People that suffer from anxiety and panic attacks often seek out those instant painless cures which are in the majority of cases nothing but a dream. More often, getting over panic and anxiety requires a bit of hard work. Sometimes, in manageable stages, you have to experience some of the unpleasant symptoms and emotions you have been avoiding. This is known as exposure. To my mind the label “exposure” doesn’t help as it makes it sound like a form of torture. It’s not. Exposure can be relatively quick and easy (I’ve seen a woman cured of a life long bird phobia in a couple of hours). It can also be incredibly rewarding, when you see what you have achieved, and what you have stopped avoiding. Often after well managed exposure your mental image of the phobic stimulus is very much changed, and you feel much more able to approach it again with confidence.
Another plus for exposure is that it gives a great boost to your self-esteem. Not just because you have started to beat it, but because you can now see how you will in fact make a complete recovery. The previous conviction that success was untenable is now reversed.
There are pit falls to exposure which you need to be aware of. Firstly, set backs happen. Note that I used the word set-back and not failure. It is important to approach exposure with the attitude that it is OK to not feel great, it’s not a test of your skills, more an experiment the results of which are equally interesting and useful either way.
Secondly, do not run before you can walk. If something seems to big stop, and break it down into small chunks. That way you will, bit by bit, break down old barriers with maximum success. If you jump in at the deep end you may well swim and be very happy, but you run the risk of dropping back into fear. If that happens read the advice on setbacks here, dust yourself down, and get on with it.
