It is important that you understand there are consequences for your actions. We are not telling you that you are a bad person; rather we are letting you know that your course of actions pays with either good or bad consequences. This is an important realization in giving you the incentive to tackle your Agoraphobia through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
When you feel like you cannot go into public, you miss out on the opportunity to meet other people, make friends, and experience some of the good things in life. You end up alone and often feeling sad in the end. This doesn’t have to happen to you. You deserve the opportunity to be happy.
Consequences are direct results that occur after a decision has been made. There are two types of consequences to consider including reinforcements and punishments. With reinforcements your behavior increases and with punishments your behavior decreases.
You have already taken a brief look at how Agoraphobia affects you and some of the situations that make you anxious. Now you will take a closer look and identify the behaviors you want to change in order to overcome your Agoraphobia.
Things You Fear – Consider the things you fear the most. How do you feel when the fear takes control? What do you do? Write out your direct feelings, thoughts, behaviors, physiological reactions and so forth.
After scrutinizing your behaviors, you might use reinforcements or punishments to help you overcome your Agoraphobia. For instance, if you face up to your anxiety disorder and go out, reward yourself with something small that you would like. Likewise, if you allow your fear to take control and stop you going out, remind yourself what you have missed out on, like an opportunity to have fun or make friends.
Understanding that there are consequences and punishments that follow your behaviors may help you see the need to make changes and get over your Agoraphobia. However, punishment is not the answer to solving your anxiety disorder. You also need contingency contracts as part of your Cognitive Behavior Therapy to overcome Agoraphobia.
Contingency contracts explored
A contingency contract is a formal, written agreement in which goals for behavioral change, reinforcements, and penalties are clearly stated.
You are going to write your own contingency contract. Your goal now is to decide what reward with induce you to behave in a positive way to overcome your fear, and what punishment will deter you from avoiding positive behaviors to overcome your fear. You will need to be specific. Describe your level of performance needed to complete your goals. Make it something meaningful that you have to achieve in order to achieve your reward.
The punishment brought on by Agoraphobia is obvious. You are not allowing yourself to enjoy the finer things in life or the opportunity to reach out and let others into your life because of your anxiety disorder. Thus, you are punishing yourself by allowing your Agoraphobia to take control of your life. You need to work to eliminate the punishment you place on yourself through Agoraphobia and focus more on the consequences of your decisions and behaviors.
Make a contract with yourself to get over your Agoraphobia. Record your progress on a piece of paper everyday that you use your new behavior. Your new behavior includes reforming your mind to believe that you deserve to enjoy public experiences. It also includes your new way of thinking, e.g. you are punishing yourself by not allowing yourself to enjoy life’s experiences.
Next, you are going to look more closely at practical cognitive behavioral steps you will take to overcome your Agoraphobia.
Look at your goals and analyze them closely. Do your goals fit your description of what you want to accomplish? For example, your goal may be to overcome Agoraphobia. If this is the case then you will need to consider your plans on how you are going to do that. Do your plans work in harmony with your goals?
Example of goal - Overcome Agoraphobia
Example of plan – Read information about Agoraphobia
Here, your plan to overcome Agoraphobia is good and in place. Thus, you will not have to change that goal. However, your plans do not completely work in harmony with your goal. You plan to read information to learn about Agoraphobia, but what about taking lessons to help you overcome your anxiety disorder? What about putting forth the effort to achieve, e.g. which course of action do you intend to take to overcome Agoraphobia? Are you willing to mingle with people to help you overcome your anxiety disorder? Do you plan to visit the supermarket more often to help you overcome Agoraphobia? Be practical and be specific in making your plans, so that they will be effective in overcoming Agoraphobia.
It is important that you understand your goals, plans, and efforts that you will take to overcome your Agoraphobia. In your diary, continue to track your progress as the weeks go by.
It is important that you state your goals and plans to overcome Agoraphobia in your contract and put a date in by which you will complete each step. Write your contract as simply as possible in clear language. Use rewards. Make sure the rewards are relevant to your needs in overcoming Agoraphobia.
You have read an article about Agoraphobia. To learn more and to start an online therapy, please visit:
Agoraphobia Online Therapy |
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