Agoraphobia: What is it & Why Medication Therapy Works

Phobias, of any type, can lead to life altering health complications especially when the mental health disorder causes a decline in social activity. If you are suffering from the fear of social settings, based primarily upon your concern over anxiety attacks, you may be suffering from a condition known as agoraphobia. With this type of dual mental health complication, patients often require not only psychotherapy but also medication therapy alternatives (Capps 197).

Fear as a Factor
In the nursing commentary, entitled, Understanding Agoraphobia Symptoms in the Nursing Setting, Michelle Garza cites the symptoms of agoraphobia as, "...the fear of having anxiety or panic attacks in specific situations…". While the patient does not, necessarily, have to have a panic attack, the simple fear and avoidance of social situations is what results in the diagnosis of agoraphobia.

Symptoms of Agoraphobia
If you suffer from panic attacks, and then develop a secondary complication that leads to isolation, loneliness and fear over leaving your home or work setting, you may have the early symptoms of agoraphobia. While your mental health specialist may recommend exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, the best option for you will be to utilize medications to first control your panic attacks and prevent them from occurring.

Why Medication Works
With medication therapy, not only are your anxiety attacks prevented but, in your mind, when you understand that you won't have a panic attack then your ability to venture into social settings will be far easier than without medication therapy. Just knowing that you won't have a panic attack will then begin to alleviate the complications of agoraphobia and, as a result, naturally work to minimize these secondary mental health complications. When medication therapy is coupled with solid psychotherapy, you'll overcome both mental health complications far easier than if the conditions were not treated with medication.

While there are many phobias and mental health complications that do not respond well to medication therapy, the complications with agoraphobia will. The key to your optimal health outcome will lie, first, in your ability to recognize that agoraphobia symptoms have developed and then to seek out a psychiatrist who can prescribe the right medications to alleviate your anxiety symptoms. In the long term, both of these mental health complications can be overcome.

Sources:
Capps, Lisa. Constructing Panic, Harvard University Press. 1995. Google Books.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/phobias.html
http://www.adaa.org/finding-help/treatment/medication