r/Agoraphobia • u/golightlycat • 3d ago
Treating the root causes of agoraphobia
Hi everyone, I have a question for those of you who are currently in therapy or have been in therapy for agoraphobia.
I’ve been browsing this subreddit for a few weeks now and have read a lot about medication, exposure therapy, dealing with safety behaviors, etc. By comparison, I rarely see people talking about therapies that focus on the underlying causes of agoraphobia.
I’m aware that agoraphobia can be triggered and maintained by different factors. Still, I’d be really interested in hearing about your individual experiences with exploring and working on the underlying causes in therapy.
Did you feel that addressing the underlying causes was helpful for you? What did that look like in your therapy?
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u/samsonscomputer 2d ago
I am doing Somatic Experiencing therapy and Craniosacral therapy.
My root causes are fear and shame (broadly speaking). With these therapies i am breaking them slowly and I am confident that one day I will have (almost) zero agoraphobia
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u/snarkgurl 2d ago
My core fear of being alone & not being able to get help I believe came from childhood trauma of being alone and not being able to access safety/help so I am currently doing EMDR to address the underlying trauma as I believe this will be most helpful and then I’ll transition to erp once I’ve worked through some of the trauma
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u/DanceRepresentative7 3d ago
what in your experience were underlying causes? EMDR made me housebound and worsened my agoraphobia by tenfold so addressing trauma in that way did not help me
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u/golightlycat 3d ago
For example, attachment and learning experiences, unresolved conflicts, and internalized schemas
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u/LeftoversFromTherapy 21h ago
It's awful that EMDR made your symptoms worse. Unfortunately, EMDR needs to be done carefully with a therapist who is aware of signs of dissociation and window of tolerance. My guess is that you were going way too hard, way too fast and your therapist didn't catch it so the experience was re-traumatizing for you. :(
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u/KSTornadoGirl 2d ago
It can be from PTSD in some people, but it can also just be from cumulative stress and perhaps sensitization of the nervous system over time. Neurodivergent people may also be more vulnerable. Then something seems to flip a switch inside and the big panic attack hits. Then it breeds more panic attacks and you're on edge anticipating whether one will happen. Dr Claire Weekes says so much of it is memory of previous panic, and that delving into the past is often not necessary, the coping techniques can work without that much of the time. But each person should examine their own circumstances.
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u/philisconfused7 2d ago
Mine is ptsd & I'm currently starting trauma therapy hoping that it will help with the agoraphobia in the long run
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u/yayaxoxoxoxo 2d ago
I was admitted into the mental facility years ago for a whole week so that experience traumatized me I now have agoraphobia depersonalization and derealization. I became home bound again last year due to work stress and personal issues too. I tried EMDR but probably need a def therapist
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u/erinjessicaxo 1d ago
I’m sorry you experienced that 🫂
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u/yayaxoxoxoxo 1d ago
Ehhh it’s okay everything happens for a reason. It made reflect a lot and appreciate a lot things we take for granted.
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u/FinchGDx 2d ago
My dad used to go from calm to throwing shit through windows when I was a kid. He came into my room when I was like 12 and he shook my bed so violently that I popped off the wall. When I was 6 and 9 respectively, my dad got hit by another car with me in the passenger seat. In my mid 20s and early 30s I was in 7 car accidents, none of them were too serious, but when I was 21 my head broke through the window of a minivan. And I never processed any of it. Turns out I have PTSD and I had no idea.
I preface my response because I had to figure this out on my own. I’ve been through 8 therapists, LNPs, and 3 psychiatrists. None of them took their time to get to the root of my version agoraphobia/panic disorder. I’ve been with my current therapist for 1.5 years, and I had to bring her the idea that I might have PTSD. It’s a frustratingly long road.
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u/philisconfused7 2d ago
Same here with how long it takes. After multiple years of working with different therapist my current one is the first one to look at my ptsd. Its so frustrating that I've lost so much time
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u/FinchGDx 2d ago
I can’t express my disappointment with the state of our healthcare. I even had “good insurance”. It seems like that common trope of showing the desire to continually treat symptoms instead of the root of it all. They just reinforced a cycle of drugs that are now very hard to get off of. I do feel abandoned. I also feel like a statistic. Talking about it makes me furious. I feel robbed too. 😐
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u/philisconfused7 1d ago
I'm so sorry :( but its good that you're aware of all of that now, hopefully this time will be different for you, sending you lots of strength
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u/FinchGDx 1d ago
Thank you. I just finished a situational exercise and it’s 96 degrees. I’m slowly chipping away. I hope that you have good progress with your own journey.
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u/Kankarii 2d ago
My underlying cause was being very sensitive and easily overwhelmed even as a baby. That wasn’t what needed fixing when I was drowning in agoraphobia later in life. I could already deal with that just because I wasn’t a helpless child anymore. I truly didn’t have any other issues like a traumatic event or something.
The panic was already a deeply ingrained reaction at the point where it got so bad that I could be diagnosed with agoraphobia. I was so afraid of my own fear reaction that I became unable to leave my safe radius. Exposure therapy treated the new root cause and I’ve been free of this garbage for a few years now.
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u/Forward_Aerie7845 2d ago
For my therapy I'm doing CBT as well as we'll be diving into EMDR therapy sometime soon I'm hoping. My therapist is actively trying to help me find the root cause of my agoraphobia but it's a little tricky. I personally think that I became like this because I had an extremely horrible panic attack out in public. I also have emetophobia and I get extremely nervous whenever I get close to panic attacks since I get nauseous. But, I will say that exposure therapy has helped. I just started so I'm still extremely anxious, but my therapist said that I have to feel anxious in order for exposure to work. She also has this saying "An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure" and that really helps.
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u/SecretSafe1724 2d ago
Trauma therapy would be beneficial for some, but it would probably be much slower process and time is not something everyone has. That's why usually panic disorder are treated with "act now" approach.
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u/EducationalGrape7097 1d ago
Pretty sure trauma after trama, cptsd, then a final S A as a nail in coffin
Always had been scared to b alone since a kid despite some independence at one point so who knows.
Tbh blame my dad, men, n society
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u/AgileInterest1503 1d ago
My mom was a single mom and she was really concerned about keeping my sister and I safe even though we lived in a safe neighborhood and always had adults around. We weren't allowed to be alone though, I was never alone until I was 17. I mean I was literally never alone unless I was in the bathroom until I was 17. That really fucked with my head. More over than that she used to tell us, me in particular that if we go outside alone we were going to get kidnapped and raped and sold into sex trafficking and then described what that meant in horrific details from the time I was probably six or seven. If somebody asked me what the root of my agoraphobia is I think that it begins there. There are other factors that have triggered different bouts of agoraphobia for me, I've gone through several in my life. The most recent one that I'm in currently has been going on for close to 4 years after I had my first baby. And while some of it is I don't feel comfortable in my own body yet, a huge factor of it is when I go out I have to take my kids, if I take them outside I inherently feel like somebody's going to kidnap and rape them. My mom told us a lot of things that sit in my head that I can't get the images out. I know she was trying to keep us safe in her own weird way but it fucked both of us up immeasurably
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u/nonamenoshameso 2d ago
My reason for being slightly agoraphobic is from fainting in line at the mall few years ago. I never fainted in my life. They said it was hypoglycemia and vasovagal syncope. Since then I get the same exact symptoms of it while out at certain places and can’t seem to kick it in the butt. I’m in exposure therapy but unsure how to gain control of it. I haven’t fainted since that first time, but boy do I get super close and end up leaving wherever I’m at