Causes of Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia affects people of all socio-economic scale and people from almost all lifestyles. As much as 80 percent amongst all the agoraphobics are women. There are a number of physical, psychological as well as behavioral symptoms of agoraphobia , which a person can show in the initial stages.

It is known that a number of environmental factors are responsible for Agoraphobia. However, causes of Agoraphobia can be hereditary too. Agoraphobics may have a sibling or parent or any other relative suffering from Agoraphobia. There are high instances for an identical twin to be agoraphobic if any one of the twins is suffering from it. The environmental factors include growing up with parents who are overcritical, perfectionists, overprotective and overly anxious. Let us look at these causes in detail:

Hereditary: Approximately 15 to 25 percent of children growing up with a minimum of one parent suffering from agoraphobia will become agoraphobic. It is not that children inherit agoraphobia directly from their parents; they inherit a general personality type, which makes them feel anxious.

Environmental: On the environmental aspect, several types of childhood circumstances such as the growing up amidst parents who are – 1) Overcritical and perfectionist, 2) overprotective and 3) parents who put forward an over cautious view of the outside world are responsible for making a child agoraphobic.

• Overcritical and perfectionists parents: Children who are brought up by parents’ who tend to be perfectionist and overcritical lack confidence and are not sure of their own acceptability. There is always some doubt in the child’s mind if he is sufficiently worthy and good enough as others. This makes them insecure and they avoid taking part in social and public events hence imbibing their parents’ qualities in themselves. They become self-critical, a perfectionist and start to criticize others.
• Overly cautious view of the world from parents: Parents who have a phobia or are overly anxious and fearful bring up children who have a phobia. They are highly concerned about the likely dangers to their children and hence keep poking their children every now and then. For instance, “don’t watch Television, it will ruin your eyes”, “don’t go out in the rain you will get a cold” and so on. The more the parent creates an overcautious view of the world, the more the children view the world as a dangerous place to live-in. When a child is imbibed with the views that the outside world is dangerous, the risk-taking and exploration skills of the child are automatically reduced and this makes the child more worrisome and more concerned to safety.

However, there is no need to panic if you have found out that you are suffering from severe Agoraphobia. Agoraphobia can be easily treated and you can overcome it if you show some kind of dedication. The treatment of Agoraphobia mainly includes deep relaxation techniques, cognitive therapy, medication and exposure.

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