sage ...

[jodi054]

throught my cbt and it's going great i must say we have started doing exposure ... starting with pictures ... they said i should aim for anxiety 4 ish ... but pictures do nothing for me ......


would i be jumping the gun abit by progressing to gagging tapes and video's straight away ?

[eivissa]

Hi, just thought i'd let you know when i look at pictures it doesn't do
anything for me either. I have watched a couple of video's and although
i don't particurlary like them it didn't really do anything either. but
just do what feels right for you x x x

[sage]

Hi guys,


This is one of those things that's difficult to assess on the internet, without talking to someone in person and watching their body language, etc. But let me give you an example with one of my clients recently to illustrate:


A woman who is an extreme emetophobe came to see me also saying "pictures do nothing for me". After several sessions of getting to know her story, etc. I asked her what she thought about taking a printout of the word "vomit" with her home (that's the first step on my exposure hierarchy). Anyway, she agreed to do this but thought it "did nothing for her" either. However I was interested in the fact that when she saw the word in a novel, it raised her anxiety level slightly. So anyway, after a week she said the word on the paper did nothing still - she kept it on her table, etc. But I was getting the feeling that even though she was looking at it, she was still avoiding it. This sounds absurd. However, it is true that we can look at something and convince ourselves somehow it's not real (it's just a word; it's just a picture, etc.). There is a whole different effect if we look at the thing and really try hard to imagine that it's real. If it doesn't raise your SUD level to 4-5 immediately/automatically that's great. But give it a good try. Really! Try to get your anxiety up when you look at one of those pictures, or even the word itself.


Cuz if you can raise your anxiety (and preferably in the presence of your therapist) and then (perhaps with help) bring it back down to zero again, then you're really doing exposure therapy. And in a way that is extremely effective.


I suggest you print this post out and give it to your therapist and talk about it. He or she might want to proceed in a different manner than this. I've found it remarkably helpful, however, both with myself and my own clients.


Good luck!


EDIT: note that you don't need to worry about your anxiety going up to 4 or 5 and then going right off the wall. That won't happen. It may trigger a panic attack...and panic attacks don't feel very well but they aren't dangerous. They feel like hell at the time, but in 10 minutes they'll be over. But honestly, if you havne't yet got any reaction from those pictures then forcing yourself to raise your anxiety to 4 or 5 will not do very much else. Try it first with your therapist present so he or she can help you calm down.Edited by: sage

[jodi054]

thank you