HELP! I HAVE OCD, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Exposure therapy is a brilliant technique used to treat anxiety disorders.

This technique involves exposing the client to the source of anxiety or the context in which the anxiety is presented WITHOUT the intention to cause danger. Research suggests that exposure-based therapy is extremely effective for the treatment of anxiety, unfortunately, only a very small percentage of people are treated with it. Many reasons account for this discrepancy between the effectiveness of this treatment and its actual use. First, is the lack of trained professionals — many clinicians do not receive training in exposure therapy and do not feel comfortable guiding clients through the process. Another factor is the unfounded negative belief that exposure to the source or context will exacerbate symptoms (especially when it comes to PTSD). The thing is, individuals with trauma histories actually report a preference for exposure therapy over other forms of treatment (Becker et. al., 2007).

Emerging research suggests that exposure-based therapy should be considered the first-line of treatment for a variety of anxiety disorders.

Ok, so what exactly is exposure therapy? Exposure therapy encourages anxiety-suffering clients to engage in the systematic confrontation of a feared stimuli — which can be internal or external (Internal: feared thoughts; external: feared activities, situations, people or places). The exposure is introduced by using a graded approach, by which lightly feared stimuli are targeted first. Once fear has subsided from the lower-level exposures, higher-level exposures are attempted. The graded approach is used most often because of the level of personal comfort. Over time, the systematic exposure reduces the fearful reaction to the stimulus.

There are three types of exposure: In vivo and imaginal. In vivo refers to the real-life exposure to the feared stimuli. And imaginal refers to the exposure of images, with great detail and present language. In vivo is not always possible (nor safe) so virtual reality exposure has been used as an alternative method. With this third method, clients are immersed in a virtual world that allows them to confront fears (think: sight, smell, sound and tactile exposure).

I know, being exposed to a phobia in this way sounds terrible. But gradual, safe, slow exposure is actually extremely helpful in treatment of many types of anxiety. I would love to chat more about this practice to see if this type of treatment is right for you.

That is it for today! Sending you all my love!!

XOX Dr. Jenn