Application

• One way to treat anxiety (phobia) is through systematic desensitisation. This is where patients unlearn their phobia through being exposed to their phobic stimulus in a controlled environment. The procedure is made up of 3 stages:

  1. The individual is given training in deep relaxation.
  2. They are asked to imagine situations that will create anxiety and build a hierarchy from least to most fear provoking (like getting on a plane)
  3. They work up the hierarchy using their imagination or real exposure.

  No advancement is made to the next stage until relaxation is achieved, so they become desensitised.
• McGrath showed the effectiveness of systematic desensitisation by studying a 9 year old girl Lucy who was afraid of loud noises like party poppers. She was taught to imagine being in home in her bed with her toys and given a "fear thermometer" to rate her fear from 1-10. She was presented with a loud noise and told to use her calming strategies. By the 10th session Lucy had reduced her fear rating of party poppers from 9/10 to 3/10.
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)is the most popular form of treatment for phobias and is a combination of cognitive therapy to change the way we think and behavioural therapy to change the way we act.

  • takes place once a week/fortnight for 5-20 sessions,
  • patients identify irrational and unhelpful thoughts,
  • patients may draw diagrams to connect their thoughts or keep a diary of their feelings and behaviour,
  • patients practice replacing negative thoughts with positive ones,
  • patients are given homework assignments such as reading material or exposure to feared objects/situations.
• Psychoanalysis is based on the assumption that the unconscious conflicts and emotions are the cause of mental illness and the aim of psychodynamic therapy is to bring these conflicts to the conscious mind so they can be resolved. Freud suggests using dream analysis to understand the unconscious mind.