People with agoraphobia often tend to stay indoors, do not dare to go out alone, do not dare to go to crowded places. This condition directly affects the patient’s quality of life, relationships, work and emotions. Early psychotherapy to remove problems in the mind is the most useful solution to bring the patient back to community life.
What is agoraphobia?
Agoraphobia is scientifically known as agoraphobia, also known by some other names such as agoraphobia, or agoraphobia. This is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive anxiety and fear of non-dangerous situations, specifically gaps/large spaces/closed spaces.
For people with agoraphobia, just the thought of stepping out of the house can cause panic and fear.
Patients often try to avoid situations or have to go to places where escape is difficult to find, such as movie theaters, subways, classrooms, stairs, or in general places or spaces that outside their “safe zone”. People with agoraphobia tend to stay at home or in a room where they feel safest.
Statistics show that 30-50% of patients with agoraphobia have panic disorder, which contributes to more severe symptoms when faced with stressful situations. The signs of agoraphobia usually start at the average age of 20 years and cause a lot of impact on quality of life, mental, daily activities.
Symptoms of agoraphobia
It is normal for us to feel uncomfortable or anxious when we have to go to unfamiliar places, crowded places. However, in people with agoraphobia, their anxiety and fear will cover their entire psyche, making them tremble and tend to run away. Therefore, these people often try to avoid going out or need to be accompanied by a companion.
Sick people tend to stay indoors where they can stay calm
Specifically, typical symptoms of agoraphobia include
- Always just want to stay at home, don’t want to go out for any reason. If you must go out, you must have a relative or friend by your side to go out
- Feeling shaky, anxious, or short of breath if you have to stand in line or stand in a crowded place
- Fear of enclosed spaces such as cinemas, places with narrow stairs, toilets in public places, on public transport
- Fear of other open spaces such as the street, parking lot, shopping center or wide roads
- Tense, trembling, chest pain, shortness of breath, cold sweat, pale face, unsteady walking when going to crowded places. Symptoms may be relieved by walking on a low-traffic street, but the sick person will try to walk as fast as possible to get home
- Tends to walk briskly or take a taxi alone, less choice of public transport
- Tends to choose familiar routes, commute daily, dislike new things, including meeting new people or taking on new jobs
- In a state of panic, the sick person may scream or run, or even shake to the point of not being able to walk, the closer people get to it, the more the panic symptoms increase.
- Due to the tendency to stay at home a lot, the patient has few friends and feels lonely all the time
- Patients find it difficult to find a suitable job without the skills to work from home, some people have to live completely dependent on their families because they do not have a job.
- Patients may also have nightmares, trouble sleeping, mental depression if they are forced to go out that day or the next day, to crowded places.
Signs of agoraphobia are shown quite clearly, the patient himself or those around him can notice, but not everyone understands about this disease. If these symptoms persist for 6 months and cause serious effects on quality of life, the diagnosis of agoraphobia is diagnosed.
Causes of phobia of wide spaces
The exact cause of agoraphobia is not known at this time, but several studies have pointed to environmental influences during adulthood, genetic factors, or events that cause agoraphobia. Psychological trauma can trigger illness. The patient himself can understand that the phobia is unreasonable, there is really nothing to fear, but still can not control his emotions.
Being locked in an enclosed space can be the source of fear
Specifically, factors that are thought to be directly related to the cause of agoraphobia include
- Family factors: the disease is not related to inherited genes, but if someone in the family has the disease, the percentage of children or relatives at risk is higher. This cause is thought to be related to teaching, talking, educating or interacting among family members.
- Personality trends: in people with low self-esteem, shyness, fear of crowds, self-confidence, often overly dependent on family, overprotective parents or introverts, the risk of disease also higher.
- Traumatic: Some people may develop agoraphobia after experiencing a traumatic event that involves exposure to enclosed or open spaces. For example, being raped, locked in an enclosed space, kidnapped.. Patients who cannot overcome these obsessions seriously affect their quality of life.
- Other risk factors: some people have a higher risk of disease such as women, people who have been abandoned, people who have had some other psychological problems..
Consequences from agoraphobia to patients
Similar to other psychological problems, phobias of the void can cause many health and mental health consequences to the patient’s life. Some patients are also at risk of co-existing psychological problems such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder, making the severity and symptoms of the disease even more severe.
Because of being indoors a lot and alone, people with agoraphobia tend to be addicted to alcohol to relieve their emotions.
Consequences caused by the fear of the wide range of images seriously impair the patient’s quality of daily life, including:
Patients always feel lonely, have no one to share, thus increasing the risk of depression or some other psychological problems. Patients themselves find it difficult to make friends because they stay at home, do not like new things, are afraid of strangers around. Most of all, people who are not familiar, not close often also look at the patient with discrimination and lack of sympathy, so it is difficult to make friends.
Always having to depend on the family because they do not dare to go out, some people cannot find suitable jobs, so they have to completely depend on the family. This can limit the patient’s life, making them always feel constrained and lack of freedom
Tendency to find alcohol, tobacco or other stimulants leading to addiction
In fact, some people with agoraphobia can still live, go out and work as usual, just more limited in work, but due to their poor communication skills, they are also limited in their work. A lot of problems. Some people cannot bear the pressure from those around them, their mood is stagnant because they often have to live in anxiety and fear, making their illness more and more serious.
Besides, the detection and diagnosis of agoraphobia is often detected late because the patients themselves do not want to go out, do not want to receive treatment. The longer the symptoms last, the more severe the disease will become, the more severe it will be, and the more difficult it will be to treat.
