Is There Hope for Anxiety or Phobia Sufferers?

Do you find yourself suffering from phobias or situational anxieties? Are you afraid of snakes? Maybe flying or elevators or something as simple as crowded rooms. I was desperately afraid of spiders. There is help for you and a rather simple one. is called Desensitization Therapy and is a lot milder than the exposure therapy I discussed in an earlier article.

This behavior modification technique was developed by Joseph Wolpe in the 1950s and was based on the concepts of classical conditioning. Most commonly treated with this therapy are fears including fear of public speaking, flying and many other phobias.

Systematic desensitization is used to induce relaxation in order to help the client cope with their fears. Many different relaxation techniques are taught including breathing exercises and muscular relaxation techniques.

After learning relaxation skills, the client then creates an "anxiety hierarchy." arranged in order from the least to most distressing situations. For example, a person who is phobic of snakes, the client might start with seeing a picture of a snake, then actually viewing a caged snake, and finally handling a snake. The therapist supports the client through the presentation of each fearful image or act by producing the state of relaxation. The client stays with each step until a relaxed state is reached when faced with each item. As a result, tolerance develops for each and the client moves on to the next. Eventually relaxation rather than anxiety becomes associated with the offending stimulus. Historically, this has been a gradual process using real life situations. In today's time, often virtual reality or computer simulated exposure has been used in place of real situations.

Basically, desensitization is an intervention that alters the link between anxiety and situations that produce fear. The aim is to reduce or eliminate fears or phobias that clients find distressing and impair their ability to conduct daily life. By training a client to react with relaxation phobias and fears can gradually be reduced or eliminated entirely.

Remember that as with any therapy and the potential for extreme panic reactions to people with severe phobias or anxiety that only trained professionals should conduct this therapy. It should not be conducted by a lone person. It can increase the phobia and cause damage to your mental health. Also, the relaxation response should be thoroughly learned before confronting the phobias and a therapist will be invaluable in assisting with that.

Source:

http://www.guidetopsychology.com/sysden.htm

http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch13_therapies/desensitization_therapy.html

http://www.suite101.com/content/systematic-desensitization-and-phobia-treatment-a141826