Agoraphobia, an uncontrollable fear of being in public places, is a mental disorder that can seriously affect the life of anyone suffering with the condition. While some people experience milder forms of the condition that allow them to at least be comfortable in some places, such as work or the home of a close friend, others deal with crippling fear that makes it impossible to even step onto a patio or into the front yard. Fortunately, there are several ways to treat agoraphobia and often banish the condition forever.

One of the first lines of defense against agoraphobia is anti-anxiety medication. This fear of public places often is manifest in people who begin to experience panic attacks. As the attacks grow more severe, the sufferer begins to avoid places where the attacks occur. Over time, this makes his or her world much smaller, and can negatively impact relationships with family and other loved ones.

Anti-anxiety medication essentially boosts the effects of neurotransmitters that help to calm the anxiety and allow the individual to think and feel more rationally. As a result, places that evoked a great deal of fear become innocuous once more, and the individual begins to move about with more freedom. As he or she gains confidence in the ability to overcome thoughts of doom and harm that often come with the panic attacks, it become easier to attend social events, go into supermarkets, and go anywhere the individual wishes to go.

There are several commonly employed anti-anxiety medications that are also helpful with agoraphobia. Alprazolam is one of the most commonly recommended benzodiazepines used to treat panic disorder that is accompanied with agoraphobia. In some cases clonazepam, another benzodiazepine, is helpful when the patient has a negative reaction to alprazolam.

Some antidepressants are helpful with managing and eventually overcoming agoraphobia. It is not unusual for people suffering with anxiety to develop depression, and vice versa. Depression and anxiety can both lead to the development of various phobias, include agoraphobia. Paroxetine is an antidepressant that is effective for both depression and anxiety, making it an ideal way to get to the underlying cause of the agoraphobia and slowly make it possible to regain the ability to move about with confidence and ease.

Along with medications, many people respond well to the use of professional counseling to overcome agoraphobia. One of the therapeutic strategies that has shown great promise in helping alleviate agoraphobia in people suffering with anxiety is known as Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT. While the exact process of the therapy varies somewhat from one professional therapist to another, the basis of this approach is to help the individual think about and process agoraphobic episodes in a new way. By changing the way the patient views the episodes, it is possible to take away the sense of impending doom and extreme fear that is usually present. As the episodes lose their ability to cause extreme reactions, the patient begins to feel in control of the phobia and eventually to eliminate it altogether.

There is no one perfect treatment for agoraphobia that works for everyone. Often, it is necessary to try different combinations of therapy and medication before there is any noticeable improvement. During this period, it is important that the individual suffering with this phobia not become discouraged, but to always remember that others have overcome agoraphobia and in time he or she will do the same.