Exposure therapy, or “exposure and response prevention” as some call. It is an effective way to treat conditions such as anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, body image disorders, trauma, and phobias. If you’re struggling with mental illness. Or are just trying to achieve overall happiness, exposure therapy could be an effective tool to reach your goals.
What is Exposure Therapy
Exposing yourself to anxiety provoking stimuli is an effective way of overcoming these types of fears. In fact, it has proven to be an effective treatment for these types of disorders. Exposure Therapy involves gradually exposing you to stimuli that induce the fear. This Therapy can help reduce anxiety and it is usually done in combination with some type of cognitive behavioral therapy Cleveland (CBT) and/or medication.
Phobia is a term used to describe intense fear or anxiety. That prevents people from engaging in social situations or performing normal daily tasks. It is often associated with irrational beliefs and negative expectations that may be associated with the feared object or event. The goal of exposure therapy is to increase tolerance for feared objects or situations. The aim is to learn that those objects or events are not as dangerous as believe and they can tolerated.
Exposure Therapy Benefits
It is a common practice in psychology to expose individuals who suffer from OCD or phobias to situations that may trigger the disorder. In short, exposure therapy involves exposing someone to the very thing they fear, in order to reduce their anxiety.
This type of therapy can help a wide range of people from overcoming anxiety disorders, such as agoraphobia and social anxiety, to relieving the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
While many people consider exposure therapy a last resort. The fact is that most sufferers benefit from it and can eventually recover.
Exposure therapy benefits include:
- Reducing anxiety
- Reducing stress
- Improving self-esteem
- Reducing social stigma
- Helping others
For What Purpose Exposure Therapy Use
Exposure therapy is extremely effective for almost every type of phobia and OCD. Some people may think that this therapy requires you to be brave or courageous, or that they’ll need to expose themselves to their fears and face the consequences.
However, in reality, most exposures are actually safe. For example, you can have a fear of flying. But nothing bad will happen if you sit in a public airport waiting for your flight. If an exposure doesn’t feel safe, then you should probably avoid it. You should never force your body to endure something you don’t want to do.
Exposure Therapy: What is it, and Why Does It Work?
Exposure therapy is a treatment method use to treat psychological disorders. This therapy works by exposing patients to things that cause them anxiety.
The goal of exposure therapy is to help the patient overcome the fear response. In other words, the patient will become accustomed to the situation, eventually overcoming the fear response.
For example, a person might fear public speaking, so the therapist would put the patient in front of a large crowd and let them speak. Eventually the patient would no longer be afraid of speaking in front of a crowd, because they have exposed to the situation.
