Josh.
Hi.
To answer your questions in order of importance. Yes panic attacks are perfectly curable. It helps to know why you have them but that could take a log time and isn't really necessary to do what you want which is to stop the Agoraphobia. I do think though that after you do stop them you should continue with learning all you can about this condition so you will not have it just morph into some other aspect. But first to stop the Agoraphobia.
It has nothing to do with the store or any other place you have trouble with.
It is about control. The store is a trigger that leads up to it. Remember that panic attacks are all fight or flight. They are all about taking control away from you due to a perceived threat. (store) There really is no threat there it is perceived. CBT is about changing thought patterns.
You don't like panic attacks but ride them out anyway. How about we stop them instead of riding them out. The fact that you can ride them out is going to be a big help.
By the way I'm not allowed to prescribe being not a medical person but I know this works so the following is only information and how I did it. It worked for me and others so you can try it if you think it will work for you. In no way is it to replace the program, it is just to get you over the Agoraphobia.
First like I said it is about control. This is why you panic with just the thought, even before the action. Agoraphobia has a lot of sub phobias but all of them are about control.
When you have to go to the store you have a lot of things to deal with that are out of your control. By the way some of the following may seem confusing because panic messes with thought processes. Read it more than once if you have to. Also you need some relaxation and coping skills to use before you try this.
So the things that are out of your control.
Traffic, crowds, position of the items you are buying, distance to specific items, number of people in the line up, speed of the cashier, noise. The list goes on but the point is that you have to deal with all of these things and you have little or no control over them. To add to my point. Is it easier to shop if the store is half empty? Yes?
Ok. By now we should have established that the reason you have trouble is because you have less control than say brushing your teeth.
But you are not a control freak right? Be no problem at all if you were.
Now for the rather simple answer via CBT.
You have to change your thought pattern from I don't want to do this, or I can't do this to, and this is about taking back control, "I am doing this because I want to, not because I have to."
"I am in control here" ETC. I am in this line up because I want to be. I am shopping because it is my decision to do it. Agoraphobia comes from doing over and over something you would rather not. Or in most cases something inconvenient.
The following post is about adjuncts to this to make it easier.
Davit
