While agoraphobia is not life threatening, it can severely limit one’s life style. Without treatment, many people are not able to leave their home. These individuals become entirely dependent on others for food, money or any other type of daily living activity. With time, depression and anxiety set in and many of these individuals turn to alcohol/substance abuse to help cope with the loneliness, seclusion and shame.
The treatment of agoraphobia is taxing and usually means facing one’s fears. The basic treatments include medications and psychotherapy. Current medications used to treat these individuals include SSRIs like Paxil, Zoloft or Prozac. Additional medications may include an anti anxiety medication like xanax or clonazepam. Drug treatment alone is seldom sufficient for control of agoraphobia and several types of psychotherapy may help.
Cognitive behavior therapy helps change detrimental behaviors through desensitization. One also learns methods to cope with symptoms via relaxation techniques. For those who are afraid to leave the home to visit a psychotherapist, one can arrange treatment sessions at home or in a safe neighborhood. Of course, this also adds to the expense and more importantly, psychotherapy is not cheap.
Self-care remedies that may help cope with agoraphobia include learning reassuring skills, practicing relaxation techniques, and not avoiding feared spaces. There are many online support groups where one can reach out for help.
The overall prognosis of individuals with agoraphobia depends on the severity of symptoms. If medications are discontinued, relapse is common. Transient improvements do occur but overall most individuals lead a poor quality of life.
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