Agoraphobia Treatment Options

Skills, Not Pills, are the Answer to Agoraphobia

Don’t buy into the myth that finding the right medication is the ultimate solution for agoraphobia.

The main drawback with medication is that pills can only reduce agoraphobia symptoms while you are taking them. Medication only masks the symptoms of agoraphobia and is not a real cure or long-term solution.

Due to the drawbacks of medication, most psychologists and psychiatrists prescribe medicine for agoraphobia as a temporary means of reducing symptoms while a person learns the skills necessary to achieve lasting recovery. Once a person begins to feel successful with a treatment program, the goal is to gradually reduce reliance on the medication.

If you decide to use medication in your recovery from agoraphobia, be careful not to give the medication too much credit or you may set yourself up for relapse. There is evidence from research to support the idea that skills, not pills, are the way to a lasting recovery from agoraphobia

A study was conducted in 1994 at the Institute of Psychiatry in Denmark Hill, London, involving people with agoraphobia who improved using a combination of Xanax and psychotherapy (either relaxation or exposure). The ones who relapsed were the ones that attributed their recovery to Xanax more than psychotherapy. The people who credited their recovery to their hard work in therapy were least likely to relapse.

Don’t give medication too much credit for your recovery and don’t become overly reliant on it. Medications can certainly be an instrumental part of recovery when combined with therapy, but are not a long-term solution. It’s best to follow a recovery program that challenges you to grow as a person and helps you get free of the underlying anxiety that feeds agoraphobia.

In the long run, you will want to live with the confidence that you would not be totally debilitated by panic and fear if you stopped taking your pills. It’s the hard work you put in to learn skills in your recovery from agoraphobia that leads to real improvement that lasts a lifetime.