Hi
I am trying to compile a small list of common treatments for anxiety and phobias which actually work. Easy, you might say, just look on Google or in a book shop. Problem is, there is a lot of rubbish out there and it’s really hard to tell what’s good and what’s bad, and more importantly where an anxiety or phobia sufferer might best look for help.
There are two provisos that I want to make clear at the start of this post:
Firstly, I accept that no one treatment in any field however scientifically backed or esoteric works for everyone. If such a treatment did work for everyone then there would be no need for this list and everyone would be cured!
Secondly when I judge what works I want to see real evidence. I don’t want to know about conventional wisdom, I don’t care if it has been used for centuries, and I don’t care hoe many people therapists or treatment inventors claim to have healed!
CBT
I won’t say too much about CBT here because I have talked about it in general terms in the article CBT and criticized it a bit in this article: CBT – The Great Con. I will just summarize my thoughts here. CBT is good for things you can practice a lot and can make yourself do even though it is uncomfortable at first. It is bad for things you can’t get into the habit of doing regularly or bring yourself to do in the first place. If you are really stuck then this won’t necessarily get you going!
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a common treatment usually offered privately. It is very hard to measure because there are many different types and many different practitioners. I have been trying to find some studies that prove hypnosis is a valid treatment for anxiety or phobias, but I can’t really find any. If anyone can find some, I will edit this!
Psychoanalysis
It seems psychoanalysis might be good for general anxiety levels, but like CBT it is maybe not so good for getting you passed blocks that actually stop you doing something. Freud himself is said to have said that psychoanalysis does not remove a phobia so much as put the patient in a position from which they can face it (i.e overcoming it through behaviourism). Psychoanalysis is hard to measure because something which takes so long can’t be isolated from other potentially important factors. It is not unusual for anxiety to come and go over time anyway.
Energy Therapies
By Energy Therapies I mean EFT, TFT and other meridian or tapping therapies such as TAT. They have been popular for almost two decades now but there is still very little research to support them. Advocates of these therapies claim that they work but the research that would prove this is too expensive to conduct. This is indeed true, drug companies can conduct extensive research into drugs because their end product will be protected by patent laws etc. The only hope is for university studies…which I have not been able to find! The exception is the oft-sited ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY
Theory, Indications, Evidence by Joaquín Andrade, M.D. and David Feinstein, Ph.D.
This study is very positive and makes EFT look like a really good approach. It has been criticized for not being double-blind but the statistics are interesting.
I will add to this list as time goes on! Please also let me know your thoughts and ideas!
