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PHOBIA LIBRARY

Read up on fear, panic and phobia to get a general overview of phobias and trauma and fear management. Learn mindfulness based self care principles and exercises for managing phobias from my books on trauma and self care.
JUMP TO A CHAPTER
​Fear | Function | Thought | Treatment | Coping
For Help See: Fear in the Brain | Fear Dictionary
THE LIBRARY TOPIC HOME PAGES
​​Introduction to Trauma, Fear and Phobia
Part 1: ​Defining Fear and the Fear Response
Part 2: Emotional & Cognitive Functions of Fear
Part 3: Maladaptive Thought Processing
​Part 4: Professional Therapy & Mindful Self Care
​THE PHOBIA COLLECTION DOWNLOADS
​Browse Collection of Phobias by Topic
Download Collection of Phobias
Download Dictionary of Fear and Phobia
Download Self Care Guides for Coping

PART FOUR - TREATMENT​
​​TREATMENT OPTIONS
PROFESSIONAL THERAPY &
MINDFUL SELF CARE
​ Learn the cognitive treatment options for professional therapy, self care with mindfulness meditation, common defense mechanisms, boundaries, stressors, and strategies for coping with anxiety and panic for fear and phobia
TREATMENT | THERAPY | SELF CARE

TREATMENT DIRECTORY

>> Treatment Home Page - Disclaimer
​
​PROFESSIONAL THERAPY OPTIONS
Make the Best of Professional Therapy
Search for Medical Professionals (external)
Therapy Options
​INCORPORATING SELF CARE OPTIONS
​SELF CARE: Defining What It Really Means
Core Elements of Mindfulness ​Mindful Coping Strategies ​Self Care is not a substitute for professional therapy and treatment. Author is not a medical professional.

​RELATED SELF CARE GUIDES BY KAIROS
​View All Downloads
​ALL CONTENT PROVIDED BY MY BOOKS ON MINDFUL SELF CARE FOR TRAUMA AND FEAR
Download for Free Here

PART FOUR - TREATMENT​
​​EXPOSURE THERAPY
A Form of CBT

See Also
​HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF THERAPY
What Self Care Really Means
Read About Mindfulness

​WEBSITE DISCLAIMER
Author is not a medical professional.
​View Medical Professionals Here

EXPOSURE THERAPY


​WHAT EXPOSURE THERAPY
​Exposure therapy is a behavioral therapy technique to treat anxiety-driven disorders like GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), PTSD, Phobias, and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). It can be effective for phobic anxiety.

WHAT IT DOES
Exposure therapy is based on the principle of respondent conditioning which is also known as Pavlovian extinction. The exposure therapist identifies the cognitions, emotions and physiological arousal that accompany a fear-inducing stimulus and then tries to break the pattern of escape that maintains the fear. This is done by exposing the patient to progressively stronger fear-inducing stimuli. Fear is minimized at each of a series of steadily escalating steps or challenges (what is known as a hierarchy), which can be explicit (static) or implicit (dynamic) until the fear is finally gone.

Exposure therapy focuses on changing your response to the object or situation that you fear. Gradual, repeated exposure to the source of your specific phobia and the related thoughts, feelings and sensations may help you learn to manage your anxiety. For example, if you're afraid of elevators, your therapy may progress from simply thinking about getting into an elevator, to looking at pictures of elevators, to going near an elevator, to stepping into an elevator. Next, you may take a one-floor ride, then ride several floors, and then ride in a crowded elevator.

TREATMENT OF COMMON ANXIETY DISORDERS

PHOBIAS : Imaginal exposure therapy is the most successful known treatment for phobias. Several published studies feature treatments using imaginal exposure. At a post-treatment follow-up four years later 90% of people retained a considerable reduction in fear, avoidance, and overall level of impairment, while 65% no longer experienced any symptoms of a specific phobia. Agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder are examples of phobias that have been successfully treated by exposure therapy.

GAD: There is empirical evidence that exposure therapy can be an effective treatment for people with generalized anxiety disorder, citing specifically in vivo exposure therapy which promotes emotional regulation using systematic and controlled therapeutic exposure to traumatic stimuli.

PTSD: Virtual reality exposure (VRE) therapy is a modern but effective treatment of PTSD. This method was tested on several active duty Army soldiers, using an immersive computer simulation of military settings over six sessions. Self-reported PTSD symptoms of these soldiers were greatly diminished following the treatment. Exposure therapy has shown promise in the treatment of co-morbid PTSD and substance abuse.

