You have a fear of spiders, or of flying, or of crowds. Are you just sitting there suffering? It’s time to try Exposure Therapy!
Exposure therapy is a type of Behavioral Therapy used to help the patient confront a feared situation, object, thought, or memory and dispel its power to produce fear and anxiety. It involves reliving a traumatic experience in a controlled, therapeutic environment.
The Anxiety Disorders can paralyze the sufferer with ever-mounting avoidance behaviors. While successful for the moment, avoidance just sets aside the fear and anxiety triggered by a situation. They are sure to come back, stronger than ever.
Exposure therapy has been shown to be effective with many of the Anxiety Disorders, including Social Phobia (SAD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), panic attacks and Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.
This is the second of a two-part series of articles on Exposure Therapy. It focuses on tips to make your Exposure Therapy successful. Today’s installment has these headings:
- Exposure Therapy: Better in real life or in imagination?
- Tips for successful Exposure Therapy experiences
Yesterday’s Part 1 describes Exposure Therapy and what goes into a typical Exposure Therapy plan:
- Exposure Therapy is based on habituation
- Exposure Therapy counteracts Anxiety Disorders’ avoidance
- Exposure Therapy is a part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Characteristics of a typical Exposure Therapy plan
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder,
Agoraphobia,
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Exposure Therapy,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
The neighbor’s dog barks night and day. If you have gotten used to it, you have used one of the root principles of Exposure Therapy.
Exposure therapy is a type of Behavioral Therapy used to help the patient confront a feared situation, object, thought, or memory and dispel its power over them. It involves reliving a traumatic experience in a controlled, therapeutic environment.
In a way, Exposure Therapy is related to the old maxim “face your fears,” but instead of jumping into a terror-inducing situation with both feet, therapy usually advocates a carefully planned, gradual approach to alleviating fears.
Exposure therapy has been shown to be effective with many of the Anxiety Disorders, including Social Phobia (SAD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), panic attacks and Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.
This two-part series of articles describes what Exposure Therapy is, and offers tips to make your Exposure Therapy successful. Today’s installment has these headings:
- Exposure Therapy is based on habituation
- Exposure Therapy counteracts Anxiety Disorders’ avoidance
- Exposure Therapy is a part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Characteristics of a typical Exposure Therapy plan
Tomorrow’s part of the article will continue the discussion under these headings:
- Exposure Therapy: Better in real life or in imagination?
- Tips for successful Exposure Therapy experiences
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder,
Agoraphobia,
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Exposure Therapy,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
You experience a pounding heart, sweaty palms, and dizziness. What do you think of? Are you frightened? Do you think you’re going crazy?
People who get scared when they have these symptoms — even if the cause is something as mundane as stress, exercise or caffeine — are more likely to develop a clinical case of an Anxiety Disorder, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or Panic Disorder, according to recent research. The chronic fear of these kinds of symptoms is a condition called Anxiety Sensitivity.
Those of us with Anxiety Disorders — and those of us without — can become hyper-aware of bodily sensations that lead to anxiety. When this awareness becomes morbid and takes over our lives, it can easily be labeled Anxiety Sensitivity.
Anxiety Sensitivity is a concept introduced in the 1980′s which has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers and clinicians. It is thought to be a preventable precursor to developing Anxiety Disorders, and a treatable condition for those who have already have a disorder.
This article explores Anxiety Sensitivity and its implications for you under the following headings:
- What is Anxiety Sensitivity?
- Is Anxiety Sensitivity inherited or is it learned?
- What is the relationship between Anxiety Sensitivity and Anxiety Disorders?
- Treating Anxiety Sensitivity
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Anxiety Sensitivity,
Panic Attack,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
A reader named Dave left a comment on the post, “I’m Dying: What a Panic Attack Feels Like” that told the story of how he overcame his panic attacks.
It tells how he had panic attacks for many years, but has not had them now for 11 years! He conquered them with therapy — and without medication. I thought that Dave’s story should not remain buried in the comments, so I asked Dave to expand his comment into a post.