Treatment direction for phobia of the void
According to some experts, agoraphobia can also sometimes resolve on its own, without treatment, through their self-exposure (repeated exposure to fear) therapies. However, if the disease symptoms are serious and directly interfere with the patient’s quality of life and health, it is imperative that treatment is required.
Patients should go to mental hospitals or psychological counseling centers for examination, diagnosis and the most accurate treatment. Through the symptoms, the time when the symptoms were detected, the personal and family history, the doctor will give the exact treatment direction. Doctors and other professionals can also ask patients to take tests to make a diagnosis through the DSM-5 criteria to determine the disease more accurately.
The treatment can last from 6 months to even a year, depending on the condition, the patient himself and the treatment methods. In addition, the support of family and loved ones also greatly contributes to the quick healing process.
Drug treatment
Medication is not the best treatment for agoraphobia, but in some cases it is still needed for temporary control of symptoms. The purpose of medication is to temporarily reduce anxiety, control the mind, thereby improving the quality of life for the patient. Depending on the symptoms involved, the use of drugs is also indicated differently.
Using the right medication will control the patient’s excessive anxiety and panic feelings
In particular, some of the common medications used in the treatment of agoraphobia include
- Antidepressants: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (Paroxetine or Fluoxetine) or selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (Venlafaxine or Cymbalta) or tricyclic antidepressants are usually indicated. (Amitriptyline or Nortriptyline).
- Anti-anxiety medications: Take Alprazolam (Xanax) or use clonazepam (Klonopin) to control symptoms of excessive anxiety, keeping calm in the face of stressful situations.
The use of these drugs is often accompanied by many side effects, such as drowsiness, drowsiness, increased appetite or strong weight gain. Patients need to follow the correct dosage from the doctor’s prescription, do not arbitrarily increase / decrease the dose or stop the drug suddenly because these can cause many bad side effects. When symptoms improve well, the doctor can reduce the dose but still need to maintain it afterwards to ensure complete elimination of the disease.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is the best measure for patients with agoraphobia. Through talking with a psychologist, patients can solve problems in their hearts, learn to face fears, dare to accept challenges, thereby gradually eliminating invisible fears. to reintegrate into community life.
The patients themselves feel very lonely, so the difficulties in their hearts are difficult to be relieved, the negative emotions that accumulate and their obsessions also gradually increase. The therapist not only plays the role of a treatment expert but also a friend and companion who can understand the difficulties of the patient, give them words of encouragement and encouragement so that they can have more confidence. Believe in starting a new life.
The methods being applied mainly today in psychotherapy for patients with agoraphobia include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): Through this method, patients themselves can clearly understand that they have irrational fears and need to be eliminated. Psychologists will teach mental relaxation skills, control emotions, adjust the patient’s thoughts and behavior in a more correct direction, as well as teach skills to deal with anxiety. Patients who respond to this therapy can actually improve their agoraphobia very effectively.
- Exposure therapy: The psychotherapist creates real-life situations where the patient can face his or her fears directly. Once properly exposed, the patient himself has learned to remain calm, and the tendency to fear also diminishes. When the patient has dared to face the obsessions and no longer panics or runs away, the disease also gradually disappears. Depending on the individual’s situation, psychologists can expose patients to fear through supportive tools such as virtual reality glasses or participate in direct experiences in reality.
In addition, psychologists also encourage families to attend therapy sessions to better understand the disease as well as know how to best talk, care and support the patient. The support from the family at this time is the most valuable medicine to bring the patient back to a happy and happy life as usual.
Treatment at home
Family or people you live with play a big role in getting rid of the symptoms of agoraphobia. Not only need to take care of their health, the family also needs to talk and encourage the patient’s spirit to be bolder to step out of their own comfort zone. It is the encouragement and trust from those around them that is the biggest motivation for the patient to break through the obscure barrier of his mind to step towards the light of happiness.
Some methods that can help people with agoraphobia in home treatment include:
- Deep breathing therapy can greatly help patients when faced with stressful situations and places, limiting panic or running away.
- Make sure to get enough sleep because when the mind is awake and fully charged, you can calm down and dare to face stress.
- Daily practice of meditation will help in improving the spirit of optimism, relaxation, control of emotions, ease of keeping calm and also bring a lot of benefits to health.
- Chat and share more with people around. Instead of just staying in the house, you can walk around the garden, around the house, and then gradually move to more distant, more crowded areas. Start by traveling with 1-2 people close to you, then learn to experience it on your own. If you are still worried, you can ask a loved one to follow you, this can make you feel more secure because there is still a loved one following you.
- Should eat enough, increase green vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs good for the brain and spirit. Absolutely stay away from alcohol, tobacco, alcoholic beverages or other stimulants
- Creating a spell for yourself that when you go out you can say in your head like an amulet to protect you from the dangers of the outside environment, this can really help many people. People
- Maintaining a daily exercise routine also brings a lot of good effects to patients in improving health and mind. Patients are also encouraged to participate in team sports to increase interaction with people, experience in crowded environments, closed and open spaces in a healthier way.
- Join group treatment with patients with similar symptoms so that everyone can help each other to try and change more effectively.
- Seek help from those around you right when you need it
- Find a new passion, such as learning the right jobs that will help your life and future
- Always keep the spirit of optimism, positivity, fun, love yourself and those around you
Most patients with agoraphobia have to undergo psychological treatment to quickly eliminate symptoms, prevent the risk of other dangerous complications from appearing. The patient himself needs to believe in himself, really want to get out of the comfort zone and completely trust in the doctor, the accompanying psychologist to truly recover from the disease.
