How to Design a Therapeutic Exercise Program for Agoraphobia

Running is a natural way to satisfy the body's "fight-or-flight" response. It also forces you to expand your territory on foot while doing so. This makes running a good form of exercise to help you recover from agoraphobia, but maybe you just don't like running. Well, in that case, you can choose another form of exercise to accomplish the same thing.

Here are some general guidelines to follow when choosing an exercise program to help you recover from agoraphobia or an anxiety disorder:

1)   Choose an exercise that gets you breathing hard and forces you to establish rhythmic breathing. This will help overcome the hyperventilation part of panic attacks. I am sure you will find, as I did, that it’s tough to be hyperventilating when you are doing exercise that gets you breathing hard anyway. If you are breathing hard while exercising, chances are that when your body slows down, your breathing will follow and settle into a relaxed, slower pattern after your workout. 

2)   Make your exercise sessions long enough to produce endorphins. Endorphins are the secret ingredient that makes running so therapeutic for agoraphobia. Endorphins are produced by prolonged continuous exercise like distance running, swimming, cycling, and other forms of aerobic activity. Short, intense workouts like sprinting or weightlifting won’t do it. How much exercise it takes for the brain to start producing endorphins is different for different people. For some people, endorphin production starts after ten minutes. In other people, it takes thirty minutes or longer. Just experiment until you find out how long it takes for you, and believe me, you will definitely know when endorphins hit your bloodstream!

3)   If you struggle with agoraphobia, choose an exercise that gets you away from your house. A benefit of an outdoor exercise program is expanding the territory in which you feel safe. I mentioned running and cycling because they are both forms of outdoor exercise that involve going far away from your house. Repeated experiences of being outside and away from home with your breathing controlled (by exercise) will help you build confidence being outside and away from home in general. Over time, you will feel more like an athlete and less like an agoraphobic. This psychological change is instrumental for overcoming agoraphobia. Although I didn’t realize it, the day I put on my jogging suit, I changed more than my clothes. I did something to change my identity, and you can, too.

To summarize, running (or engaging in an alternative form of exercise) on a regular basis is the most natural way to repeatedly satisfy the body’s “fight or flight” response in overcoming agoraphobia. If you stick with a running program, over time, your fight or flight response will be less easily triggered as your confidence in your body grows. Plus, you will prove to yourself over and again that you can bring your breathing and your body under control.

As an ex-agoraphobic, I realize that strenuous exercise outdoors may not feel safe or comfortable at first if you don’t trust your body in open spaces. But exercise is not really dangerous. In fact, it is a far less dangerous method than taking medication and risking drug addiction when it comes to gaining confidence about being outside, bringing your breathing under control, and giving your body a natural high.

I am not saying that running alone will cure agoraphobia or an anxiety disorder. It is only a start. I will say it can make a big contribution to a balanced recovery plan.

Article Source: http://www.agoraphobia.net

Stephen Price is a recovered agoraphobic with a master’s degree in psychology. His informational website on agoraphobia featuring a free newsletter can be found at: www.agoraphobia.ws

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