Agoraphobia Treatment Options
Alternative Treatment for Agoraphobia - Part 2: Hypnotherapy
Some form of hypnosis has been used to help people overcome fears, problem behaviors, and illnesses throughout much of recorded history. Modern clinical hypnosis began in about 1773. Clinical hypnosis is the form of hypnosis used today to treat psychological and physical problems, in which the patient goes into an altered or relaxed state and is guided by a therapist’s suggestions.
Hypnosis is a method of harnessing the power of your subconscious mind to work for you in overcoming agoraphobic fear. How well hypnotherapy works for you will depend on how willing you are to be hypnotized and the degree to which your fear is rooted in your subconscious mind.
Hypnotherapists who treat people with agoraphobia believe that agoraphobic fear finds its roots in the subconscious. Proponents of hypnotherapy also believe the subconscious mind has tremendous power to influence the autonomic nervous system. They believe that if the subconscious mind perceives danger, it sets off the fight or flight response. In this context, panic disorder and, in some cases, agoraphobia occur when the subconscious mind gets confused about when to set off the fight or flight response and when not to.
The process of hypnosis resembles a very relaxed day-dreaming or a wakeful sleep. During hypnosis, your brain wave cycle rhythm lowers into a meditative state sometimes called the “alpha state.” During the alpha state, electrical impulses in your brain cycle at a rate of about ten cycles per second. In this state, you are fully aware of the messages and images in your subconscious mind.
When you are hypnotized, a therapist guides you through the reprogramming of your subconscious mind while in the alpha or meditative state. Negative subconscious thoughts and associations are replaced with positive ones.
Although there are certainly case studies of individuals with agoraphobia who have been helped by hypnosis and self-hypnosis, research supporting its effectiveness is sparse. Hypnosis is still considered by most to be an alternative form of treatment for agoraphobia.
Hypnosis and self-hypnosis are sometimes chosen because they seem to offer an easy cure. The shortcoming of hypnosis is that it deals only with the behavior, and not the cause of the behavior.
A patient may tell the hypnotist, “I get nervous while driving in traffic.” As part of the therapy, the hypnotist will teach the patient how to induce a hypnotic trance to be responsive to suggestions about feeling relaxed while driving in traffic. Hypnosis does not address low self-esteem, feelings of vulnerability, excessive need for control, or other anxiety-related issues.
When the goals of therapy are very specific (like trying to stop a specific behavior), hypnosis and self-hypnosis can be very effective for people who are receptive to it. However, recovering from agoraphobia is more complex than just changing behavior. You might learn how to relax while driving in traffic, but if the underlying cause of anxiety is not addressed, it will express itself in another way and you will find yourself back in the therapist’s office trying to hypnotize yourself to overcome a different fear.