In this story we will dispel the following myths about agoraphobia: This is the fear of crowded places This is necessarily associated with a panic attack Briefly and clearly about agoraphobia Agoraphobia does not exist on its own. It is secondary to any symptom that meets the criteria: It always occurs suddenly, it cannot be predicted or predicted; When the symptom has occurred, its course and completion cannot be controlled. A panic attack ideally fits these criteria, but it could just as well be, for example, epilepsy. When a person is bothered by this kind of symptom, he begins to worry and ask questions: - “Will this happen today or not?” - “If this happens again, then for how long?” - “What if it happens at the wrong moment and I don’t Will I be ready for this?” - “And if there is no one nearby, who will help me?” - “And if at the same time I am far from a safe place, how will I help myself?” And now in the last two questions we come out already for agoraphobia. This is the fear of being in any place that a person regards for himself as unsafe due to the inability to provide himself with help or receive it from other people if he is caught by a symptom (panic attack or epilepsy, for example). An unsafe place is different for each person. However, they can be reduced to the following categories: Excessively crowded spaces - I feel invisible among the crowd, no one will pay attention to me in such a bustle if I feel ill. Thus, I will find myself without help. - I feel the space is crowded. If I feel bad and need to run for help, it will be difficult for me to move among such a crowd. Unlike social phobia, here a person does not feel the fear of shame in front of people, but his own helplessness regarding his health in case he becomes ill. Open empty spaces Open space in itself does not frighten a person. He only cares about this: - When there is not a soul nearby in such a space, no one will help me if a symptom happens to me. And I myself won’t have time to reach people to ask them for help. Closed spaces + transport These are spaces where the ability to quickly move or exit from them is limited. For example, cinemas, shopping centers, shops, transport. Unlike claustrophobia (fear of closed spaces), a person is frightened not by the limited space itself, but by the inability to leave on time and take care of himself if necessary. Thus: We see that the fear of these spaces and their avoidance is secondary. The primary thing is that a person feels helpless and unable to control his symptom. For example, a person’s asthma may come unexpectedly, but he always knows how to cure it. For this he has an inhaler with him. But if a panic attack or epilepsy occurs, then it is more difficult to take care of yourself. What to do about it? Until a person knows how to predict the moment of the onset of a symptom or is unable to take care of himself if it occurs, he is naturally afraid to leave the space where he is in the greatest safety in case of occurrence of this symptom. Agoraphobia under such circumstances is a rational fear. Accordingly, the first thing to do when treating rational agoraphobia is to isolate your symptom separately and either learn to predict it, or learn to control its expression and be able to cope with it. For example, if this is a panic attack, then we work with it as a separate manifestation and, in fact, treat a panic attack. When a person begins to understand what is happening to him and how to help himself, his fear of being far from safe the place becomes meaningless. Because now there is no unsafe place. So, rational agoraphobia is treated by answering questions regarding your symptom: What exactly is happening to me? How does it work? What mechanisms, patterns, how does it work from the inside? How can I learn to predict the appearance of this.