To get informative answers to these questions, read on.
My name is Stephen Price, and I recovered from agoraphobia and have a master’s degree in psychology. I know that to recover from agoraphobia, you need the right information from a credible source.
That’s why I have written some short articles on these topics - because I want YOU to have the information you need to plan a successful recovery from agoraphobia.
Yes. You can make a complete recovery from agoraphobia without professional help. I did it, and so have many others.
Professional help can be a luxury – but is not necessary.
I am not saying a trained psychologist can’t help you – but professional help is a luxury that not everyone can afford. If you have agoraphobia, I don’t want you putting off your recovery until you afford expensive therapy.
When I had my first panic attack, I’d never heard of agoraphobia and had no idea what to do. I thought a psychologist’s help was my only option.
If I only knew then what I know now.
Not all psychologists use the best methods for agoraphobia.
My first big lesson was that not all psychologists are trained to treat agoraphobia properly. Similar to medical doctors, psychologists may try different approaches depending upon what they’ve been taught.
When I had agoraphobia, I had the misfortune of choosing a psychologist who thought Freudian psychoanalysis would help everyone overcome everything. Since I was completely in the dark about agoraphobia and its treatment, I didn’t know any better. My therapy sessions were like the blind leading the blind.
Long story short, I ended up lying on a couch talking endlessly about my childhood.
The psychologist kept probing for the unconscious roots of my fear. We had deep conversations about my sadness over selling a family dog – but talk of my childhood didn’t help anything. My condition only grew worse.
My therapy ended when I could no longer lie on the couch without having a panic attack. That’s when I realized….
I didn’t need long, drawn-out psychotherapy!
I needed strategies to stop panic attacks!
Your recovery depends on the work YOU do – with or without professional help
My second big lesson was that my recovery depended on me – and the amount of work I put in. I learned that proven, research-based techniques for overcoming agoraphobia exist – but no one could practice them for me. A psychologist could only guide me – but I had to do the work.
If you have agoraphobia, please don’t wait for someone else to fix you – not even a psychologist who is trained to treat agoraphobia.
Even if you seek professional help, it’s wise to educate yourself about agoraphobia and its treatment beforehand – so you can make the important decisions about your own recovery. I learned the hard way not to blindly put my future into another’s hands.
Ultimately, your recovery from agoraphobia depends on applying the right information over time. You can recover from agoraphobia by following proven techniques on consistent basis – with or without professional help.
Here are 4 reasons that self-help programs are actually better for some people than professional help:
1) Most psychologists DON”T MAKE HOUSE CALLS. (And support groups don’t exactly meet in your home either).
If you have agoraphobia, you are likely to feel trapped in a house or safe place. How are you supposed to get to a therapist’s office for treatment?
When I had agoraphobia, my mom showed me an ad in the newspaper for an agoraphobia support group. Since the group met downtown, I thought the ad was a total joke. I didn’t see how a group of people in my condition could get downtown.
I can still remember my dad driving me to group – while I lay facedown in the back of a van, trying not to look out the window. I had to take several valium to sit among a group of people. After about five minutes, I ran out of the room in a state of panic.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could at least start your recovery from home? That’s exactly what a self-help program offers – and is the main reason I used one. But also…
2) You can be absolutely sure to follow PROVEN techniques.
Research has shown time and again that cognitive-behavioral therapy is the most effective treatment for agoraphobia. Still, not all psychologists use it.
A recent study in Germany found that only 20% of agoraphobia patients were being treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy. While this number may be higher in the United States and other countries – you can’t be sure that a particular psychologist will just naturally use cognitive-behavioral therapy for agoraphobia.
I recently heard from yet another person whose therapist was practicing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (or EMDR) for agoraphobia.
While EMDR may be good for post-traumatic stress disorder, it is not first-line treatment for agoraphobia. Except in cases where post-traumatic stress is the root cause, EMDR is only recommended for treating agoraphobia after the proven cognitive-behavioral approaches have been tried.
The person being treated by EMDR was wasting precious time…..not to mention money. Which leads me to the next point….
3) Self-help is by far the MOST AFFORDABLE solution for agoraphobia….
Most professional psychologists charge at least $100 an hour with no guarantee of results. Maybe you can afford the luxury of a personal therapist, but many of us who suffer from agoraphobia don’t have money to waste.
You don’t have to keep spending money on therapy sessions, never knowing how many you will need.
With the right self-help program, you’ll get step-by-step instructions for practicing ALL of the techniques you need to recover from agoraphobia….for the price of one, or maybe two therapy sessions.
