What Can I Expect In General From Exposure Therapy?

[HappyJock]

Hi guys, as many of you have given me wonderful advice, I'd like to thank everyone! I am seeing the new therapist I mentioned before that was a specialist. She will be treating my PTSD and Anxiety + Borderline through talk therapy as well as exposure therapy. She has her own nice little practice in her house and includes a therapy cat to sit on your lap or near you if it helps. Of course she said BPD treatment as well as exposure is sometimes a very difficult mix and it may feel scary or overwhelming at first. On excited yet scared at the same time. What's exposure therapy like? How do you feel and deal after? Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 28403]

Well, this forum is actually a form of exposure theraphy, but light. So I guess something like this but of a higher intensity, though it will probably be a gradual increase :hug:

 

[lostforgottensoul]

she said BPD treatment as well as exposure is sometimes a very difficult mix and it may feel scary or overwhelming at first.

Yes it is on both. I also have PTSD & BPD. I only did "exposure therapy" once with a free (horrible) therapist.

Its scary, you are exposing yourself to what scares you the most. And having BPD, we feel extreme emotions without good regulation (speaking for myself anyway).

Id say, just from my one experience, take it slow and keep grounding yourself in reality of where you actually are. It also caused flashbacks so ground is good then too and if she talks during it, concentrate on her voice...or the cat's fur...or anything soothing.

 

[ShodokanJenn]

I am currently doing trauma-focused CBT and exposure therapy. The exposure is rough - it's taking the worst things and choosing to put them in the front of your mind. It's difficult to do, painful, and triggering. It will be important to have good emotion regulation and grounding first. My therapist had me do a full year of DBT before we started the exposure therapy at all, just to get my emotions better regulated. If this new T is any good, she'll work with you on being grounded properly. DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) may be helpful to you. There's a few threads about it here on the forum, and if you look it up on Amazon you can find workbooks to take you through it. Might be something to talk to this new T about.

 

[Friday]

Exposure therapy = being 100% in control at all times, which is pretty awesome. A lot of people make the mistake of jumping in too fast, and then are wildly out of control, which just makes things both worse & harder.

There are a whole lot of different types of exposure therapy... In fact, you'll probably find you've done some to quite a bit of it, just naturally. Essentially, you're retraining your brain how to react to something. It's a lot like training your body how to run. How do you start out training for a marathon? NOT by running a marathon! (Which is what a lot of people attempt exposure therapy wise & then are baffled when it fails.) Instead, to train for a marathon, you don't even start out by running. You start out by walking. Then, very very very gradually, you increase how much you're doing. From walking 1 mile to jogging 1 mile. All the way to 26.2 miles.

Here's a great link on how the writing type of exposure therapy works, along with a bit of the other kinds of exposure therapy in it: Link Removed

 

[lostforgottensoul]

A lot of people make the mistake of jumping in too fast, and then are wildly out of control, which just makes things both worse & harder.

Agreed! And thats the one and only one time I did it I freaked out completely but its what the horrible free therapist forced on me, not what i wanted to do so i also agree with beung in 100% control 100% of the time.

I actually have homework this week in this direction. This week im off of work, I need to do some exposure therapy...take my dog to a dog park, or go to $1 movie, or the awesome mall we have that i have never been in...or something...people....ahhhhhh.....:bag::nailbiting::bag:

But he did say, its in the week, during the day, most people are working...

 

[Friday]

or go to $1 movie,

I have a post around here somewhere that I used this ^^^^ to describe exposure therapy. Just straight up going to the movie? Would be jumping in the deep end. LOL. Here's a quote from the thread itself. Its a great thread / totally worth reading through the whole thing. Bubblize-ing (a Definition)

Movie theatre? I'd go in the daytime, lights on, and hang out. Bring a book & maybe buy a ticket but not intend on watching anything if I want to go deeper in. Figure out how much of the stress is from the space itself, layout, dark, crowds, seating arrangement, egress, etc. It may not just be the 'obvious' stuff (aka stuff I can think of ahead of time, or that hits the hardest watching a flick) that is actually triggering alarms. Use some sensory tricks, hang out, and get bored. The boredom is key. Once I'm bored? I know I can move in further. Progress to things like the mommy-room that have lights on, and you can talk / leave any time you need / stand up and move around / etc. Then maybe the very back row or very front row for a few minutes or scenes. Whole point being just the sheen of sweat & hint of anxiety... Not full on reaction.

