Most Effective Treatments for Agoraphobia

If you are seeking professional help for agoraphobia, you really need to be informed about the most effective forms of therapy before you visit your therapist for the first time. This way you will be informed enough to talk intelligently about treatment options and work with the therapist to make the best decisions for your recovery.

Although therapists are trained to help you recover from agoraphobia, you will do best to take responsibility for your own recovery. You may follow the therapist’s treatment program or suggestions, but some therapists are biased towards one or more types of therapies they are most familiar with. Always keep in mind that ultimately, the therapist is working for you so you need to be informed.

Exact results vary from study to study, but in general, a combination of three forms of treatment has proven most effective for recovering from agoraphobia in controlled studies. These forms of treatment are:

1) Behavioral Therapy: Focuses primarily on changing avoidance behavior that results from anxiety.

2) Cognitive Therapy: Focuses primarily on changing anxiety-producing thought patterns.

3) Medication: Focuses on changing physical processes on the brain through chemical intervention.

It is strongly recommended that you try a combination of these forms of therapy before experimenting with other forms. You may try the behavioral and cognitive techniques covered later in this book on your own or with the guidance of a professional. You will definitely need a doctor or psychiatrist to prescribe medication.

Since the same treatments do not always work the same for everyone, other forms of treatment for agoraphobia have been developed. Other forms of treatment include psychodynamic therapy (or insight therapy), hypnosis, herbal treatments, biofeedback, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and emotional freedom techniques (EFT). All of these treatment options are used by some psychologists, but first you should learn about the three types of treatments for agoraphobia that have proven most effective in research (behavioral and cognitive techniques and medication).

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

Stephen Price is a recovered agoraphobic with an informational website on agoraphobia. It is found on the web at: www.agoraphobia.ws

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