If you fear being alone in public places, you could be suffering from agoraphobia. Read on to find out more.
What are phobias?
A phobia is an irrational fear of something leading to a conscious avoidance of the feared activity, situation or object. The presence of the stimulus or even the anticipation of it results in severe distress to the person disrupting his ability to function in life. While the person going through this recognises this behaviour as unreasonable, he or she is unable to do anything about it.
Phobias are possibly the most common of mental disorders and it’s found that they generally affect females more than males.
Classification of Phobias:
Phobias can broadly be classified as the following:
- Agoraphobia – fear of being in public places
- Specific phobias – fear of spiders, snakes, etc and also of flying, closed spaces, etc
- Social phobias – fear of situations where the person suffering is open to scrutiny from others
Agoraphobia, fear of public places:
The term agoraphobia was coined in 1871. It is derived from the Greek words ‘agora’ meaning market and ‘phobias’ meaning fear – literally the fear of market places. Agoraphobia almost always accompanies panic disorder.
Agoraphobia is the fear of being alone in public places, especially places from where a rapid exit would be difficult.
Signs and symptoms of agoraphobia:
- In situations outside home, a typical anxiety or panic attack manifests. It can include travelling in a bus or train, waiting in a line in a bank or an ATM, being on a bridge, being in open grounds etc. These situations are avoided or endured with distress.
- A person with this phobia prefers to be accompanied by family or friends in crowded places or busy areas.
- Depression and alcohol dependence are common in those suffering from this phobia.
- Psychiatric illnesses like depression, schizophrenia and personality disorders mimic agoraphobia so correct diagnosis is essential.
Treatment for agoraphobia:
In most instances, agoraphobia is a due to a panic disorder; so when the latter is treated, agoraphobia also improves. In case it is not associated with panic disorder, agoraphobia tends to be incapacitating.
The mode of treatment is behavioural therapy, which includes:
- Relaxation therapy.
- Cognitive or insight oriented therapy
- Systematic desensitization to stimuli causing phobia
- Repeated exposure with response prevention.
- Drug therapy like anti-anxiety or anti-depressants are useful in agoraphobia.
- Hypnosis: If specific suggestions are given while the patient is in a hypnotic trance the fears may be overcome.
In the coming article we will elaborate on the remaining types of phobias, namely specific phobias and social phobias.
Photograph via sxc.hu
