phobias

• The basis of therapy for phobias is to reassociate the feelings with the feared stimulus to counter condition the patient. The patient learns to associate relaxation with the stimulus, replacing the fear. This allows them to be desensitised. The first thing the patient is taught is how to fully relax such as taking deep, slow breaths. The patient also learns to relax their muscles, one at a time which is called progressive muscle relaxation. This can be used for flooding and systematic desensitisation.
• Systematic desensitisation words by gradually introducing the patient to the feared situation one step at a time, which is less overwhelming. At each stage, the patient practices relaxation so the situation becomes more familiar. The patient, after going through each stage gradually getting closer to the feared stimulus, will be able to master that feared situation.
• Flooding is an alternative method also based on the behavioural approach which, instead of gradually going through levels of the feared stimulus, they get immersed in it as one long session until the anxiety has disappeared. For example, a fear of clows, the patient will be put in a room full of clowns until they remain calm. This is due to the fear response having a time limit. Adrenaline levels naturally decrease, which allows relaxation to be reassociated with the feared stimulus.
• An issue with flooding is that it can be a highly traumatic procedure.

  This is made aware of before starting; however, some patients may still leave the procedure halfway through which can reduce the effectiveness greatly for some people. However, it is done relatively quickly and Choy 2007 found it to be the more effective way out of the two. This suggests that flooding is very effective, but individual differences play a part in allowing the effectiveness of the treatment.
• Research has found that SD is successful for a range of phobias.

  McGrath 1990 reported that about 75% of patients respond to SD. The key to success appears to lie with actual contact with the feared stimulus, which is more successful than ones just using pictures. Often a number of different techniques are used such as modelling where a patient watches someone coping well with that stimulus.

  This demonstrates the effectiveness of SD, but also the value of different exposing techniques.
• However, SD has found to not be effective for all phobias.

  Ohman 1975 suggests that SD may not be as effective for treating phobias that have an evolutionary component such as fear of the dark or heights, compared to more modern-day phobias that may have been from personal experience (for example, a toaster.)

  This suggests that SD can only be used effectively in tackling some phobias.
• Overall, behavioural therapies for dealing with phobias are generally faster, cheaper and require less effort from the patient than other psychotherapies. For example, CBT requires willingness from the individuals to think deeply about their mental problems, which isn’t needed for behavioural therapies. This lack of thinking is a strength especially for people who may lack insight into their motivations or emotions. This shows that behavioural therapies are successful and can be seen as better in a number of ways compared to other types of therapy.