You’re ready! You’re ready to face your fears and get out of your comfort zone but you’re not sure how to go about doing it because it feels overwhelming. So let’s talk about a useful tool for breaking down things that feel overwhelming into doable steps. This tool is called gradual exposure.
What is gradual exposure? How can it help anxiety? Gradual exposure is the systematic way of increasing one’s comfort zone and is often used when someone has a fear, anxiety, or phobia.
Let’s use the example of someone having a fear of spiders. If someone has a fear of spiders I would not throw them in a pool full of spiders. This would likely only make the fear worse! (Or if they didn’t have the fear before they might now!)
The first step we do is break down the anxiety or fear. For example maybe a person has a fear of spiders but can look at a picture of a spider with little to no anxiety. Or maybe a person can talk about spiders with very little stress. Maybe the next step up would be if a person knew there was a spider in the building but was not in the room they were in. Or maybe the spider is in a box in a different room. Does this change the anxiety reaction? We then rank the fear for each item on a scale of 0-10.
10 •Pool full of spiders
9
8 •Touching spider
7 •Touching the spiders cage
6
5 •Touching the spiders cage
4
3 •Touching the spiders cage
2 •Touching the spiders cage
1
Gradual exposure is like a tight rope walk with the fear, what is the first step that would be slightly out of a person’s comfort zone but would not trigger a severe anxiety reaction, panic attack, or cause the person to shut down. So the process would be to start at the first step that does not feel too intimidating and getting comfortable, and then moving to the next step.
Let’s do another example. One that may be more relatable. Let’s say an individual has a fear of crowds and this causes them to not go out much and is impacting daily functioning because it prevents the person from going to the grocery store. The first step may be to go to a smaller grocery store, during a less busy part of the day, for five minutes, with a friend. Let say the next time the person goes to the same store, same time of day for five minutes but alone. Then the person may move the time up to 10 minutes or 15 minutes. Then the person may go during a busier part of the day and later move on a bigger grocery store. Until the individual actually feels comfortable going to the grocery store and is able to do their shopping with minimal stress.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Charlotte, NC
Gradual exposure is a powerful tool for breaking down experiences that feel overwhelming and help individuals reclaim their lives! Want to learn more about gradual exposure and other proven techniques for lowering anxiety? Give me a call! I would love to help you reclaim your life.
The Author: Cognitive Behavioral Therapist Charlotte, NC
Theresa Leskowat MS LPC is a therapist in Charlotte, NC who is passionate about helping people grow their comfort zone and achieve more than they thought was previously possible. Theresa provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Charlotte, NC and specializes in anxiety treatment, stress management, therapy for perfectionist, and divorce support.