Hi Harmony, I was thinking of posting about my exposure experiences as well. I have gone 4 times and so far I have kept a thought log of all the "cognitive distortions" I have....and I had to write down my avoidance behaviors, distraction behaviors, and safety behaviors. Both were eye openers for me. And last time, I finally did some low level exposure. Since I avoid all words pertaining to "that," and I only say "get sick," he had me repeat a nice "vacation" word for 2 minutes, then had me repeat the word v****, and rate my anxiety from 1 to 10. It was awful to have to say it over and over, and my anxiety went to a 6, but then went down!! It's called habituation...if you hang in there with your anxiety, it WILL go down. So my homework is to say the word like that, and rate my anxiety. I couldn't believe it worked...I have hope for future exposures.

I guess the key is to go slow, not do too much at once, and also to stay with it until your anxiety goes down. So for your listening, if that is too much for you, then that means you need to do something a little easier. I'm only saying words right now, but he says I am pretty much where I should be. I like this guy because he really seems to understand the phobic mind and anxiety, etc. Keep me posted as to how you are doing...good luck!!