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Agoraphobia is quite often disorder. About 1 of 160 people suffers from it.
The ancient term agoraphobia is translated from Greek as fear of an open
marketplace. Agoraphobia today describes severe and pervasive anxiety
about being in situations from which escape might be difficult or avoidance
of situations such as being alone outside of the home, traveling in a car, bus,
or airplane, or being in a crowded area .
These people avoid being on busy streets or in crowded stores, theatres and
churches.
Normal activities become restricted as the person avoids these situations.
Many agoraphobia victims are afraid of leaving the house. Perhaps for this
reason agoraphobia is the most common phobia seen in the clinic, about
60% of all examined phobias.
Agoraphobia occurs about two times more commonly among women than
men. It can be connected with the fact, that
Women have been and are still being stereotyped, agoraphobia has been
explained in terms of traditional sex roles. Clinical descriptions of
agoraphobics use such words as passive, shy, dependent, descriptions
traditionally applied to women. It may be as Fodor suggests, that being
agoraphobic, is in part a logical, although exaggerated, extension of the
stereotyped female role. Until recently and still in many societies it has been
more acceptable for a woman than for a man to be housebound. As
stereotypes of womes as helpless, fragile, home-oriented, passive, fearful
and dependent will change, the should be equal number of male-female
agoraphobics.
The disorder tends to be more common among families where other
members also suffer from an anxiety disorder and/or possibly abuse alcohol.
Most agoraphobia’s develop symptoms between the ages of 18 and 35. The
onset may be sudden or gradual.
Many agoraphobia victims develop the disorder after first suffering a series
of panic attacks in public places. The attacks seem to occur randomly and
without warning, making it impossible for a person to predict what situation
will trigger such a reaction. Attack is accompanied with tension, anxiety,
dizziness, depression, sweating, more frequent heartbeating, minor checking
compulsions – checking is the door is locked, no intruder is under the bed,
the iron is offf- rumination and fear of going mad.
One study found that 93% of agoraphobics also reported fears of heights
and enclosed spaces such as subways and elevators. But many agoraphobics
have “good days”, when they can move about. Being with a trusted
companion can also help them leave the house.
Treatment
Fortunately, phobias are very treatable. In fact, most people who seek
treatment completely overcome their fears for life.
Psychoanalytic approaches. Treatment tries to uncover the repressed
conflict, that are thought to be covered in the extreme fear and avoidance.
Phobia is thought to protect the person from repressed conflicts that are too
painful to face it. There are two major techniques, that are used to help lift
the repression. First is – free association. The analyst listen carefully to what
tha patient mentions in connections with any references to the phobia. And
second – analyst tries to discover origins of the phobia by analyzing the
content of dreams.
But more effective relief can be gained through either behavior therapy or
medication.
In behavior therapy, one meets with a trained therapist and learns to
control the physical reactions of fear. The person first imagines the feared
object or situation, works up to looking at pictures that show the object or
situation, and finally actually experiences the situation or comes in contact
with the feared object. the person becomes accustomed to it and can lose
the terror, horror, panic, and dread he or she once felt. It is called
systematic desensitization.
Medications are used to control the panic experienced during a phobic
situation as well as the anxiety aroused by anticipation of that situation and
are the treatment of first choice for social phobia and agoraphobia.
Any phobia that interferes with daily living and creates extreme disability
should be treated. With proper treatment, the vast majority of phobia
patients can completely overcome their fears and be symptom free for
years, if not for life.