Anxiety Disorders cause us to turn inward, to focus on our woes. We tend to believe that no one else has the same problems, and that there is no hope for ever becoming fully functional again.
So it’s doubly reassuring to hear Dave’s story: it lets us hear that we are not alone, and that there are effective treatments that can help us learn to control and manage our symptoms for a lifetime!
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,
Panic Attacks,
Therapy
The search for the causes of panic attacks and Panic Disorder continues to turn up new and surprising clues to the origins and contributors to the disorders.
A new vein of research has been trying to find out if panic attacks are related to personality traits that are not mental illnesses. Researchers in Italy and Denmark have published studies in the last few months that show a distinct relationship between alexithymia, the inability to talk about feelings, and Panic Disorder.
Alexithymia is a relatively new field of study. The personality trait was only named in 1972, and has received increasing attention in the past few years as a cause or contributor to a number of medical and psychological maladies.
This post discusses alexithymia and its relationship to panic attacks and Panic Disorder under these headings:
- What is alexithymia?
- How do I tell if I’m alexithymic?
- What relationship do panic attacks and Panic Disorder have with alexithymia?
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Alexithymia,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder
Are you among the 3 million Americans who is always dizzy?
Recent studies show that about 60 percent — almost 2 million — of chronically dizzy people also have an Anxiety Disorder. In fact, the Anxiety Disorder causes the dizziness!
If you are among these numbers, you may have what is called Chronic Subjective Dizziness. It’s a condition in which there are no physical reasons for the dizziness. You may have suffered from this condition for years without knowing what or why it was. New research from the University of Pennsylvania now has answers for you!
This post details this new research and explains why it is important to you or someone you know who is always dizzy. The subject is explored under these topics:
- What is Chronic subjective dizziness?
- Research on Chronic Subjective Dizziness and Anxiety Disorders
- The results of the study shows 60 percent had Anxiety Disorders
- The relationship of migraines, Anxiety Disorders and Chronic Subjective Dizziness
- The significance of this study on Chronic Subjective Dizziness
- Treating Chronic Subjective Dizziness
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Anxiety Disorder,
Chronic Subjective Dizziness,
dizziness,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
migraine,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia
The term “panic attack” is part of our common language. We hear it all the time.
“When I saw the electricity bill I just had a panic attack!” Or, “I had a panic attack when I woke up and saw I was two hours late for work!” Or, “When I realized I’d just eaten a raw oyster I about had a panic attack!” All these statements are inaccurate uses of the term “panic attack,” and are what are called clinomorphisms, or exaggerated use of a medical term.
Panic attacks are no laughing matter, and people who have the real ones cringe when they hear the term bandied about in everyday speech like it was nothing. They know the feeling that you are about to die, the intense fear, and the sudden onset are far more than what most people think of as a “panic attack.”
So how does it really feel to have a panic attack? Few people, aside from panic attack sufferers themselves, really know. It’s the purpose of this post to give you an insider’s view of what it actually feels like to have a panic attack.
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Agoraphobia,
Clinomorphism,
Medical Health Professionals,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder
by Mike Nichols on September 23, 2008 · 9 comments
Modern psychiatry has long held that Anxiety Disorder and depression are two distinct conditions.
However, in the real world, many suffer from both. Surveys show that half of Anxiety Disorder sufferers also have symptoms of clinical depression. And 60-70 percent of people with major depression also have an Anxiety Disorder.
Evidence is growing that they are really two aspects of one disorder. Looking at them that way, some experts say, could speed the development of therapy and medications that better treat both conditions.
David Barlow, director of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University, states that:
[Anxiety Disorders and depression are] probably two sides of the same coin. The genetics seem to be the same; the neurobiology seems to overlap.
This post explores several similarities between Anxiety Disorders and depression, along with the risks of getting both disorders, the benefits of early treatment, and a summary of how the disorders are treated together.
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Anxiety Disorder,
Depression,
OCD - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
by Mike Nichols on September 15, 2008 · 1 comment