An effective self-help program makes recovering from agoraphobia a one-time expense instead of an ongoing, monthly bill.
It makes sense to try the LEAST EXPENSIVE SOLUTION FIRST. Let’s say you do try a self-help program and don’t get the results you want….you can always seek professional help later.
And finally…..
4) Self-help programs teach you to TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR OWN LIFE instead of looking for someone else to fix you – which is true emotional health.
A good psychologist, counselor, coach, or mentor may help you, but ultimately, the responsibility for choosing the right path to recovery falls on you. Gaining confidence in your own decisions and abilities is what overcoming fear is really about. In the long, run, you are the one who will live with the results.
You can be 100% sure that recovery from agoraphobia is possible using a self-help program. I and many others I know are living proof of. But not all self-help programs are created equal.
The truth is, some self-help programs work and others don’t.
So what makes the difference?
Self-help programs for agoraphobia that teach research-proven techniques can be extremely effective.
Others can be a waste of your time and money.
But I need to be totally honest with you....recovery from agoraphobia is hard work for most people – even if you have the right self-help program.
Having the right information is only part of the game. The other part is a daily commitment to doing whatever it takes to get better.
The most effective treatment for agoraphobia is the combination of cognitive and behavioral therapy.
Research tells us that 90% of people with agoraphobia who practice cognitive-behavioral techniques can expect to see marked improvement within 12-16 weeks.
What are cognitive-behavioral techniques?
Cognitive self-help techniques focus on changing the way you think by the thoughts that feed panic and fear.
Behavioral techniques focus on learning to relax your body on command – and then gradually facing your fears, step by step, until you “desensitize” yourself, or get comfortable in situations that used to trigger panic attacks.
A complete self-help program will include much, much more – but its best to base your recovery on these techniques.
Can anyone practice cognitive-behavioral techniques successfully?
Yes. Cognitive-behavioral therapy can be practiced successfully as a self-help program by anyone willing to learn and follow the steps. You don’t need a degree in psychology or any special training to learn and apply it successfully.
I was successful with a cognitive behavioral self-help program. And like I said – when I started having panic attacks, I was a regular guy with no background in psychology. I was not familiar with terms like “agoraphobia” or “cognitive-behavioral.” In fact, I hadn’t the slightest clue what was wrong with me or what to do about it.
Recovery from agoraphobia does not depend on your prior knowledge or background. It depends on your ability to faithfully follow a process. If I could do it, then so can you.
Want to know what makes me really mad? It’s when I notice someone on the Internet selling a “secret” or “overnight” cure for agoraphobia. Not very believable, right?
Someone I know recently paid about $500 to learn the instant cure for panic attacks. It didn’t work at all. I hate it when people get taken advantage of when reaching out for help.
Some of these “experts” will try to sell you their program by claiming to have discovered the brain’s “on-off switch” for fear.
They may try to use fancy terminology to fool you - to make you think they actually have the expertise they claim. They may talk about the “amygdala” or the “rostral cingulate” and say they have learned how to reprogram these parts of the brain to control panic attacks.
The latest on brain research related to panic and agoraphobia…
Just so you know, brain researchers have discovered that the “amygdala” is the part of the brain that activates the body’s natural fear response. We’ve known that for a while.
In the past few years, research at the Columbia Medical Center has suggested that a part of the brain called the “rostral cingulate” may calm the fear response.
However….cognitive-behavioral techniques are still the most research-proven methods to control these parts of the brain. Cognitive-behavioral therapy does not work overnight and takes about 12-16 weeks to start making a difference.
Don’t be fooled by fancy terms and unrealistic claims
The “experts” on the Internet using the fancy terms don’t know anything that legitimate medical and psychological researchers don’t know.
If such an easy, overnight cure for agoraphobia existed, wouldn’t psychologists everywhere be using it? Would it really be kept secret for one self-proclaimed expert to sell over the Internet?
Of course not!
There is no magic cure for agoraphobia.
I know you’ve probably been bombarded by all the books and CDs claiming to have the best answer for curing panic and fear. Believe me, I can still remember trying to choose a self-help program for myself…..and with the coming of the Internet, there are more options than ever before. It seems like practically anyone can put together a self-help program.
I want you to have the right information you need to make a successful recovery from agoraphobia – without expensive therapy, and without wasting money on things that don’t work.
That’s why I’ve outlined the following guidelines for choosing a self-help program for agoraphobia that will save you time, money, and lots of frustration.
Choose a program that: