Locked Desires. How To Deal With Agoraphobia - The Quality Of Life

2023 Author: Oswald Adamson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 12:13

In the last four years, something incomprehensible has been happening to me. It seems that I have developed some kind of phobia, I cannot calmly be in an open place where there are a lot of people, for example, in the square. I immediately start to panic, it is difficult to breathe, it darkens in my eyes, it seems that I will soon faint. How to deal with this condition?

Irina, 21 years old

First of all, I confirm that this is indeed a phobia. Namely, typical agoraphobia, which literally translated from Greek means - fear of open spaces, streets and squares. This type of phobia is the opposite of another, no less common - claustrophobia. The claustrophobic experiences discomfort or panic in a confined, confined, enclosed space or room. He restrains his aggressive feelings, struggles with his own unconscious protest, or tries to overcome someone's power control, to expand the boundaries of personal freedom. In his neurosis, he seems to be "breaking off the chain," "tearing down the walls of his cell," "beating in the web," "seeking to avoid imprisonment."

In agoraphobia, neurosis consists in the unconscious restraint of immoral (from the point of view of a neurotic), as a rule, sexual desires, restriction of the freedom to choose social roles and behavior. At the same time, a person suppresses the desire for self-demonstration, self-expression, a kind of self-exposure (psychological exhibitionism). The experiences of an agoraphobic are usually associated with the fear that something might happen to him "in front of other people", that he might get into "an unpleasant situation", "lose control over his behavior and do something inadmissible, unacceptable." Lissophobia is also often mixed with agoraphobia - "fear of insanity", the fear of losing reasonable, volitional control over one's actions. Agoraphobic is afraid of not being up to par, of being caught in forbidden desires.

However, on a conscious level, all these sensual storms and torments are expressed in what you write about: "panic begins … as if I would faint." Roughly the same thing happens in the inner world of your “kindred” social phobia - a neurotic who experiences fear or total uncertainty in situations related to communication, especially with strangers, speaking in front of an audience, being in the spotlight. But here the unconscious desire to be better, more perfect, more ideal than others, to surpass others in all respects is even more relevant.

How to deal with agoraphobia?

You can cope with this condition with the help of psychoanalysis (psychodynamic psychotherapy), cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, a full course of gestalt or psychodramatic psychotherapy. However, if panic fear is accompanied by severe disorders of the autonomic nervous system and all sorts of psychosomatic reactions (headache, palpitations, darkening in the eyes, dizziness, and so on), then you need to start treatment with a competent psychotherapist with a medication method.