Conquering Anxiety: Exposure Therapy

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well. It is a new week and that means it is time for another post in the Conquering Anxiety series. Now comes the post as mentioned earlier on exposure therapy. So far we have been exploring how anxiety impacts our lives, reflecting on what things can be like if we can overcome it, learning about the cycle of anxiety,  practicing tools that can help us while we confront our anxiety, and exploring the role of diet and exercise. These posts acted as a foundation for our post of the week so if you have not taken part in all those, please follow the order of the series. 

Today we will talk about exposure therapy!

Why exposure therapy?

Exposure therapy is highly successful for people dealing with anxiety, with 60-90% of people reporting no or mild symptoms after treatment. Adding CBT, relaxation techniques, and other treatments can make it even more effective (Data taken from EBBP.org)

What is exposure therapy?

Simply put, it is a treatment method in which people are equipped with coping tools (like the ones we covered earlier) and asked to confront their fears. The trick however is to evaluate where you stand with your specific fear and just push a bit past that. For example, if you are terrified of driving and never touched your car after your accident or an unpleasant incident, start by just sitting in the car for 5-10 minutes, you should not drive it on a highway the first day because that is way past your comfort zone. 

While getting out of the comfort zone is crucial it should be done within reason and with the support of coping tools so that the person benefits from the experience. So you are picking a battle that you can win and you are going in armed! 

Here are key mistakes to avoid. 

• Picking a task that is way beyond your current level (You will not go for a 10-mile run if you have never run in your life, similarly, we should build our tolerance to these challenging tasks, bit by bit)
• Going in with no coping tools (Coping tools help you stay in the moment and aid in regulating your nervous system)
• Not being consistent with your efforts. Pick something small but keep on working in the direction of conquering your anxiety, and make it a habit. 

📺Watch a video on the exposure Hierarchy

Here is an example of what exposure hierarchy looks like. 

 Source: Stork, M. B. (n.d.). Exposure therapy for social anxiety: A practical guide to lasting change 

Task for members

• Pick something you currently experience anxiety around and wish to conquer and create an exposure hierarchy for it  based on the information shared both in the video and the image above. Share with us your steps and tell us what step can you take this week towards conquering your fear. 

Task for listeners

• Share one resource on exposure therapy from a reputable source. Please make sure its total reading time or if its a video, its under 5 minutes. 
• Respond to one member on this thread with encouragement and support. 

Further Reading

Navigating the Comfort, Discomfort, and Panic Zones: A Guide to Growth

❗Disclaimer! Check with your therapist or other health care provider to see if exposure therapy is the right choice for you. 

📌I am looking for users who have done some work on managing their anxiety and are open to sharing what worked for them with us. This will be included in our learning from others post. Please reach out in PMs if you would like to contribute to that post. 

This post is part of the Conquering Anxiety series, you can find all posts of the series here.