Helping Agoraphobia Patient

This is not to say I believe medication to be of no use.  In fact, I believe the opposite.  However, the kinds of medications being used change frequently and not being a doctor, I am loath to prescribe any.  Also true about medication it that it is used to make the nervous illness manageable while the patient is recovering.  The medications in themselves are not agoraphobia cures.  This much the same as a patient being prescribed pain killers while recovering from a broken leg.

Behavioral therapy holds the real cure for agoraphobia because, while agoraphobia patients are generally panicked when they are outside their homes, this therapy gives them a pleasant experience outside their homes.  With behavioral therapy a patient is accompanied while leaving the house, sometimes at a rate of one step further each day.  The turn around happens when the patient becomes impatient with this slow rate of progress and forces the issue. 

When this happens, the therapist tries to keep the patient from progressing further.  At this time, a role reversal of sorts takes place and the cure is near as the patient is emboldened to leave home for longer periods of time.  When this takes place he/she generally becomes interested in visiting more places as well.

Medication could not achieve a thought process change of this kind..  There simply is no pill  which encourages the patient to change his or her thought process or physical activity desires.  Congenital therapy is very helpful in anxiety disorders such as depression because this therapy helps the patient react positively to thoughts he or she used to react negatively to.

However, agoraphobia is an illness which actually involves physically doing things.  So, behavioral therapy holds the most promise for anyone who has a want to be cured of it.