If you suffer from Agoraphobia you may have seen a TV programme on Channel 4 this week called ‘House of Agoraphobics’ and witnessed what was billed as ‘a ground breaking treatment’. I’m not sure what was ‘ground breaking’ about it. A combination of Cognitive behaviour therapy and exposure is hardly new. The results appeared mixed and there was no follow-up months after treatment, so we don’t know how effective it was.
When you ask someone to jump in at the ‘deep end’ of a swimming pool before they have learnt how to swim one of two things tend to happen. You panic and become traumatised and never want to go swimming again (This happened to me in my childhood and i developed a fear of going out of my depth) or your survival mechanism ‘kicks in’ in a positive way because you expect to float to the service naturally.
In my opinion, the 2 main elements missing from the treatment were a lack of attention to the emotional part of the brain, which in all 3 cases appeared to have been traumatised many years ago. All of the therapy appeared to be directed towards the rational part of the brain which was constantly being challenged by the therapists. I believe that their rational brain knew that their thoughts were irrational. Unfortunately the emotional part of the brain was overriding the rational part. Another key element missing was a structured strategy for coping/dealing with panic-attacks. There are some simple and easy to learn techniques that can turn anxiety and panic into a more relaxed state.
If you want to know more about how we can help Agoraphobics or any kind of phobia call 01273 509793 now.
This entry is filed under Phobias.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.