Essentially... There were about a dozen steps between my going to the theatre & actually "going" to the theatre. AKA watching a movie. ((Drive around the theatre, hang out in parking lot, hang out in lobby, use their restrooms, buy food, go to mommy-room, buy a ticket, watch a few minutes, watch a few more minutes, etc. Each time just doing what was comfortable until I got bored. Then either moving onto the next step, or calling it quits for the day & comin back another time to repeat the steps until I got to an anxious part, then stopping & chilling until zip zero zilch for anxiety & perfectly fine.))

 

[Sideways]

My current exposure therapy task (care of Anthony - credit where it's due) is working on brainwashed beliefs and reversing them. Same deal, baby steps. Each day I write a sign "I was born innocent" (oringinally it was I'm free to like my self, which proved to be waaaay too much too soon) and stick it up somewhere in my apartment, till eventually they're everywhere and I can handle what they say, then I restart the process with a slightly harder belief. Tougher than it sounds.

What the exposure therapy looks like for you will depend on what you're tackling, which, as shown above, can be anything from nasty memories to dealing with crowds.

Remember that, when it gets scary, your T is right there, walking you through it, keeping it safe. It's a very confronting, "in your face" type of therapy, but v effective for a whole range of issues.

 

[Neverthesame]

My first bit of exposure therapy I did was with a trauma therapist, who worked out of the local university hospital.

I have an issue with medivac helicopters. One day going in for my appointment I noticed that one of the life-flight helicopters happened to be bringing a patient in, at this time.

I mentioned this to my therapist when my appointment started, so after some grounding exercises, we took a walk down to a waiting room (after asking my permission and if I wanted to do it) which had a window overlooking the helipad.

Then some discussion about the feelings associated with the helicopter and more grounding. Not too bad. Not fun, but I was able to stay calm, and could leave anytime for any reason.

How I felt doing that was a lot better than I felt when I arrived at the hospital, where I happened to be standing in a place that put me right under the thing's rotor wash as it was about 30' above me.

^---[good exposure therapy]---^

Getting a job that forced me to deal with a different but more intense anxiety causing thing, thinking I could rush the idea of therapy. Not a good way of doing this. As the inability to get away from the thing that scares you can suck all the therapeutic value out of what you're doing. Pushing it back into the spectrum of re-traumatisation.

^---[not good exposure therapy]---^

It's a surprisingly fine line. Though I honestly prefer exposure therapy to the other types available for dealing with psychological trauma.

Though you can also switch between different methods of therapy, if you find the current one isn't working to your liking.

I have tried EMDR and CBT.

I am a hands on, kind of person. So I think that's what drew me to exposure therapy. That and I used it to get over my fear of heights. (Psychological trauma and an irrational phobia, are two very different things.) Trauma is a million times harder to make better than a phobia.

Being patient with yourself is vital when doing any type of therapy.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Would be jumping in the deep end

Ok god i f*cking know! When did go to $1 movie in school with a group of girls become such an impossible feat? Actually dollar movies dont exsit anymore where i live but its the point.

Being in a dark room (afraid of the dark), surround by a bazillion strangers than i cant f*cking see (terrifed of not being able to see and of people) with a movie on a big f*cking screen that i wont know what is happening after "welcome to ____ theater, get some popcorn, soda etc etc your movie will start shortly"...cuz id be running out! Thats like 50 triggers all at once!

I mentioned the mall, he mentioned the movie and you should have seen my head snap and if looks could kill! I was thinking "he should know me better than that" but he was trying to make everything sound so 'no big deal' that that i dont think he was thinking.