Agoraphobia Definitions and Symptoms

Is there a Difference Between Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder?

by Stephen Price

Agoraphobia is an advanced type of panic disorder. Statistics show that about one-third of people with panic disorder eventually develop agoraphobia. In addition to panic attacks, agoraphobia features conditioned, irrational fear that becomes deeply rooted in the brain.

People with panic disorder mainly fear the next panic attack. Agoraphobia occurs when a person develops an irrational, conditioned fear of everything they learn to associate their panic attacks with.

When you have agoraphobia you are conditioned to fear things like going outdoors, being away from home, being stuck among crowds of people, sitting in the middle row of a theater, standing in lines, taking elevators, crossing a bridges, driving cars, or using public transportation like buses and planes.

You also get conditioned to fear having a panic attack while outside in wide open spaces with no one around to help you. However, most people with agoraphobia find no comfort in being around people in public places because they are afraid of having a panic attack and embarrassing themselves in front of others.

To summarize, if you have agoraphobia you will probably learn to fear any place or situation where you feel stuck, trapped, or out of control.

Implications for choosing a recovery program:
Because conditioning can be so strong, getting free from agoraphobia takes more than just learning to stop a panic attack. It takes breaking the connection in your mind between panic attacks and the things you learn to associate them with. In other words, you don't just need to stop the panic - you need to disarm what triggers it.

That's why just any self-help recovery program for panic or anxiety may not be enough to help you recover from agoraphobia. There are many self-help programs that only address the symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks, but do not address the conditioning that occurs in the development of a phobia like agoraphobia. You need a recovery program that is designed to help you overcome agoraphobia specifically.

To give yourself the best chance of success in recovering from agoraphobia, choose a program that will guide you through a re-conditioning process, like systematic desensitization (or gradual exposure) in which you unlearn your conditioned fear. This will help you reverse the phobic conditioning that separates agoraphobia from mere panic disorder.