Treatments for agoraphobia fall into three main categories:

• Prescription Medications
• Behavioral Therapy
  
• Cognitive Therapy
  

One thing to note, there are no overnight cures for agoraphobia. Whatever treatment options you choose, you must think of this as a long term commitment. You need to continue to work at it. There are no quick fixes.

Prescription medications fall into the following categories:

• A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). Drugs in this category that are commonly used to treat agoraphobia include fluoxetine (Prozac, Prozac Weekly), paroxetine (Paxil, Paxil CR) or sertraline (Zoloft).
• Selective Serotonin and Noreprenephrine reuptake inhibitor (SSNRI). Drugs like Effexor have become popular with people who suffer from panic attacks and agoraphobia. The difference between these drugs and SSRI's is they effect the brain's evels of noreprenephrine in addition to serotonin and aren't as likely to produce sexual side effects.
• Another type of antidepressants, such as a tricyclic antidepressant or monoamine oxidase inhibitor. While these drugs may effectively treat agoraphobia, they're associated with more side effects than are SSRIs.
• An anti-anxiety medication. Also called benzodiazepines, these drugs — including alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin) and others — can help control symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks. However, these medications can cause dependence if taken in doses larger than prescribed or over a longer period of time than prescribed. Your doctor will weigh this risk against the potential benefit of this class of drugs.

As with any medication, you need to be aware of the side effects. Some of these side effects can mimic symptoms of a panic attack. You need to consult closely with your doctor or therapist when taking any medication. Normally, the doctor will slowly increase your dosage over time. When it is determined that you can either reduce or stop taking the medication, the doctor will slowly decrease the dosage over time. This could take a year or more, depending on what kind of progress is made.

One method of treating agoraphobia is trying to modify the patients behavior. This is usually done by a trained therapist. The main idea in behavior therapy is to change the person's unwanted behaviors.

• Systematic Desensitization - In this type of treatment, you are slowly exposed to those places or situations that have caused a panic attack. The therapist may accompany you while driving, or going to a crowded mall. Or this maybe done with a trusted friend. By gradually exposing you to those situations that caused a panic attack and doing it repeatedly, you learn that your fears do not come true. Another way to do this is through visualization. In visualization, you imagine that you are driving a car or in a crowded place. Again, by doing this repeatedly, over time, your anxiety goes away.
• Flooding - With this treatment, you force yourself to stay in that scary situation until the anxiety goes away.
• Relaxation Techniques - These techniques are used in conjunction with either of the above methods. There are several types: Autogenic Relaxation, Progressive Muscle relaxation, and visualization. Click here for more information.
  

Cognitive therapy focuses on what irrational thoughts are going on in your mind. It is really amazing how what you tell yourself can really affect your mood and behavior. This has several parts:

• Identifying those irrational thoughts - The first step in this treatment is to identify what irrational thoughts you are telling yourself. This is a very important step. Without identifying what you are telling yourself, you cannot hope to go onto the next step.
• Refuting irrational thoughts - The next step is to actively refute every single one of those irrational thoughts with the truth. This is probably the most important step. You need to constantly be refuting irrational thoughts before they become so embedded in your mind that you accept them as truth.
• Focusing - As you actively identify and refute irrational thoughts, you also need to focus on the irrational thought before it leads to a panic attack.

Some therapists actually combine both the behavior and cognitive therapies. You will see the term "Cognitive Behavior Therapy". If you do seek out a therapist, make sure they tell you what kind of method of therapy they use. One item to consider. If you are not able to venture out of your home to see a therapist find one who will come to see you. This can be of great help in the beginning of your treatment. Or they may meet you at another "safe" place. Sometimes even talking over the phone can be done.

With cognitive therapy (as with any therapy), you need to look at it as a lifetime commitment. It is absolutely necessary for you to practice these techniques over and over again. Only in this way will you be able to achieve progress.

In addition to the above techniques, there are alternative therapy choices:

• Psychodynamic (Insight) Therapy - This stems from Freudian psychoanalysis therapy. You delve into your past to see what might be behind your fear.
  
• Hypnotherapy - Under guidance of the trained hypnotherapist, you are put into a trance-like state. At this point the therapist will suggest alternatives to the negative thoughts that are present.
  

By far, using a combination of behavior and cognitive therapies has been shown to have been the most effective techniques for treating agoraphobia. One potential problem is the skill of the therapist using these techniques. Another pitfall is that the patient must actually use these techniques themselves to achieve the highest benefit.

Prescription medications can only alleviate the symptoms, but can do nothing about the under lying causes or underlying thinking that may trigger panic attacks and agoraphobia. Furthermore, as with any drug, there maybe severe side-effects and even some dependence issues. All in all, it is recommended to use both cognitive and behavior therapies for the greatest benefit. There is no quick fix for agoraphobia.