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Treatment of Phobias
By Amber Smith
If your intense aversion to snakes, or dentists, or heights makes you feel as if you'll explode, short-term psychotherapy may be the answer to taming your fears. Most phobics discover the anxiety that propels their hearts to beat faster and their palms to sweat is what therapists call "anticipatory." Their body's responses begin with nothing more than the thought of the feared item or situation, with no rational basis for feeling an impending explosion. Of course, medications and various cognitive-behavioral therapies may also help rid a person of their phobia. Why bother treating a phobia? Because people with untreated anxiety disorders may be more susceptible to other psychological disorders such as depression, according to the American Psychological Association. The group also notes that relationships with family members, friends and coworkers can be strained, and job performance can suffer when a person's anxiety disorders are left untreated. Perhaps the most successful therapy for phobias is exposure therapy, a kind of cognitive-behavioral therapy also known as desensitization, which shows success in about 75 percent of patients, the National Institute of Mental Health reports. "In general, exposure therapy with response prevention is probably one of the most effective treatments," says Sheryl Jackson, Ph.D., Director of the University of Alabama's Anxiety Program, in the Department of Psychiatry. "It's a fairly straightforward type of treatment. Some people have already kind of begun it on their own." 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. |
