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In recent decades, doctors and mental health providers have assigned a number of definitions to the condition known as agoraphobia. It has been described as a fear of open places and crowds, or a fear of leaving a place of safety. The underlying basis of the phobia, and the common thread among all its sufferers, is the anxiety they experience when placed in situations from which they feel they cannot immediately escape, or more specifically, they fear having an anxiety attack and losing control.
The situations which cause apprehension vary among people with agoraphobia. Standing in line at the supermarket or bank, getting stuck in traffic, or merely sitting in a movie theater or restaurant -- these are a few of the many situations that can cause discomfort and even terror in the agoraphobic. The fear is caused not so much by the particular situations or places, but rather the fear and dread that agoraphobic experiences there.
Many people with agoraphobia experience anxiety attacks (or panic attacks) which may occur only occasionally, or frequently during the course of the day. If allowed to continue untreated, the intensity and frequency of the anxiety attacks can become all-consuming and debilitating, and the sufferer's "safe" radius is gradually decreased until he or she becomes a prisoner at home, unable to leave his or her home for fear of another attack.
A full-blown case of agoraphobia can often be traced to a single incident: an illness, injury or other stress-provoking situation. Seemingly out of the blue, the symptoms of panic appear: heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dry mouth, clammy hands, dizziness, a profound feeling of impending doom, or a frightening sense of unreality. The victim of these alarming sensations may begin to associate his or her panic with the specific place at which it occurred, and thus begins the pattern of avoidance.
Many sufferers of panic attacks and agoraphobia have rushed to their doctors' offices or emergency rooms displaying various symptoms of anxiety, only to be dismissed by perhaps concerned yet puzzled caregivers who can't find anything "wrong" with their patients. Recently, however, many health care providers have become increasingly able to recognize the symptoms of this condition, and after a thorough examination to eliminate any possible physical causes for the symptoms, can recommend a course of action toward releasing the agoraphobic from the prison of his own fear.
There are many effective methods of treating agoraphobia, including cognitive restructuring, or "reprogramming" the negative thoughts which can feed anxiety, behavioral therapy, and pharmacological treatment, or medication therapy. Many doctors agree tend to agree that a greater overall level of improvement can be achieved when a combination of these treatments is implemented. The caregivers and patients ultimately decide together what will work best in individual cases.
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