People that have been totally cured from Agoraphobia using CBT

[xiand2]

I want to get in touch with people that have been totally cured from Agoraphobia using CBT (without medication). If so, please PM me.

Thanks!

[nomorepanic]

You may find that some people use a combination of medication and CBT and some just use CBT without it.

Is your agoraphobia such that you cannot leave the house?

What sort of therapies have you tried so far?

Are you currently having CBT?

[xiand2]

I won't use medication, so I'm seeking advice from those that were cured without medication.

I can leave the house.

I'm using CBT. After extensive reading on PubMed, it is clear that CBT is by far the most effective therapy for Agoraphobia.

[nomorepanic]

I overcame a lot of my problems without medication and using self-help and CBT if that helps.

[xiand2]

Was one the problems that you overcame Agoraphobia?

[nomorepanic]

I guess it depends how you define agoraphobia really as it is not just about being stuck in the house as such. It can mean just going out in general, going away from the safe place etc so I guess I did have an element of that too.

[xiand2]

Agoraphobia -- stemming for fear of panic attacks -- to me should mean avoidance of certain situations DUE to fear of having a panic attack.

Did you have that? Are you now cured from that?

[nomorepanic]

Well yes I did with my driving problems. I would say I am 90% cured of it now.

[xiand2]

What is the remaining 10%, if you don't mind me asking?

Are you using CBT4Panic? If so, how long have you been using it?

[nomorepanic]

The remaining 10% is still that niggling doubt in the back of my mind that I may not be able to cope and sometimes I still can feel the anxiety building when I am out driving and get "stuck"!

I am not using CBT4Panic as I do not feel I need to at the moment but I am in full support of Robin's programme and do have a copy if I feel I need to use it.

How are you getting on with it and how far do you think you have come?

[nomorepanic]

If you want to read my CBT experience I will find you my post on here if you like?

[xiand2]

I'm looking to rid that "niggling doubt". Do you know of anyone on NOMOREPANIC that has been cured of Agoraphobia?

[nomorepanic]

Ummmm a lot of members get "cured" then disappear then come back again, or they get "cured" and don't bother coming back as they have no need for the site anymore. One of the admins - Diane07 is doing fantastic at the moment and she is still around on here.

[nomorepanic]

I can live with the 90% to be honest as I have come so far over the past 20 years of suffering. I am not sure I will ever be 100% but that is the nature of anxiety - nasty little beast it is!

[nomorepanic]

I forgot to add that Diane used CBT4PANIC

[Wannabeloved85]

Great posts here. Is there a thread with diane's story around?

[nomorepanic]

I will ask Di to read this thread

[AuntieMoosie]

Hello :)

Well I can't say that I'm totally cured, because I'm still working hard with it right now. But what I can tell you is that before I started using CBT4PANIC I was completely and totally housebound and have been since 2004.

Seeing a therapist unfortunately didn't work for me, I felt under pressure to achieve things and that had a bad effect on me. With CBT4PANIC I've been able to study it and work with it at my own pace and that has helped me immensely. I'm very happy with the progress that I'm making.

I am one of those that are on medication too, I suffer from depression as well, so I need to have anti-depressants to keep my mood stable.

I suppose we each have to try and find what works for us, as we are all different, so some things will help us and some things wont. It's taken me years to find something that works for me, but I have, at last, found it.

Nicola I would love to read your CBT experience and Diane's too please :)

[nomorepanic]

Here you go Moosie...

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7162

[xiand2]

There's so many ex-drug addicts, food addicts, gambling addicts, etc. that are involved in counselling programs. It's frustrating that we don't have the equivalent with former agoraphobics. Robin Hall was apparently once agoraphobic, but beyond him, I don't really know any.

My theory is that you can be cured much faster with the guidance of people who know exactlywhat it takes to become cured.

[nomorepanic]

I totally agree that it helps to talk to people who have done it.

The main reason I set NMP up was to bring people together to help each other and I think it works well.

[xiand2]

I appreciate your efforts.

However, I wish we had a way of staying in touch with those that are cured. We could have some sort of mentoring program...

[nomorepanic]

When members tell me they are moving on because they don't "need" NMP anymore, and can I close their account, I do ask them to stick around and help others that need it but to be honest not many do which is sad as we lose all the positive success stories.

[AuntieMoosie]

Hello :)

As I understand it, Robin has indeed suffered from this condition and now leads a normal life.

I suppose it depends what you mean by "completely cured"?

This is only my opinion but how I understand it, is that we learn to change our thought processes over time and it does take time, unfortunately with all psychological conditions there is no one simple cure all. What will work for some people may not work for others.

I expect even if you spoke with ex drug addicts or alcoholics they will tell you that different things helped them in their recovery, they won't all have been the same.

My definition of "cure" for agoraphobia or indeed any of the panic disorders is to learn not to be frightened of fear, because that's what it is, fear. I used to describe myself to people by telling them that I felt like I was living in a "bubble of fear" and I couldn't pop it to get out, the reason I couldn't pop it was because I was constantly re-inflating my bubble with fear and then I would go round in endlessly decreasing circles with fear, feeding fear, feeding fear!

I've now reached the stage that I can recognise the fight and flight symptoms and deal with them instead of being frightened of them. The anxiety feelings still do pop up from time to time and that's when I have to use what I've learned to cope with them.

So as I say, in my opinion for me anyway a "cure" would be when I've learned how to properly deal with the fight or flight symptoms. I'm not telling myself that I'm never ever going to feel anxious again, because for me, that wouldn't be realistic, what I tell myself is that as long as I can cope with my anxiety and deal with it when it happens that will then be good enough as a cure for me. At least now, after all those years trapped in my house, I'm able to go out and face it, that's something I just could not do before.

I really do hope that you find that you make good progress, I do know and completely understand how difficult it is, it's the hardest thing I've had to do in my life so far.

Sending you hugs and best wishes :hugs:

---------- Post added 02-11-12 at 00:08 ---------- Previous post was 01-11-12 at 23:57 ----------

Many thanks for the link Nicola :)

I will have a good read of that tomorrow once I've had some shut eye!! lol

[xiand2]

If we stop fearing fight-or-flight symptoms, then they will stop arising in inappropriate times.

You are cured once you no longer fear these symptoms and so you no longer avoid any situation DUE to fear of fight-or-flight symptoms and you never experience any distress in a situation DUE to fear of fight-or-flight symptoms.

[nomorepanic]

How far off are you from being "cured" (sorry but I hate that word lol) do you think you are?

[xiand2]

Too far! LOL.

It's hard to say. I'm at the point where I can drive alone about 20 minutes away from my home to a familiar area.

Perhaps that's 50% of the way there...?

I can handle elevated anxiety, but I'll admit, it can get high enough to still spook me if I'm far away from home.

[diane07]

I was asked by Nicola to check out this thread.

I'm off to work now so will reply more to it later tonight, but yes i used Robins programme, i had "one wish" which was to take my little girl to school on my own, which i did and do.

I can now do supermarkets, town centre's, you name it and i can do it, no fear and no panic.

It can be done.

Di x

[Wannabeloved85]

That's excellent Di, well done, I know getting better is hard and in no way as simple as it is to read. So I would like to say well done in your bravery of facing what can only be described as horrifyingly scary. I'm so pleased to read that you can do the one thing you wished, and rewarded by doing so much more :)

Becci x

[nomorepanic]

Thanks Di for replying.