imagination accompanied by relaxation exercises to relieve anxiety caused by thinking that you are in places feared.
Once the person has reduced their anxiety levels through imaginative exposure, the live exposure exercises where gradually it will be exposed to the feared situations and places, taking into account that the greater the exposure, the greater the reduction of fear and therefore of the symptoms.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Agoraphobia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.
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Agoraphobia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatment
