Therapy Can Help With Phobias

Exposure therapy is suggested to be one of the best ways to overcome your anxiety. To master something in life it is necessary first to think about it, and then actually practice doing it. Remember when you first started to learn how to drive. The more you practiced the better you became. This is the basis of exposure therapy. You actually need to go into the situation and think about it in a different way, implement the other skills and knowledge you have to mange your anxiety, and then reflect on how it went.

There is a word of caution here. Some research suggests 'facing the fear and doing it anyway'. For some people this may work however for others it doesn't. Learning the skills and techniques of cognitive therapy and educating yourself on where your anxiety is actually coming from in the first place, prior to exposing yourself to the situation, can often have better outcomes as you can feel more in control before you enter the situation, rather than going in feeling absolutely terrified.

When you feel anxious, it is suggested that you go through it firstly in your mind (realistic thinking/skills of cognitive therapy), and secondly, put yourself in the situation that you fear. This part is called exposure therapy.

In general, exposure therapy with response prevention is probably one of the most effective treatments. It's a fairly straightforward type of treatment. Some people have already begun it on their own - in a way.

Exposure therapy is what it sounds like, exposing the person to whatever it is that causes their fear. The process usually begins by gradually introducing the patient to the feared situation and works towards helping them develop constructive responses to their fear. For example, a patient with severe arachnophobia (a fear of spiders) may begin by talking about "creatures with eight legs" and end up being able to sweep spiders away when they see one.

The therapy is very systematic. You first write down the situations with spiders that scare you and then categorize them from least frightening to most frightening. You will also have to learn an effective relaxation technique to employ when in these situations.

The next step is to imagine coping with the situations at the lowest levels on your list while engaging in relaxation. Gradually, the anxiety will subside. You stay at the same level until the anxiety provoked by the stimulus becomes tolerable. Then you move on to the next level and you work your way up to the top of the hierarchy. These exercises can be done in imagery as well as in reality.

The final step is gradual exposure. This is done without relaxation. With a trusted person's guidance, you expose yourself to real phobic situations. Again, you proceed step by step, from the least to the most frightening, and remain in the situation until the anxiety subsides.

You can involve pictures of spiders in your exposure therapy when you practice the exposure steps. Starting with a picture of a spider can be a very non-threatening way to at least be able to look at the spider and imagine how you will cope when it's the real thing!

Learn about clown phobia and needle phobia at the Phobia List site.

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