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Exposure therapy is one of many mental health techniques that can change people’s lives, but when it comes to anxiety disorders and other related conditions like OCD and PTSD, it’s usually the optimal choice. This is because anxiety, fears, and phobias are often conditioned, and therefore, they can be deconditioned or unlearned. This article will explain why exposure therapy is an amazing strategy for overcoming the aforementioned problems and why you should give it a shot.
It’s Gradual & Safe
When working with a therapist using the exposure therapy technique, you aren’t forced to dive head-first straight into the source of your anxiety; instead, it’s a systematic process that involves you becoming progressively desensitized to it.
Becoming conditioned to feel anxious or fearful towards something can be a lot quicker than undoing it, and so it can take time and patience to manage the unwanted thoughts and the physical symptoms that usually coexist alongside them, like fight-or-flight. This is known as habituation.
———————————————————————————————– Try online therapy and get 15% off from our partner, BetterHelp. ———————————————————————————————–Additionally, while many people do truly expose themselves to the stimulus that causes anxiety, a technique known as in-vivo exposure, there are many people with fears and phobias that aren’t practical or even impossible to confront. In these situations, imagined exposure is utilized, and it’s shown to be extremely effective. Exposure therapy will never put you at risk of encountering any real danger.
It Gives People The Confidence To Face Their Fears
One of the most outstanding aspects of exposure therapy is that it can be very empowering for many individuals who try it. The things we are afraid of can cause us to avoid situations and push away thoughts in an effort to provide relief. While it does work to a degree, the unwanted thoughts and feelings tend to return as long as you engage in these kinds of behaviors.
Because exposure therapy is safe and you have the support of a therapist alongside you, you will feel more compelled to combat the source of your worries. It’s not necessarily easy at the start, but as you continue to keep at it, you’ll realize that things aren’t as bad anymore, and eventually, they won’t bother you. In behavioral psychology, this stage is known as extinction.
Exposure therapy gives people the opportunity to do things that they previously thought were impossible, and by reducing and even eliminating anxiety that they’ve probably harbored for a long time, they can take this experience and confidence and apply it to other areas of their lives.
It’s Proven To Work
Exposure therapy is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is the gold standard for mental health treatment, and it has the most research out of any form of psychotherapy out there and the most claims to support it.
With that said, exposure therapy is still a specific strategy, but it’s still empirically supported, and many sources report that up to 90% of people who try it see a reduction in symptoms and consequently, a positive impact on their mood.
Because it is a form of CBT, exposure therapy is founded on the fundamentals of cognitive and behavioral psychology, and the logic of why it works for so many people around the world is sound and easy to understand, which makes it an attractive option when combating many mental health disorders.
More Resources On Exposure Therapy
While this guide has given you a brief idea of how exposure therapy can be a fantastic way to overcome anxiety, there’s a lot more information out there for you to check out if you want to learn more about a lot of the finer details of exposure therapy.
———————————————————————————————– Try online therapy and get 15% off from our partner, BetterHelp. ———————————————————————————————–If you think it’s the right option for you, you can also find out how to get started with online therapy and receive professional guidance on how to face your fears and live anxiety-free.
Conclusion
Exposure therapy can be intimidating at first, but when working with a professional, you’ll always be in good hands, and it will be less daunting than doing it all on your own. Now that you know why exposure therapy is one of the most highly-regarded treatments for anxiety and related disorders, it’s time to take the first step to overcome them and getting control of your life back.
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The post Why Exposure Therapy Is the Best for Combating Anxiety Disorders appeared first on The Good Men Project.
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