The word “agoraphobia” comes from Greek word that means “fear of market places.” Agoraphobia is a condition in which a person begins to avoid spaces or situations associated with anxiety. This anxiety disorder involves the fear of experiencing a panic attack in a place or situation from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing. Persons with agoraphobia may also develop fatigue, tension, alcohol or drug abuse problems, and obsessive disorders, making seeking treatment crucial.

Treatment of Agoraphobia is following:

• Agoraphobia can be successfully treated through exposure therapy combined with cognitive therapy. Exposure therapy is based on undoing the association that the patient originally formed between the panic symptoms and the feared situation. Exposure treatment can provide lasting relief to the majority of patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia. Read the rest of this entry →

Agoraphobia can be a chronic, disabling condition which causes people to suffer in silence when those around them cannot understand. Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear related to being in situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing. “Phobic situations” might include driving, shopping, crowded places, traveling, being alone, and social gatherings.

Causes of Agoraphobia are following:

• Agoraphobia develops in response to repeated exposure to anxiety-provoking events.
• Sometime agoraphobia develops in response to a frightening or traumatic event.
• Recent research has confirmed that there is a genetic component to agoraphobia.
• Chronic use of tranquilizers and sleeping pills can lead to causing agoraphobia.
• In many cases, agoraphobia develops after a person has experienced a panic attack (panic disorder). This involves feelings of intense, overwhelming terror along with physical symptoms such as sweating, dizziness, a pounding heart, and shortness of breath.
• Another factor in the development of agoraphobia is the history of respiratory disease.
• Chemical imbalances or medical conditions may also contribute to the development of agoraphobia.

Agoraphobia literally means fear of “open spaces or ‘fear of the market place’.  However, Agoraphobics are not necessarily afraid of open spaces. Agoraphobia is a condition in which a person begins to avoid spaces or situations associated with anxiety. This anxiety disorder involves the fear of experiencing a panic attack in a place or situation from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing. ”Phobic situations” might include driving, shopping, crowded places, traveling, being alone, and social gatherings. People suffering from agoraphobia sometimes fear that they are “losing” their mind or “going crazy” because of their fears and anxiety.

Persons with agoraphobia may also develop fatigue, tension, alcohol or drug abuse problems, and obsessive disorders, making seeking treatment crucial.

Read the rest of this entry →

You might have ever been yourself or if not personally experienced, then might have observed in others, a situation that brought on sweats, rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath. This probably wasn’t a heart attack but an anxiety attack. If you or anyone you know suffers from anxiety disorders, learning to manage it is the first step to overcoming it.

Anxiety is extreme reactions to fearful situations. When someone follows you into a dark alley, those anxious feelings of a racing heartbeat and sweaty palms gives way to heightened senses and a rush of adrenalin that can save your life. This is the fight or flight syndrome.

In the case of frequent anxiety, the fearful feelings are dread of a particular situation and not the situation itself. Getting caught in traffic can cause an anxiety attack over what might happen when one gets to work late. Starting a new job can bring on anxiety attacks. You don’t know anyone and fear of that unknown can send you into a panic.

Everyone experiences panic or anxiety in small ways. Like the fight or flight example, it can save your life. In new situations, we get panicky but when the outcome we fear fails to materialize, the anxiety stops. For someone with chronic anxiety, this is not the case.

Every situation that brings anxiety is not life-threatening. More than likely it is an extremely stressful situation that has brought on the anxiety as a way of dealing with it. Unchecked anxiety of this type can lead to depression.