If you are seeking professional help for agoraphobia, you really need to be informed about the most effective forms of therapy before you visit a therapist for the first time. This way you will be informed enough to talk intelligently about treatment options and work with the therapist to make the best decisions for your recovery.



Although therapists are trained to help you recover from agoraphobia, you will do best to take responsibility for your own recovery. You may follow the therapist's treatment program or suggestions, but some therapists are biased towards one or more types of therapies they are most familiar with. Always keep in mind that ultimately, the therapist is working for you so you need to be informed.

Results vary from study to study, but in general, a combination of cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, and medication has proven most effective for recovering from agoraphobia in controlled studies.

Here are brief descriptions of each of the three most effective forms of therapy:

1) Behavioral Therapy: Focuses primarily on changing avoidance behavior that results from anxiety. Most effective forms of behavior therapy are systematic desensitization and flooding. Systematic desensitization is a therapy that involves gradually exposing yourself to feared settings to slowly re-condition yourself to feel relaxation instead of panic and anxiety. Flooding involves forcing yourself to stay in the feared setting until the panic and anxiety eventually go away.

2) Cognitive Therapy: Focuses primarily on changing anxiety-producing thought patterns. Three main forms of cognitive therapy are thought replacing, thought stopping, and focusing. In thought replacing (also called cognitive restructuring), the therapist teaches you to become aware of and replace your irrational, anxiety-producing thought patterns. In thought stopping, you learn techniques to notice and cut off irrational thinking in the moment, and in focusing, the therapist teaches you to re-focus your full attention on something in your present environment, engaging all of your senses, in order to divert feelings of panic and anxiety.

3) Medication: Focuses on changing physical processes in the brain through chemical intervention. Most effective medications prescribed for agoraphobia are benzodiazepines and SSRIs. Benzodiazepines are tranquilizers like Xanax, Valium, and Ativan. SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are a newer form of antidepressant that includes Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft. Effexor (a Selective Serotonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor), is a close cousin to the SSRIs and is also a popular medication that is prescribed for agoraphobia.

Of course, when using medication, it is best to consult your physician about possible side-effects, tolerance, and withdrawal effects. Medication alone is not a long term solution for agoraphobia and is best used to help you relax while practicing cognitive and behavioral forms of therapy.

It is strongly recommended that you try a combination of cognitive and behavioral forms of therapy (with or without medication) before experimenting with alternative treatment options.

Since the same treatments do not always work the same for everyone, other forms of treatment for agoraphobia that have been developed include:

Psychodynamic therapy (or insight therapy)

Hypnosis

Meditation

Herbal treatments

Biofeedback

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)

Emotional freedom techniques (EFT)

If you have agoraphobia, you will do best to try the more proven cognitive-behavioral therapies before trying these alternative forms of treatment.