Agoraphobia is a form of anxiety disorder in which the sufferer may experience a feeling of intense fear that they may suffer an anxiety attack in any environment considered to be outside their ‘safe’ zone. This fear of experiencing a potential attack while out of their own home leads many agoraphobics to avoid leaving home at all.
For some people, agoraphobia can be triggered by the act of traveling, as the sufferer will begin to associate travel as taking them further away from their safety zone and deeper into unknown territories. This increases their panic response, which can then trigger a full blown anxiety attack. This can also be made significantly worse when the sufferer begins to associate certain places and things, such as open spaces, crowds, travel, or even shopping centers as being potential triggers for their anxiety.
The fear of having a panic attack in public is often a strong enough trigger to bring on an actual panic attack in many people. The onset of a panic attack simply confirms their fears and so they begin avoiding any situation for fear that it may happen again.
The fear is the actual trigger, not the event. It’s an unfortunate vicious cycle, but it’s one that can be broken with a little perseverance and patience.
Baby Steps
Agoraphobia panic attacks can be very frightening to the person suffering through them. Encouragement and patience from family and friends can be a good starting point.
Learning to create new safe havens away from home can be the first step to helping an agoraphobic person to understand the fear that sweeps over them. This can mean traveling a very short distance to a trusted friend or relative’s home and then reassuring the person that they made it safely without incident and they’re not panicking. When the sufferer can recognize that their fears didn’t eventuate, they can begin to associate new places as being safe.
Beating the Fear
The overwhelming sense of impending doom generates a very real fear response in agoraphobia panic attack sufferers. Their blood pressure will go up, their heart rate increases and the amount of adrenalin coursing through their bodies increase. This is commonly called a ‘fight or flight’ response as the body tries to prepare the sufferer for the worst possible outcomes.
With the body reacting in this extreme way, the mind instantly begins looking for real reasons to feel this intense level of panic and the association forms that the fear must be real.
Asking an agoraphobia panic attack sufferer to think logically about why they’re afraid doesn’t work. Their body is in full coping-mode and they’re looking for reasons to be afraid, which intensifies the panic attack.
In order to overcome the fear, it’s important to learn adequate anxiety therapy techniques that allow the sufferer to begin associating new experiences as being safe. This takes time and patience, but there are some very effective control techniques that can be learned if the sufferer is willing.