What kind of fears does not exist in human nature: fear of heights, water, spiders, closed or, conversely, open space. The last concept, called agoraphobia, is worth dwelling in more detail.
Many experts tend to consider these symptoms the flip side of another, more well-known, fear of confined space - claustrophobia. However, such a schematic approach is not welcomed by other psychotherapists who still consider such a complex form of psychosis as agoraphobia to be not fully understood. What is this disease, what are its sources? Are there any effective treatments?
How agoraphobia manifests itself is, in principle, clear from the name itself. “Agora” (Greek “agora”) means “square”, and “phobia” - this is a phobia - an irrational, unreasonable fear of something. A person affected by this disease feels a panic fear of crowding in the street, and not only. Panic seizes him in other people's rooms, where he, as it seems to him, is deprived of the opportunity to quickly leave there in case of danger. For example, he would never sit in the middle of a row in a movie, he was afraid to fly airplanes, to be far from the door in a bus or subway. Asthmatics are often prone to fear of open space - they are afraid of attacks of suffocation in a public environment, and fear even more provokes an attack. If a person has ever experienced stress, was injured on the street, it also leaves its mark on the psyche in the form of a persistent phobia. Another source of psychosis is psychological trauma rooted in childhood.
So the agoraphobia is terrible because this mental state is accompanied by completely physical symptoms: a person stops breathing, blood pressure rises, and tachycardia begins. From a sudden darkening in the eyes, he becomes disoriented in space and may even lose consciousness. All this only aggravates his condition, the next time he will be afraid of a repeat of the same reaction, and thereby, most likely, he will provoke it. Left to chance, the disease can reach the most serious stages, when the patient, at best, cannot leave the house unaccompanied, and at worst - completely refuses to leave his safe, as it seems to him, refuge.
Who is threatened with agoraphobia? That this is mostly a female disease - says impartial statistics. It is women, with their subtle mental and psychological organization, who are more easily susceptible to all kinds of phobias than men. In addition, the disease catches up mainly young women, from twenty to forty years. At a more advanced age, the manifestations of the disease are less common, except in those cases when it is of a perennial nature.
One of the many misconceptions about this phobia is that it is impossible to heal from it. Treatment of agoraphobia is possible and necessary. Yes, for this you will need the help of a high-class psychotherapist, as well as close people.
As a drug therapy, one can not do without the appointment of antidepressants. Along with them, the psychotherapist carries out individual work to help the patient realize his illness, look at himself from the side, thereby, step by step, overcoming fear and returning to a full life. Hypnosis treatment is a common and effective method that allows you to fight obsessive fears at the subconscious level. The task of loved ones is to help the patient take the first step, calm him down and convince him to turn to a specialist for help. Only with such an integrated approach can agoraphobia be released.
What kind of misfortune it is and how to deal with it - traditional medicine, as always, does not remain aloof from the problem. If the patient suffers from asthma attacks, for example, in the presence of asthma, you need to persuade him to go out more often, walk with him in the green zone, best of all - in a coniferous forest or park. Soothing, mood-improving teas, for example, from nettle leaves, mint, lemon balm, taking Valerian root in the form of infusions have a beneficial effect on the human nervous system. If you keep Valerian root next to the bed, on the bedside table, inhaling its smell can work miracles without any decoctions.
And the most important and effective in the treatment of agoraphobia is the desire to get rid of it. If you take the first step, the second will be done.