Overcoming phobias through desensitization therapy with a psychiatrist

Everyone is afraid, but not everyone has a phobia. Phobias are feelings of excessive, extreme, uncontrollable, and unreasonable fear of an object or situation that is not actually life threatening or endangering. A fear can be said to be a phobia if it has lasted for more than 6 months and has caused interference with daily activities. Phobias are included in psychological disorders that can be treated with CBT therapy. One of the CBT methods to treat phobias is desensitation therapy. What does the therapy look like, and is it really effective?

Understand first why someone can have a phobia

Unlike common fears such as the fear of being hit by a car or the fear of missing college, phobias are usually triggered by one specific thing - it could be an object or a situation. The most common examples of phobias are claustrophobia (fear of closed spaces) and acrophobia (fear of heights).

Phobias are also not like ordinary fear which only lasts for a moment and will subside as soon as the trigger disappears. The fear that a phobia creates can last for a long time and can have a devastating effect, both physically and mentally. In fact, just thinking about the feared object or situation can make you blanch, nauseous, break out in cold sweat, panic, tremble, become dazed (disoriented), and excessively anxious.

So, someone who has a phobia will try as hard as possible to do all kinds of ways to avoid triggers for his fear. For example, someone with a phobia of germs (mysophobia) will avoid physical contact such as shaking hands with other people or holding elevator buttons. They will also take various measures to clean their bodies and the environment around them from bacterial contamination, and keep them clean.

Until now, experts have not found a definite cause of phobias. Genetics, medical history, and environmental factors can all influence a person's tendency to develop phobias. Children who have close relatives withanxiety disorder have the possibility to experience phobias.

A traumatic event can also cause a phobia, for example, nearly drowning can lead to a phobia of water. Have been confined in a cramped room or been at extreme altitude for a long time; being attacked and bitten by an animal can also create a phobia. In addition, phobias can also occur after a person experiences trauma to the brain.

Desensitization techniques for dealing with phobias

Desensitization technique is also known as exposure technique. As the name suggests, you will be deliberately exposed to the alias of being met with the triggers of your phobia. In principle, if you are re-exposed to the same fear trigger over and over again, the body will respond to the "terror" by releasing stress hormones that cause phobic symptoms.

Experts argue that gradual and prolonged exposure to a trigger can reduce a person's sensitivity to that trigger. Maybe it can be simply compared to when you have to / are only allowed to eat one type of menu every day. After a while you will just give up even though you feel sick or bored to death, because there is no other choice.

What is the procedure like?

Desensitation therapy is part of CBT therapy that is done under the supervision of a psychiatrist. CBT therapy aims to change your thought processes and behavior for the better.

After undergoing the initial counseling session to find basic information about your background, habits and routines, to matters surrounding your phobia (from when, what triggered it, what symptoms occur, how you deal with them, etc.), your psychiatrist then will teach you relaxation techniques that will keep you calm when dealing with phobic triggers, such as deep breathing techniques, self-hypnosis, and meditation to clear the mind.

Next, you will be asked to score a number from lowest to highest to find out how afraid you are of the person who triggers the phobia. This scoring is also coupled with different types of triggers, so that the results are more accurate. For example, thinking about spiders (if you have a phobia of spiders, aka arachnophobia) makes you feel scared with a score of 10 while looking at a photo of a spider makes your fear score 25, and if you look at it from a distance the score is 50. If there is a spider crawling on the arm, your fear level will reach 100.

After scoring this score, the psychiatrist will gradually begin to deliberately expose you to the person who triggered the phobia. Starting with the lowest, asking you to imagine a spider. While you are imagining that, he will guide you through the relaxation techniques you teach. Once you get used to shadowing spiders without overreacting, then you will "level up". Then the psychiatrist will ask you to look at a photo of the spider, and so on until you come face to face with a live spider.

Each time you "level up," the psychiatrist will first assess your progress before moving on to the next level of therapy until you feel fearless and phobia free.

Is this method safe and effective?

But of course overcoming phobias in this way cannot be done carelessly. Before a psychiatrist applies desensitation therapy, you will usually be asked to share the problem or difficulty at hand to find out possible causes. After that, you and your therapist will determine what changes you want to make and what goals you want to achieve.

Ultimately, behavioral and cognitive therapy can help you realize that the situation, object or animal you have been afraid of is not as bad as it seems and is not life threatening.

This technique will need to be done several times, until eventually you become accustomed to it and not be afraid anymore. Based on the research conducted, the use of this technique has proven to be quite effective in helping to overcome phobias.