The Causes of Claustrophobia - Research Paper Example

?Claustrophobia Claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed places. The level to which it is severe varies from one patient to another. Causes Causes of claustrophobia are not yet fully known. However, doctors hold the consensus that bad childhood experiences can be a potential cause of claustrophobia in the adulthood. Some researchers are of the view that claustrophobia can be a deformity of an evolutionary mechanism of survival. One way or the other, if a person has felt nervous in the enclosed places in the past, it is likely for him/her to eventually develop claustrophobia. Symptoms Patients of claustrophobia may feel unrest and suffocation in crowded places, small rooms and lifts. They may also feel uncomfortable on the roller coasters with secure restraints. Patients of claustrophobia also have a hard time in the MRI chambers. In closed spaces, patients of claustrophobia experience intense heart palpitations and sweat. The patient may feel like yelling, screaming or crying. The patient becomes eager to find any way out of the enclosed space. The suffocation results in troubled breath and dumb-foundedness. The patient experienced the weird feeling of the sides of the room closing in to stop his/her breath. The patient tends to escape visiting any place where he/she is likely to be caught in the crowd or a closed space. Treatment Claustrophobia has been known to be treated well with psychotherapies in general and the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in particular. In addition to the therapy, doctors prescribe certain antidepressants for better management of the symptoms. Patients also respond good to certain flooding and systematic desensitization techniques. One typical behavioral therapy which distorts the patient’s preformed notions about reality is neuro-linguistic programming. The same programming can also be used to reduce the anxiety arising from a particular setting or situation in the patient. Medications given to the patients of claustrophobia primarily include beta-blockers and anti-depressants. These medicines help control the rate of heart pounding of the patients so that the patient is able to survive through the anxiety attacks. Agoraphobia Patients of agoraphobia are afraid of going to places with increased likelihood of a panic attack in them. The fact that getting away from a place is difficult is depressing for the patients of agoraphobia. In order to remain at calm, the patients of agoraphobia tend not to be in places with risk of panic attacks. Thus, patients of agoraphobia may feel very uncomfortable while traveling on air, in the buses or trains. In extreme cases, the patients of agoraphobia are so obsessed with their fears that they don’t feel comfortable anywhere in the world but their own home. Apparently, it seems ok but in the long run, the patients is put into social exclusion when he/she doesn’t get to see the public or interact and socialize with them as normal people do. The patient of agoraphobia fears going outside not because of any open or closed space outside, but because the patient does not want to experience the embarrassment and helplessness that is sure to accompany him/her in case he/she gets trapped in some kind of panic outside the home. Causes Generally, like claustrophobia, doctors and researchers do not have a very objective understanding of the causes of agoraphobia. Most patients of agoraphobia develop this condition as a consequence of their past stressful experiences in which they had been to places where they had to encounter panics. In this way, agoraphobia can be considered as a traumatic condition. An individual is not likely to acquire agoraphobia until he/she things that a certain panic attack connects with several other attacks he/she has experienced in the past. Symptoms Symptoms of agoraphobia can be classified into three types namely physical symptoms, psychological symptoms and behavioral symptoms. Sufferers of agoraphobia may find one or more of these symptoms when they are caught in a situation that makes them anxious. Among the three kinds of symptoms, the most rare symptoms are the physical symptoms because the patients are usually careful enough not to be in such physical settings that can cause them panic. However, physical symptoms when occur include flushing, diarrhea, accelerated heart beat, stomach upset, increased rate of breathing, nausea, dizziness and trembling. Psychological symptoms that are mostly coupled with the physical symptoms include the fear of death during panic, fear of embarrassment during a panic attack, depression, decreased self-confidence, lowered self-esteem, anxiety and the feeling that the patient is not able to survive without getting help from others. Behavioral symptoms include but are not limited to the aspects of reassurance, avoidance and protection. The patient requires reassurance and company from a companion if he/she has to go from home to the shop. The patient avoids going to places where panic is likely to occur and the patient prefers to keep something that would keep him/her calm during panic. Alcohol is always a good choice for them. Treatment Agoraphobia can be treated in numerous ways, yet psychotherapy is primarily employed to treat the patients of agoraphobia. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the particular psychotherapy that is most suitable for the patients of agoraphobia because it decreases the patient’s negative perceptions. Today, many patients of agoraphobia receive the CBT online over internet. Self-exposure therapy is also useful for the treatment of agoraphobia. This therapy works by reducing the patient’s resistance to the situations of panic. Increased level of interaction with panic reduces the patient’s obsession with it. Agraphobia Agraphobia is the name of fear of sexual abuse. Agraphobia is seen in victims in sexual abuse and also people who have remained exposed to its hysteria in the past. Real victims of sexual abuse develop strong tactics to ensure that similar abuse doesn’t happen to them ever again. On the other hand, the victims of hysteria develop a fear of abuse. Causes No universally specific cause of agraphobia is known by the doctors today. Incidents that cause agraphobia to develop are specific and vary from one patient to another. Most common cause of agraphobia is sex abuse hysteria. Symptoms Agraphobia is not hard to detect. Patient of agraphobia can be identified when he/she shows extreme fear for situations in which some one has experienced or may experience sexual abuse. Such situations can be sending the wife to a doctor for X-ray examination, the first day of a child in the school and studying in co-education. Symptoms of agraphobia include but are not limited to increased heartbeat rate, uncontrollable fear, dreadful feelings and troubled breathing. Patient of agraphobia tends to avoid going to places that apparently seem very safe to others. Treatment The best treatment for agraphobia can be offered by a mental health practitioner. This is because of the fact that the disease can not be identified in body scans or X-rays because the wounds exist in the patient’s psychology, not body. The mental health practitioners investigate the patient and make an attempt to get to the root cause of the patient’s fear. They tend to identify where and when the patient happened to go through the sexual abuse that is causing them the phobia. The therapist takes the patient into confidence and assures him/her that he/she needs to act in certain ways in order to get rid of the symptoms of agraphobia. Such psychotherapies have conventionally been found to generate very good results for the patients of agraphobia. Exposure therapy and CBT are also used for the treatment of agraphobia. Selection of a particular kind of therapy depends upon the nature of individual patient and the level to which the phobia is severe. Read More