OCD: Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a variant of exposure therapy that is recommended by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the Mayo Clinic as first-line treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) citing that it has the richest empirical support for positive outcomes in both youth and adolescents.
  • ERP is predicated on the idea that a therapeutic effect is achieved as the patient confronts their fears, but refrains from engaging in the escape response or compulsive ritual that alleviates or eliminates distress.
  • ERP involves purposefully evoking fear, anxiety, and or distress in the individual by exposing him/her to the feared stimulus. The response involves having the patient refrain from their ritualistic or otherwise compulsive behavior and then the patient is taught to tolerate distress until the anxiety fades.
  • The patient learns that rituals are not always necessary to decrease distress or anxiety. Over repeated practice of ERP, patients with OCD learn that they can have obsessive thoughts and images but not have the need to engage in compulsive rituals to decrease their distress.

3 TYPES OF EXPOSURE THERAPY
There are three types of exposure procedures.
  • The first is in vivo or "real life." This type exposes the patient to actual fear-inducing situations. For example, if someone fears public speaking, the person may be asked to give a speech to a small group of people.
  • The second type of exposure is imaginal, where patients are asked to imagine a situation that they are afraid of. This procedure is helpful for people with PTSD who need to confront feared thoughts and memories.
  • The third type of exposure is interoceptive, which may be used for more specific disorders such as panic or PTSD. Patients confront feared bodily symptoms such as increased heart rate and shortness of breath.

The types of exposure may be used together or separately.

While evidence clearly supports the effectiveness of exposure therapy, some clinicians are uncomfortable using imaginal exposure therapy, especially in cases of trauma. They may not understand it, are not confident in their own ability to use it, or more commonly, they see significant contraindications for their client.
In the Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP or EX/RP) variation of exposure therapy, the resolution to refrain from the escape response is to be maintained at all times and not just during specific practice sessions. The patient not only experiences habituation (a diminishment of physiological or emotional response to a frequently repeated stimulus) they also practice a fear-incompatible behavioral response to the stimulus. The distinctive feature is that individuals confront their fears and discontinue their escape response.

HISTORY OF EXPOSURE THERAPY
The use of exposure therapy began in the 1950s, at a time when behavioral therapy was first emerging. Since the 1950s several methods of exposure therapy have been developed, including systematic desensitization, flooding, implosive therapy, prolonged exposure therapy, in vivo exposure therapy, and imaginal exposure therapy.

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
A 2015 review pointed out parallels between exposure therapy and mindfulness, stating that mindful meditation resembles an exposure situation because mindfulness practitioners:
  • Turn towards their emotional experience
  • Bring acceptance to bodily and affective responses
  • Refrain from engaging in internal reactivity towards it

Imaging studies have shown that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and the amygdala are all affected by exposure therapy and imaging studies have shown similar activity in these regions with mindfulness training.

Talk to a therapist to see if exposure therapy is right for you.
THERAPY OPTIONS
​ Cognitive Behaviorial Therapy (CBT)
Exposure Therapy
​Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing
Online Therapy Fact Sheet

INTRODUCTION TO MINDFULNESS
MINDFUL SELF CARE STRATEGIES
This content is provided for informational purposes only. Author is not a medical professional. Talk to your doctor to determine what therapy is right for you.
Self care techniques are meant to supplement professional treatment not replace it.
PRIME DIRECTIVE OF THE LEARNING LIBRARY

BROWSE PHOBIA COLLECTION​
​Phobia collection is presented in eight themed parts
​VIEW LIST INDEX or ​JUMP TO A PART
PART [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]

PHOBIA COLLECTION BY TOPIC

common ~ abstract ~ ordinary ~ bizarre ~ catastrophic ~ psyche ~ icky - academic ~ knowledge ~ education ~ literary ~ art ~ music ~ religion ~ political ~ law ~ order military ~ war ~ discrimination ~ science ~ chemical ~ energy ~ time ~ numbers ~ technology ~ nature ~ environment ~ astronomy ~ weather ~ geography ~ people ~ family ~ community ~ anatomy ~ medical ~ disease ~ emotions ~ senses ~ sensations ~ movement ~ conditions~ love ~ relationships ~ sexuality ~ lifestyle ~ places ~ events ~ objects ~ clothing ~ tools ~ vehicles ~ home ~ cooking ~ food ~ entertainment ~ sports ~ recreation ~ toys ~ games ~ monsters ~ characters ~ spooky ~ nightmares ~ delusional ~ joke ~ fiction
​​DOWNLOAD PONDERING THE PHOBIA
​Now Available for​ Download for Offline Reading
All the phobias in one download. Browse by both topic/subject and by alphabetized list
Download/Share: http://bit.ly/ponderingphobia

​OTHER PHOBIA AND FEAR DOWNLOADS:
​Dictionary of Trauma, Phobia and Fear
Self Care Guides for Fear & Phobias​
Library articles provided by my series Healing the PTSD Mind ​ and my series on mindfulness based self care Be Mindful Be Well​. The books are written from a trauma perspective. Content applies to fear, phobias and panic. Learn self care treatments with mindfulness techniques.
BE MINDFUL. BE WELL.
​Books copyright 2021 by By Kairos
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