HELP FOR PHOBIAS
Fear is normal and healthy. In fact, you wouldn’t live long without it. Fear is a reaction to a perceived threat or danger. To protect yourself from a real danger, such as someone pointing a gun at your head, fear is required to activate the “fight/flight response.” Your blood flows to your large muscles, mobilizing you to fight or flee.
A phobia is an irrational fear. There is no real danger, but your body and mind respond as if the danger is real. The palpitations, dizziness and other sensations you experience occur because your body is preparing itself for the danger you think is real.
So What Can You Do?
The research is clear and definitive about what works. Talk therapy cannot resolve a phobia. Even Freud admitted that.
I’m sure you’ve heard somewhere that you can’t conquer a fear unless you learn to face it. Therapists who can teach you to perform structured exercises, guiding you in a step-wise fashion to face your fears are called “behavior therapists” or “cognitive-behavior therapists.” Not all behavior therapists have the specialized training needed to help people with phobias.
Exposure Therapy
Exposure therapy is a procedure in which the therapist teaches you a set of anxiety reduction techniques to manage your fear. As you master these techniques, the therapist guides you, helping you to face your fear gradually and in small steps. You will learn to practice your anxiety reduction techniques while facing your fear to bring your anxiety under control.
For example, if you are afraid of driving, exposure therapy might involve driving initially on side streets. As you gain mastery, you would graduate to busier streets, then highways and so on. If you have a social phobia, exposure therapy might involve short conversations with people you know well. As you gain mastery, you could graduate to longer conversations that involve more self-disclosure, and then to having conversations with people you don’t know well. You will be prompted to practice techniques like diaphragmatic breathing while facing your fear to help bring your anxiety under control.
Anxiety Ladders
This plan of facing your fear in small, graduated steps is called an “anxiety ladder.” Everyone’s anxiety ladder is unique, depending upon the nature of the fear. Your therapist will work with you to design your anxiety ladder and guide you through the steps.
You will always be in charge of the exposure process. You can stop an exposure exercise any time you want. You can slow the process down or make the exposure task easier. Any good therapist will let you lead and run the show.
Exposure can be difficult, but progress usually occurs quickly if you practice regularly. If you practice the exposure exercises repeatedly, the fear will lose its grip on you right before your eyes. Clients describe what follows as highly gratifying and freeing.
Cognitive Therapy
People suffering from phobias need to learn how to change the anxiety producing thought process with “cognitive therapy.” Cognitive therapy involves learning to appreciate the profound impact your thoughts have in creating your fear. Cognitive therapy will teach you how to challenge and modify your distorted thoughts and bring your anxiety under control.
Does It Work?
A cognitive-behavioral approach, including exposure therapy and cognitive therapy is successful in helping approximately 80% of people suffering from “Social Phobia” and “Specific Phobia,” which is a wastebasket category covering almost any phobia you can imagine. It is not only effective for people with life-impairing phobias. It works for normal-life fears as well. Fear is universal. But few people, unfortunately, have learned the basic skills for managing fear.
Finding A Qualified Therapist
Only therapists who have been specifically trained to provide exposure therapy know how to help people with phobias. To find a qualified specialist in your area, visit
http://www.adaa.org.
Do not assume therapists who claim to be qualified have had the appropriate training. When interviewing a therapist on the phone, ask the following questions:
1) Can you describe how you help people with phobias? Can you explain exposure therapy to me? (If the therapist does not give an accurate description, call another therapist.)
2) Could you describe how you were trained to help people with phobias?
3) Approximately how many people suffering with phobias have you worked with?
4) What is your success rate?