If a person with a phobia of elevators had to visit a friend who lives on the 50th floor of a skyscraper, wouldn’t it be too much to walk 50 floors? It must be very difficult for a dog phobic person to go to the shelter to see his older brother who works at the dog shelter.
The first step towards treating phobias was understanding how the phobia occurred. Scientists have also done some research on this subject.
A few cases of phobias are important in understanding phobias.
The Little Albert experiment was important for understanding the nature of phobias. In this experiment conducted by John B. Watson in 1920, Little Albert, who had no fear of any animal, developed a phobia against furry animals using classical conditioning. So gradually, systematically, the boy learned to fear furry animals.
The case of Little Hans was also a case to which Sigmund Freud attached great importance. Little Hans had a phobia of horses. Freud had corresponded with Hans’ father, trying to understand why. Freud believed that everything represented something else.
In other words, while the object of phobia represents something in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory; It was thought that the person also used defense mechanisms against that thing, such as depression, displacement, avoidance, and symbolization.
The Emma case belonged to Jacques Lacan. Emma was a store phobic who was afraid to go to the stores alone. Lacan did not believe it should symbolize anything, so he focused on how it came to be, and realized that Emma’s fear of the store was actually formed after she was harassed by an old man in the store. So Emma actually experienced a trauma and these reactions were a result of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Today, the following cognitive behavioral techniques are mostly used in the treatment of phobias.
Systematic desensitization is one of the most used therapy techniques in the treatment of phobias.
In this technique developed by Joseph Wolpe, the person is gradually confronted with what he fears or avoids. A list of 8-10 stages is created by the client and the therapist and these are scored from the easiest to the most difficult. These fears are tried to be overcome by starting from the easiest step by step.
Here, the person’s perception of the phobia object is reconstructed cognitively. It is tried to change the wrong thoughts by the person’s experience.
These two techniques are used together in quitting habits.
It can be said that the response pre-vention technique is more about catching oneself. In the logic of the exposure technique, similar to systematic desensitization, the client is tried to be confronted with their phobia.
These techniques are generally about catching yourself and stopping while doing your indispensable habits. Let’s say you realize that you are doing your unwanted behavior. This is the moment to catch yourself. In the next stage, it is necessary to expose yourself to the feeling of wanting to do it. In addition to these techniques, relaxation techniques can be used.
As with everything virtual, therapy also has virtual.
Virtual therapy is a type of therapy that is increasingly used in the treatment of phobias. The person is exposed to their phobias in a controlled manner in the virtual environment. In this way, he learns that the object of the phobia is not so scary.
NOTE: Although these techniques are scientifically valid and used in therapies, the degree of your phobia is important and the application of the techniques may require expertise. Therefore, do not hesitate to seek help from experts so that you do not despair by trying to implement it yourself.
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