Agoraphobia: Why Cognitive Therapy Helps

Cognitive therapy is effective in treating agoraphobia and other anxiety disorders because of the link between thoughts and feelings. Cognitive therapy is based on the principal that thoughts can lead to feelings, and feelings can lead to physical symptoms.

To give an example, let’s say I was going to an interview for a new job. If I were to start thinking self-defeating thoughts such as, “I probably don’t have the skills to be successful in this new position” or “I will probably be asked questions that I won’t be able to answer” then I would be likely to worry more and feel anxious before the interview. The more anxious and worried I felt before the interview, the more likely I would be to experience physical symptoms like being jittery, having butterflies in my stomach, or freezing up during the interview.

At the same time thoughts can lead to feelings and accompanying physical symptoms, feelings and physical symptoms can reinforce thoughts. Going back to the interview example, if I felt anxious and froze up during the interview, my failed interview could reinforce thoughts that I don’t have what it takes to succeed in a new job. Thoughts, feelings, and physical symptoms can form a vicious cycle of negativity.

People with agoraphobia get caught in these negative thought-feeling-behavior cycles all the time.

Cognitive therapy stops this vicious cycle by challenging “cognitive distortions” and correcting them through a process called “cognitive restructuring.” Put in everyday language, cognitive distortions are just faulty ways of thinking that lead to the irrational fear behind agoraphobia. Cognitive restructuring is just changing the way you think, replacing fear-producing thought patterns with more rational, healthy thinking. Replacing fear-producing thoughts with healthy ones helps to relieve the symptoms of agoraphobia.